Fake Reynolds Wrap, Velveeta coupons pop up on the Web

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With food prices rising and wallets feeling empty, this hoax hits coupon clippers where it hurts: Bogus coupons for free Reynolds Wrap foil and Velveeta are being circulated online, according to the rumor-debunking folks at Snopes.com.

In January 2009, a pair of coupons for free household products began circulating on the Internet, usually passed from inbox to inbox. One was said to entitle its bearer to a free one pound package of Velveeta Pasteurized Processed Cheese Spread (any variety), the other to a free 50 foot roll of Reynolds Wrap Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil. ... The coupons are not the real thing. In a nutshell, they are counterfeits and will not be honored by stores consumers attempt to use them in.

Reynolds says it doesn’t even issue coupons on the Internet for printing at home, and Kraft says its coupons are void if copied or reproduced in any way. Kraft goes also warns that the FBI advises that passing counterfeit coupons is considered theft by deception and carries heavy penalties; add the Internet, and the counterfeits might fall under wire and mail fraud laws.

Of course, if you clipped the coupon out of a newspaper (let’s hear it for shameless self-promotion), you wouldn’t have this problem.

-- Nancy Rivera Brooks