Basically as the title says. A local gas station chain has released a new app. They give you a one time $10 off your purchase of any purchase over $10 promo coupon.
The only unique identifiers for your account are an email and your number from a different loyalty points service. I noticed they don’t verify the loyalty points number so you can put any random number in as long as it’s the right length.
The $10 off only requires a $10 purchase. So if I spun up 3 accounts and went to 3 of their gas stations, pumping $11 worth of gas I would get $33 worth of gas for $3. Furthermore, it looks like this promotion works for anything in store, groceries or even gift cards. The only restrictions printed on the promo itself are tobacco, alcohol and lottery.
Their terms of service doesn’t specially state anything about having multiple accounts.
Is there anything actually illegal here or is this a loophole they didn’t consider?
Edit
After comparing two coupons back to back I just realized it’s the same barcode each time. I don’t even need to generate new ones.
I don’t know if it’s legal or not, but i very highly doubt they would do anything to try to get you in trouble with the law or try to recover money from you. I think the worst that could maybe even possibly happen is they might send you a few threatening sounding letters that are just trying to scare you into voluntarily deciding to give them money.
“You’re never as smart as you think you are” will save you from a lot of headache in life. If you think you’re the first to have an idea, you’re not.
Or that Canadian couple who figured out a way to rig their lottery to give them an advantage and made millions
And the people who designed this promotion are also not as smart as they think they are.
If all they need is an email, there is nothing illegal about using multiple email addresses.
Now, the OP could have missed something in the T&Cs but based on what they have said, they are not doing anything illegal.
If you have the time to do that, it would probably work at first until the staff recognizes you and either doesn’t let you repeat that move or even outright bans you from purchasing there.
No further trouble expected, but don’t expect this to work for long for you.
There’s about 20 of these gas stations within 15 minutes of where I live. Couple that with rotating staff I suspect it could be used about 60 times before the same clerk would see me twice. If spaced out over a week I’m not sure a clerk would even notice given this is a real promotion that people use.
If the amount of money you save that way is larger than what you’d earn in the time it takes you to create new accounts and the time you spend for refueling at 3-4 gas stations than it would if you’d only hit one, then go for it.
And don’t forget the fuel it takes you to get to the next station.
For me it wouldn’t be worth it, but if you have more time than money, go for it.
IANAL, but that’s a loophole
Their terms of service doesn’t specially state anything about having multiple accounts.
I’d be surprised if it didn’t at least state something to the effect of “Offer is only available once per customer” or similar. That’s their loophole to tell you to GGF, if and when they notice you taking advantage.
