JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman is one of five charged in a fraudulent coupon scheme that defrauded retailers out of an estimated $32 million over three years.
The federal indictment said Cindi Swindle “knowingly purchased” coupons from Lori Ann Talens and her husband Pacifico Talens from April 2017 to Feb. 2020 for nearly $5,000 over 42 transactions. The estimated loss from her using the counterfeit coupons $334,388.60 to manufacturers and retailers.
Read the full indictment below.
The Talens', a Virginia Beach couple, were already sent to prison for nearly 20 years combined in 2021 for the scheme as a whole which amounted to $32 million in losses to retailers across the country.
The FBI said Talens sold the fake coupons to her social media subscribers and communicated using an encrypted messaging app.
She printed the coupons and shipped them through interstate commerce to Swindle in Jacksonville.
She accepted online payment methods like Bitcoin and PayPal.
Investigators said she sometimes exchanged coupons for stolen rolls of the special paper stores used to print out coupons.
During a search of the Talens' house, the FBI found thousands of fake coupons, coupon paper, and coupon designs for more than 13,000 products on her computer.
Lori Ann Talens was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Pacifico Talens was sentenced to 7 years because he was aware of and profited from the scheme.
Shannon Schott is a Jacksonville attorney at Plata Schott Law and said people who engage in these types of crimes aren’t the hardened criminals you might expect.
“It could be your neighbor next door because they really don’t think they’re doing anything wrong...these individuals were going so far into this scheme that they really didn’t get how it could be extremely serious to the point where they’re federally indicted,” Schott said.
She said retailers are tracking every penny and coupon fraud can hurt a company’s bottom line that can have unintended effects.
“It’s easy to think, ‘Oh nobody’s getting hurt by this.' But the reality is that the people who stock the shelves, the people who run the cash registers, who are making minimum wage, the margins are covering their paychecks, and when a company is not making the money that they expect to make, even with the coupons that they did the math to issue, what we are going to see is bankruptcy and things of that nature,” Schott said.
She said retailers invest a lot of money into catching people who try to steal or use fake coupons.
“People need to be mindful that a way to save money in this day and age is not to use any sort of fraudulent coupon, fraudulent barcode, or skip items in the self-checkout...they will track you down, they will have you prosecuted, or they will sue you civilly if you steal from them,” Schott said.
The FBI said you should never buy coupons or pay a person or organization that charges for obtaining coupons. Make sure printed coupons come from the manufacturer or authorized distributor. They said you should be suspicious of any coupon that is valued at or above the retail price of that item.
If you suspect coupon fraud you should reach out to the Coupon Information Corporation or submit a tip to the FBI.