Stores offering awards

No - they are a scam. You fill in a form and they sell your mobile number to a 3rd party.

Probably not. Inspect the email source to see who sent it and where it wants to send you to pay money

You suspect correctly.

wouldn't by any chance be this?

(other news reports available)

In essence, anything that looks too good to be true, *is* too good to be true.

Probably not. I'd have thought this was easy to check up on. Who would buy anything cold emailed to you in any case. I certainly would not. All these women who want me are quite obviously bogus, and I tend to suspect most other emails that come from companies that I have no dealings with are also. Brian

Apart from the fact that some do....

There are hundreds of thousands of "savvy" shoppers who sign up for every genuine email offer that they see. (as in, always sign up to receive offers by mail, not accept every offer)

My sister does this and she isn't normally a value for money shopper. (She's a buy everything in Waitrose person.)

So when you have an inbox with a dozen genuine vouchers a day, how will you notice the bogus one?

tim

Usually the offers are from retailers who charge top RRP in the first place and the offer just brings down the price to what other retailers are charging

In my sisters case it's restaurant offers

buy one get one free (drinks not included) type deals

If you are going anyway, they are worth having

But if it forces you to choose chain restaurant rather then local independent, perhaps not

But we have that argument even without the voucher (I don't know why she likes going to the mega chains, she's usually far more discerning in her purchases)

tim

Not much cold email spam comes my way (or maybe it gets stopped before I see it?), but when I do get any, the company goes into my mental "don't touch with a bargepole" list. Obviously that opens the possibility for competitors to cold email spam looking to mislead me, but should overall provide a marginal disincentive.

That would be why Tesco keep sending me £9 off any shop over £60.You just buy the stuff thats as cheap elsewhere and save the £9.

I have £25 off Waitrose for using a John Lewis credit card, another £30 off for using Shell petrol and £40 if I spend over £160.

So if I spend £161, it will only cost me £66.

Regular Tesco shoppers don't get these vouchers. You possibly will be one of those shoppers that used to use Tesco but now don't use it as much.

Supermarkets such as Tesco are price completive on some items but this can lull shoppers into believing that everything sold in their stores is value for money. For instance, just checking Tesco on-line for my preferred brand of (instant) coffee I see that their price is just under £2 more expensive (for 200g) that I can purchase it for in many places elsewhere. You don't need too many of these more expensive items in you basket to make the £9 discount worthless.

if you have an Aldi and/or a Lidl nearby ...

IME finding 60 quid of stuff (that you reasonably want each week/month) that's cheaper elsewhere is impossible.

Occasionally, I get to use one of these vouchers when I find a single large item competitively priced in Tesco, but from my day to day shopping that I still do there, I don't come close.

tim