Digital coupons are supposed to be much more secure and fraud-resistant than paper coupons. But sometimes… they’re not.
A British grocery chain has shut down a digital coupon glitch that some shoppers were exploiting to get cartfuls of items for nearly nothing.
It happened this week at Sainsbury’s, the country’s second-largest grocery retailer. A coupon of uncertain origin offered a £3.49 discount off any purchase when scanned from shoppers’ phones. A Sainsbury’s spokesperson would not confirm whether this original coupon was legitimate. What definitely wasn’t legitimate, though, was the fact that the coupon could be scanned multiple times – indefinitely, in fact, as many shoppers were able to drastically reduce what they owed by scanning the coupon over and over again.
Also illegitimate was the fact that the coupon was being offered for sale online. It’s unclear if sellers were offering to somehow upload the coupon to buyers’ Sainsbury’s app, or if they were simply selling a screenshot that Sainsbury’s checkout systems would accept.
One coupon user took a video of his experience at self-checkout, as two Sainsbury’s employees confronted him and told him the coupon was not legitimate, as he continued to scan it again and again. “It’s a coupon. Sainsbury’s allows coupons,” the unseen shopper says. “The system allows me to use it, so I’m using it.”
Other social media users posted videos of multiple shopping carts filled with items they claim that shoppers left behind after being arrested.
“It was madness and chaos while it lasted,” one shopper told the Sun newspaper. “I feel so bad for the workers whenever I see stuff like this,” one social media user wrote, “because at the end of the day the workers will be held accountable for continuing to let it happen even though it’s Sainsbury’s system fault.”
While “extreme couponing” is a decidedly American phenomenon, this is not the first time British shoppers have gone wild over a coupon glitch. Back in 2018, Sainsbury’s was also the target of coupon glitchers who found a way to get unlimited free ice cream pints, when they discovered that buying one pint for £2.50 generated a checkout coupon for £2.50 off another purchase, which they would then use to get a second pint for free, generating another coupon, another free ice cream pint, and so on.
Two years ago, it was Sainsbury’s competitor Tesco that fell victim to what one British coupon expert called “the biggest coupon fraud scam that has ever hit the UK.” In that case, shoppers discovered that a coupon for a free candy bar could be scanned multiple times, allowing them to stock up on years’ worth of sweets for nothing.
As for the latest glitch at Sainsbury’s, the retailer says the problem has been contained, though it didn’t offer details about how this particular coupon got out of control. “We have seen an increase in fraudulent coupons in our stores and we have processes in place to detect and block them,” a spokesperson told Coupons in the News. “We also have in-store detectives monitoring for fraudulent attempts and we are working closely with the police on this issue. We continue to accept genuine coupons and vouchers.”
The high cost of groceries has some shoppers looking for any way to save money, however questionable. But greed existed long before inflation – and is likely to continue to exist long after.
Image source: Nextdoor
