Miz Couponista Clipping Coupons Before Coupon Clipping Was Cool!

Some offers seem too good to be true – and are.  These are the ones that you request and never show up.  You’ll probably just receive a lot more Spam (unwanted) email than you used to, but sometimes there’s more involved.

Click here to visit Gimmie’s Fake Freebie List.  They  have a running list that is updated regularly, and when they find a new fake they do a whole case study on why it’s fake.  After a while our fans have learned to spot fakes themselves.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Please note: visiting the fake list will not harm you or your computer.  We actually break the links to the fakes so you don’t mistakenly click on them.  But educating yourself on what’s fake will help protect you, your identity and your computer when you’re freebie hunting.  Remember: don’t freebie without it!

If you’d like to share the list, please PLEASE feel free!  This is an easy link that goes directly to it http://gimmiefreebies.com/fake

They also have the picture above posted on every page of our main site, on the right side of page. Clicking it will take you directly to the list of fakes.

How to spot a fake

Here are some signs that an offer may be a fake freebie:

• Unrelated advertisement pop-up after submit
• Many advertisements on page
• Form will submit without any info filled in
• No product information, free sample is the only thing on website
• Product does not really exist
• Website is a clone/copy of a legitimate business website
• Company does not exist
• Company registered to address that doesn’t exist
• Company telephone number not working or personal, cell phone, etc.
• Website offers many “too good to be true” freebies
• Small company offering unlimited freebies
• New website (created within the past few months)
• Free item does not come; reports that item was never received after at 4-6 months
• Legitimate company but “fake looking” offer.

• The new wave of fakes is where hackers access legitimate companys’ websites and put their fakes on it to steal your info.
• Often the “freebie” is in a subdomain (e.g. “freebie.amazon.com” is a subdomain of “amazon.com”)
• I contact the company to confirm offer’s legitimacy

Please note, some of these signs may occur even with completely legitimate offers. But when many of them happen for the same offer, chances are it’s not legit.