US consumers love bargains, and retailers know it.
This is why coupon discounts are so popular with American shoppers. In fact, a new study by Capterra showed that 78% of online shoppers “decided to make a purchase because they didn’t have a coupon.”
Another 78% of consumers say they don’t like it when businesses don’t offer coupons – the Capterra study found that 76% of consumers would “definitely or probably stop shopping at a business if it had the coupons that they’re sent to.” they’d become accustomed to.”
There’s a downside to consumers’ obsession with coupons, and it’s a big one. According to the same study, 85% of online shoppers are willing to share sensitive personal information with businesses in exchange for a coupon discount.
“Most consumers are willing to give their email address (85%), gender (70%) and name (60%) in exchange for discounts,” the study states. “In addition, significant proportions are willing to give their date of birth (48%), occupation (43%) and home address (32%).
Just 7% of consumers surveyed say they are “unwilling to provide any information in exchange for discounts,” the report said.
Take a big risk
Given the high risk of financial fraud, why would an otherwise sane person give up their personal information for a measly 10% discount on a pair of running shoes?
Basically, buyers do this because they are making a deal.
“It’s no secret that consumers are drawn to discounts — it’s urgent when the discount is for a limited time and most shoppers like to feel like they’re saving money on a purchase,” said Brittany Allen, Trust and Security Architect at Sift. “Yet with the click of a button, many consumers are unknowingly exposing their personal information to fraud.”
A big part of the problem is a lack of education among the consumers who shop.
“Americans are not being educated about personal finance or being asked to prioritize their privacy,” said Nicole Grinstead, Lunar Digital Assets’ chief communications officer. “Many implicitly trust the entities that collect their identity information.”
Keep fraud out of the coupon discount equation
Because access to personal information is a significant risk to good business, consumers should exercise extreme caution when disclosing private information online.
“The site itself can be a scam as many cyber thieves take a shopper’s money without ever fulfilling their order,” Allen told TheStreet. “Or the retailer may not have the proper security in place, giving scammers the opportunity to steal a shopper’s credentials and payment information.”
Once a person’s personal information gets into the hands of scammers, they gain access to multiple accounts of the victim. Make no mistake, when you have private consumer data in your hands, fraudsters can hijack payment accounts in unique and damaging ways.
“Access to personal information, along with the fact that many consumers reuse the same password across multiple websites,” Allen added. “This makes it easy for scammers to use credential stuffing, where scammers use bots to enter thousands of stolen usernames and passwords into websites to gain access to multiple accounts from which they can then strip money or reward points.”
What can consumers do to protect themselves from fraud? Allen recommends taking the following steps to prevent cyber theft:
– Always be wary of heavily discounted price points, especially when a site asks for more than a name and email address to access a discount.
– Never give out your social security number for discounts or bonuses. “This type of information should only be provided to trusted financial institutions and government agencies,” Allen said.
– Always check the website URL and look for reviews of the merchant on credible review sites.
– Protect your data with a password manager. “It lets you use a unique name and password for every website and store, and it remembers the passwords — so you don’t have to worry about it,” Allen noted.
– The general advice “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” remains true. “It’s important that consumers are careful about where and how they share their information online,” Allen added.
