The CIC (Coupon Information Center) Exposed - Update Summer 2016.

Hello friends! Welcome back. Hope you are all enjoying your summer fun in the sun. 

This is a follow-up and update to our blog regarding:
"The CIC (Coupon Information Center) Exposed For What They Really Are"

that was posted back in May 2014 as coupon sellers and basically all couponers were still reeling from the CIC's biggest victory of all time, basically shutting down coupon sales on eBay.

What we did at the time, was basically expose them for what they really were, which was (and probably still is) a defacto, lawless outfit working on behalf of the manufacturers to protect their six figure salaries and profit by attempting to shut down coupon sales on at the time, the world's biggest coupon reselling website - eBay. They called it "loss prevention." They finally met with much success and even congratulated eBay at one of their meetings for being so proactive in cowering to their unfounded with no-base-in-legal-reality threats and basically shutting down hundreds of thousands of auctions and ripping millions of dollars out of our pockets (and eBay's own) and putting them back into the large manufacturers they serve. They also succeeded in shutting down a wide variety of mom and pop "coupon clipping services" which is basically code word for coupon reselling services - that had to go underground ever since. All based on threats, ridiculous statements comparing coupon resellers to the mafia, and all kinds of scare tactics that on their website, used to be plastered all over the place with reckless abandon.

If you were an extreme couponer (the practice of which has been dead for years now) or a coupon reseller you basically feared the CIC like a terrorist fears a drone strike in the Middle East.

But since our post, and the amazing response and readership that blog received, it catapulted up in a standard Google search all the way to the top, right underneath the actual CIC itself.

And for that, I am most humbled, and appreciate it very much.

And don't think the CIC didn't notice. They sure did. Some time ago, exactly when I cannot remember, but it was after that posting, that the CIC constructed a complete overhaul of their website and terminology. Which is why some of the links in my original post linked above, link to different things today than they did two years ago. 

The reason for this, they will say is cleaner functionality. But the reality of course, is way different and nothing more than the classic traditional backtracking once exposed.

Let's go over some of the changes, shall we?

Let's start off with how the Coupons On Internet Auction Sites section originally looked, notice the News You Can Use Part the emphasized their at the time attack on online "legal" coupon selling to protect their large sponsors:

 

 

And now since eBay and the sellers have been defeated, here is how simple it looks. Notice the new emphasis on actual illegal things like copyright laws and DMCA issues (which we mentioned in our post the first time) instead of beating up mom and pop:

 

 

Hell, here is the eBay celebration posting from 2015 after they shoved their will down eBay's throat via threatening a lawsuit on behalf of P&G and company:

 

Great job, CIC, great.

Next up we have the portion from the original site about the manufacturers and retailers. They did some work chopping this one up, but this is what it originally looked like, note the list of manufacturers that participate at the time. The tone and creation of this was originally strong and aggressive, especially the watchdog part which has been changed from ending in "group" to "group for coupon use." Now it seems to be peeled back with once again, an emphasis on the correct issue that they should be addressing, which is actual fake coupons and coupon fraud:

Originals.

 

 

 

 

Note the new jab at "misinformation on the internet." We can proudly assume that our information is what they considered incorrect, but no, really, it was their own words.

 

Now back to the original CIC posting regarding selling coupons and the new one, which actually hasn't changed one bit. But in the context of this new reborn CIC website, it feels so much different now that coupon resellers do not appear to be the target doesn't it? But you are still "could be" involved in organized crime if you purchase coupons:

 

Of course now it says "with the intent to defraud" which is of course, truly illegal.

There's also this new part about buying coupons, which now state "could be stolen property (i,e stolen newspapers, flyers, etc) or  counterfeit, which is actually accurate:

 

And now instead of stating "THEY have never lost a case" as they previously did, they now take a more backseat approach to this as well. They state now that they have been successful in ALL cases in which they have been involved. Not prosecuted themselves, involved. Massive terminology difference here:

 

And hidden away in the dark corner of the FAQ section of the site is this portion once again, changed to state " Not one defendant has been acquitted in a CIC related coupon fraud case since 1986" instead of the brazen "we have never lost a case" wording previously:

 

Their "What does the CIC do?" wording has changed too, once again, backing off of the threatening I-am-the-law nonsense they originally posted back in 2014. Now their interest has become more of

"coupon misredemption" which if you want to thread a legal needle, could also include reselling coupons, but since they defeated eBay and eBay coupon sellers, they honestly could care less anymore:

 

 

Also hidden in the deep FAQ under a totally unrelated header of "member" they state they are a not-for-profit organization, which also wasn't there before. The term "not-for-profit" is a business model that sounds so charitable and giving. But if you Google what a "Not For Profit" business actually is, you will see that someone is paying for it, their salaries somehow right? So even though it's listed this way, the reality once again is that P&G, Unilever and company are still funding this beast. And get a great tax write off on their salary to boot! 

 

 

At least someone is winning with coupons these days, because the days of the consumer winning with coupons has long since passed my friends.

This entire situation - to make a corporation change its' entire branding, message and website so forth, is probably one of the biggest victories that anyone related or really tried to extreme coupon and make money with coupons has had in a long time. 

For that, we thank you.

So is the CIC legitimate? If they are truly chasing real coupon fraud and helping law enforcement then the answer is yes. The keyword there is still "if." 

Real coupon fraud is a special kind of nonsense that  really does have no place in society and those morons should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law just for being that stupid. This is 2016, not 1996, you can't make things on your printer and have them pass anymore to profit. You will get caught. Stealing inserts? There's a camera on you somewhere or someone has just uploaded you to You Tube with their iphone. Next thing you know you are in prison. The list of stupid goes on and on.

Apparently they are going after "coupon rings" on Facebook now. That's been going on for awhile. If you are that dumb to do anything illegal on Facebook then you also deserve to be arrested because you have to know they track your every keystroke. That kind of stupidity is indeed maddening and no one should shed a tear for those idiots.

But in the end, the CIC did win the real war, by shutting down eBay coupon resellers to a ridiculous per-calendar month limit. But that's for another post. The fake coupons are still on eBay. I wonder if anyone even cares? I guess about as much as the CIC cares about people reselling coupons, which appears to be not at all.

I mean, Couponfleamarket.Com is still standing and all. Why haven't they gone after them yet? Or some of the other more obvious resellers? You know why? They slayed their giant. They won their championship. They beat eBay and Extreme Couponing. Everything else isn't worth their time.

They often say that there is not a victimless event or crime. They are correct. In this instance, the victims are you, me and every other person that used this method of couponing and/or reselling coupons to support our families and put some extra money in our pockets.

The winners are once again, those companies and their six figure management whose profits and stocks are soaring while our bank accounts and what little assets we have are shrinking.

And we are defenseless to stop it.

Then they wonder why we had a Bernie Sanders and have a Donald Trump.

Thank you for reading.