![]() And their existence was officially acknowledged this week, when several fraudulent coupons featuring gold holograms showed up on the Coupon Information Corporation’s list of known counterfeits. The first sign of this new breed of counterfeit coupons cropped up more than a month ago. ![]() But each coupon features a gold-hologrammed strip across the top, surrounding the expiration date, which appears to the casual observer to be the real thing.īut the coupons are anything but real. In one group, the organizer is advertising the availability of “manufacturer coupons with gold CIC foil holograms.” Whether that’s meant to assure buyers of the coupons’ validity – or it’s a winking reference to the coupons being high-quality, difficult-to-detect fakes – is unclear. ![]() In secret Facebook groups, and elsewhere online, several sellers are offering “unicorns” – which is lingo for counterfeit high-value coupons. Coupon counterfeiters have managed to beat back this latest effort to thwart them, in record time. If the new hologram was meant to be an industry stamp of approval, aimed at confirming the legitimacy of coupons that include the feature, it appears that’s not quite the case anymore. Just a few months ago, manufacturers began imprinting many of their high-value and free-item coupons with a brand-new gold hologram, which was developed by the coupon industry to help combat counterfeiters.Īnd a few months later, confirmed counterfeit coupons bearing gold holograms are out there – and they’re being sold online, and redeemed in stores, at an increasing rate.
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