Proactive Investors - J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) has called in police as it grapples with a rise in fraudulent vouchers which have seen shoppers able to pay virtually nothing for goods from the supermarket.
A TikTok trend, dubbed the ‘Sainsbury’s method’, has seen shoppers take to social media to show off coupons which can be repeatedly scanned at the chain’s checkouts.
Fraudsters have been able to make off with hundreds of pounds worth of shopping for next to nothing as a result.
Links to sites where the coupons can be accessed have also circulated online, with these being put up for sale in some cases.
Sainsbury’s is said to have bought detectives into stores to help combat the increasing use of such vouchers, according to Sky News, while police have also been involved.
“We have seen an increase in fraudulent coupons in our stores and we have processes in place to detect and block them,” Sainsbury’s said.
“This may temporarily lead to a slightly longer checkout process, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.”
The supermarket added “genuine coupons and vouchers” would still be accepted.
Sainsbury’s had been forced to remove vouchers from its app just weeks ago following similar issues which saw customers able to redeem discounts worth far more than was stated on the coupons.