CIC Member Coupon Integrity Program

It has not gone unnoticed that CIC Members have begun printing the phrase “CIC Member Coupon Integrity Program” on their coupons. Bill Wunner, of Coupons in the News, observed the text on a CIC Member’s coupon and requested the manufacturer provide information on it. We provided the Member with standard text regarding the program to pass onto CITN.

CIC Coupon Integrity Consortium

We have scheduled four of the original presentations originally slated for the March meetings to be held as webinars in May and June. This information has been transmitted to members via a For Members Only.

Darknet & Social Media Crawler

CIC has begun implementing a Darknet and social media crawler to identify and take appropriate actions on counterfeit coupons, glitches, glittering, and other illegal and “gray” coupon- related activities.

Early Warning File

There has been a surge in the number of entries being added into the CIC Early Warning File, including a very large number that occurred last week. Efforts to delete duplicate records from the file have been completed; however, we will be conducting additional reviews on “near duplicates” and conducting periodic data reviews going forward.

Law Enforcement Cases

We are continuing to support law enforcement efforts on the North Carolina counterfeit coupon case and we expect to receive samples of the counterfeits as soon as officials have completed an inventory of the evidence.

If all goes as planned, we expect an arrest warrant for an individual reportedly using large numbers of Frankenstein counterfeit coupons to be served this month.

We are working on a number of other counterfeit coupon cases across the country involving free product counterfeits, blinkies, and cats.