In recent years, Internet coupon fraud has become a serious problem for retailers, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars, , a nonprofit organization set up to fight coupon fraud. In fact, many retailers no longer accept print-at-home Internet coupons because of fakes.

In December of last year, "$200,000 worth of such counterfeit coupons for Tide laundry detergent were redeemed by consumers over a two to three week period," Cicero said. Tide's parent company, Proctor & Gamble, is the largest coupon issuer in the U.S., but it has "never issued a single online print-at-home coupon," he said.

Zoklet has now removed most of its popular coupon discussion pages, but of these pages offer a glimpse into the world of fake coupons. Posters advise against cashing in more than $20 worth of coupons at any time; self-check-out kiosks at Walmart appear to be a favorite location. "Easy tip is going shopping later in the day from 4 to close. Kids are operating the registers as well as self checkout and don't care," wrote one user, named mdbm88, in February of this year.

The IDG News Service