I am actually curious to know.
I have a mate who does this for burritos lol and now I too am keen to figure out how he does it and if its illegal and if GYG will come after him in a court of law lol.
What can I sign up to, you guys seem like experts at this judging by the forum comments and deals.
I use my own email from work but now need to use a fake one too.
How do people have the balls for this? I really would like to know more. It seems fun but also, is it actually legal or is it fraud in Australia?
Someone help me out with fun stories or comments on this matter please.
SCAM or SAVE. Is It Illegal/Fraudulent to Use Multiple Dummy Emails to Sign up for Deals?
LHELPMESAVE on 18/03/2024 - 05:58
Comments
You use your work email?!
@ guzmanygomez.com.au 🤣
What's wrong with that? I use my email and work phone to register for certain things too. The usual lifespan of my work email and phone is about 12 months so it's actually perfect. Obviously not for the immediate 'throw-away' type registrations, but for things that they may need to contact for.
My wife got a new job recently and in the contract (or in the onboarding training I can't remember), they said it was against policy to sign up for non work related things using their work emails!
It'll probably be different for each company. I usually read the contract backwards and forwards and I've never actually seen anything that mentions this. The phone number itself just gets recycled once I leave the company.
I changed the Oportos number to my new work phone number recently.
@John Kimble: There's probably many others that do what I do and that could be causing issues. lol
Even without signing up to, sometimes I get very targeted emails from unknown people that will 'guess' the email address based on the company domain to send direct emails advertising their services.
Yeh have seen this feature in more recent contracts and employer policies.
If not written intro contract may also be in a policy and contract will reference relevant policiesit's against my policy to receive unsolicited spam emails, but i still do.
You can always play dumb and say someone used your email for sign up and you dont know. Probably a scam of some sort.
There is likely a level of fraud for using multiple emails, but unlikely that any fast food place will take anyone to court over it.
Don't lose sleep over this issue.
Sorry meant to reply to you here….
What do you think the 'level of fraud' is out of interest? what laws is he breaking here?
And thank you.
I'd love to see a doco on this world, any ideas on anything like that or threads somewhere?
Don't do it people it's a honeypot thread to get us to admit to fraud!
The crime would Likely be benefit by deception, you sign up agreeing to terms and conditions which likey say you are a new customer or only new customers are eligible, very low chance of them pursing.
I swear I saw a post on here a while back about someone being banned from jb hi fi for doing this with their $10 welcome credit or something.
HELPMESAVE
*Help me write an article
Come after him in court for a free burrito??
I'm sure it's more than one :)
That's exactly why so many convicts came here on the first fleet.
Burrito fraud.
Those damn burrito fraudsters.. who knows how we would have ended up if we had honest burrito purchasers?
A succulent Mexican burrito?
Hands up, this is the Burrito Police!
It's a free burrito, noone cares.
At worst they'll find out who he is and just stop giving it to him if he comes in, but likely noone will do anything.
hahahhahaha burrito police…love it!
What do you think the 'element of fraud' is out of interest? what laws is he breaking here?
What police force is going to run an investigation into someone fraudulently claiming a $10 burrito and then refer it to the DPP for prosecution?
Nobody. But the question wasn't what are the chances of getting prosecuted.
What law do you think it’s violating?
Violating the terms and conditions set out by a private company is a civil matter and they can pursue you for loss but hardly think they will sue you for a $10 burrito
Obligator IANAL.
Pretty sure it's violating clause (1) (d) of §408C of the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld).
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/86…
(1) A person who dishonestly—
(a) applies to his or her own use or to the use of any person—
(i) property belonging to another; or
(ii) property belonging to the person, or which is in the person’s possession, either solely or jointly with another person, subject to a trust, direction or condition or on account of any other person; or
(b) obtains property from any person; or
(c) induces any person to deliver property to any person; or
(d) gains a benefit or advantage, pecuniary or otherwise, for any person; or
(e) causes a detriment, pecuniary or otherwise, to any person; or
(f) induces any person to do any act which the person is lawfully entitled to abstain from doing; or
(g) induces any person to abstain from doing any act which that person is lawfully entitled to do; or
(h) makes off, knowing that payment on the spot is required or expected for any property lawfully supplied or returned or for any service lawfully provided, without having paid and with intent to avoid payment;
commits the crime of fraud.
Maximum penalty—5 years imprisonmentYes, dishonesty is illegal. It's just that you probably won't get caught and/or charged for it for little things.
So what’s the case here? Can’t see how someone using a second email address meets the definition. A business has made an offer to everyone via a campaign, soliciting business and the consumer is accepting it. Most times a payment is involved and the business is accepting it.
A business has made an offer to new customers. Yes, you're signing up with a unique email address, but you are not a new customer.
You are gaining a pecuniary advantage by being dishonest. Literally the definition of fraud, as above. Even if it's not specifically breaching the businesses' terms of service, it's still dishonest.
@Chandler: As always there should be two sides to the argument… To give a balance to the argument above:
At some point it is just utilizing the promotion and there is no dishonesty. If the person is using the same details over and over and only the email address is changing, that would likely be deemed as providing sufficient notice to the business involved with the promotion. They chose to continually accept that person as a new customer and there was nothing deceptive about it.
I would argue that more weight is placed upon the acquisition/re-acquisition of the "new" customer, thus making any action taken by the business would be futile.
Let us take for example sim cards, are they are new customer every time they open a new sim, yeah they would be in my opinion; and the argument is even more stronger if they abandon the old sim.
It is very close to a 99% probability that the business would likely fail given the general case law involving contracts/consumer law, even if the damages somehow amounted to a fictional $10k-$100k they apparently claimed in burritos. In fact there would be a stronger argument in favor of the defendant and against the business the higher that amount is.
With a burrito, it's gone after you eat it. Other facts might be whether the promotion designed to create an addiction.
@Central Intelligence: It ties in to identity. Most people only have one email address, so for them to sign up for a promotion they would be signing up with the only email address they have. Most businesses would be relying on this to prohibit people from claiming a "new customer" deal multiple times - it's why you can't claim the same promotion with the same email address.
And we have seen some businesses that have "new customer" promotions switch to using payment details as the identifying factor, and after attempting to get a "new customer" promotion using a unique email but the same card getting refused or pulled up on it (I believe it was Hello Fresh or similar that did this).
Just to point out that I'm not talking about breaching contracts, terms of service, or consumer laws, but criminal fraud. Again, IANAL, this is just my opinion on it. Irrespective of the legalities, it doesn't pass the sniff test for me.
@Chandler: No. They are making an offer to the mass market. “New Customer” may be part of their terms & conditions and if that’s breached, it’s a civil matter not a criminal matter
Celebrate your birthday every month ! Long live Boost Mobile and Dots in Gmail.
Near certainty nothing will come of it.
Boozebud just banned me once they found out I was abusing the Groupon deal posted here.
If you look up the Freestyle Libre diabetes sensor posted here in the last week, they invoice you for the difference if they pick up on your shenanigans. First instance of this I've seen
wow, now that is interesting. I wonder if that is enforceable by a debt collector etc
I also wonder about the terms, like you'd think they can just add that theyll ban you if you use multiple accounts or if they have nothing in the terms, can it even be fraud or illegal or whatever, just put it in the terms and that way they;'d have more power to ban or enforce anything….maybe the data is worth more than a burrito to some….?
Legal action costs an absolute bomb.
At the end of the day they still got a sale, and that potentially means a new recurring customer, and a sale that didn't go to the competition - so the dollar value of the transaction isn't everything. It's just not worth pursuing.
Case in point - 7-11 helicopter fuel locks - they've saved me easily $400 a year for the past several years. Cost wise you'd have a case to argue that I've caused them a loss - but then again, I haven't filled up at another servo in that long either.
Legal action costs an absolute bomb.
Not saying they will, but the company will sell the debt to a collection agency, some admin monkey will file a claim in the small claims court/equivalent for $100-$200 depending on the jurisdiction and then they just turn up to court and there really isnt a defence (in this situation) so they get a judgement against you. You dont pay and they submit a garnishee notice and get the money from your pay (plus the court filing fees). Doesnt cost them much at all.
However will they bother - probably not.
They’ll prob wait till you’re at the 69th free meal and go - nice - then sick the lawyers on ya
I know a good lawyer who only charges $420ph
Double nice (and actually very reasonable!!)
They give you 69 and now you have to give them '69' - it's prob some fat old mexican guy that runs the place! (sorry, hope noone is eating their lunch while reading this) haha.
Cost GYG much more to sue for $200 worth of free burritos. This cost will be part of marketing Opex.
I doubt it breaks any laws (if it did it is unlikely they would pursue unless a significant loss occurred), but it would probably be unethical and morally questionable.
Possibly against their terms and conditions, but one would need to read them to find out.
Subscribing to purchases from Amazon as a once off for the discount and then unsubscribing could be considered a similar "offence"?
The worst that could happen is they close your accounts and maybe blacklist you somehow. 🤷🏻♂️
It's similar to what happens if you have multiple Ozbargain accounts…
I think it's worse to VPN/GPS spoof for cheaper subs or fuel, but that's just me.
If he gets caught, let us know.
Member Since
4 hours 32 min agoSo which member is that bored to throw out this sort of bait?
Watch out, Internet morale police is here. I am guilty!
I'm sure it's illegal under some misdemeanor clause. Prob something under deception, deceiving, lying, impersonation or whatever it may be classed as.
But unless you're a repeat offender that you do it so many times the company finds out your details and records every transaction, the chances of you being called out is next to zero.
In saying that, people create new accounts everyday to claim X Y Z, people been doing it for years and years and nothing bad comes out of it
If anything, it technically brings the company more revenue (apart from free stuff).
For example my friend has an online store and he wants people to abuse the first order new customer discount cause he still gains a bit of profit per order and more revenue.
Multiple accounts held by the same individual or entity are subject to immediate termination
OP, you're breaking the OzBargain T&Cs and they're going to liquidate you. Better watch out!
I use my Gmail to make a unique address
IE your email [email protected]
Add a +. IE [email protected]
I do it to mail lists, amazing who sells your data, as spam can comes back as the email you used
I use my own email from work
Does your employer know you are doing this?
Have you read your HR policy regarding use of your work email?
settle down snitch
I can't imagine what the story in the media would be like if the company did pursue someone like that - esp for something like food. I don't think any amount of marketing after that would allow them to recover from the damage done to the brand's reputation.
In other words, it would be a very stupid move on the company's side.
Your "friend" sounds like a modern day Hamburglar.
how nice of you looking out for your friend so he doesn't go to jail for because of free burritos
with GYG you need an email AND a mobile number
are you saying you can use the same mobile number on numerous accounts to get a free burrito? …….. and no one told me
Scam or Save? Both :D
Why so many emails? Just create one email with long username like [email protected]
and after that use it like this:
[email protected]
[email protected]
…
all will go to the same mailbox.You can also just add a tag to you gmail email e.g. [email protected] by doing [email protected] [email protected] etc.
this tag thing I don't know. thanks for sharing.
Some services block tag usage due to + sign filters
having multiple emails and using them for deals is considered ' having balls ' now?? lol…
Just say you identified as a different person each time.
Multiple personality disorder. Each one likes a different meat and sauce.
How do people have the balls for this?
I don’t think balls have anything do with signing up for deals using multiple emails…
"People have zero conscience anymore, scam or be scammed, rip, tear, bust, get in, get out as quick as you can, who cares if we've left any of whatever it is for anyone else, get them all while you can because you can."
We've finally caught up to the rest of the world in the lack of manners and goodwill department, but I guess that's what happens when people are raised without integrity, dignity and most importantly, respect for not only others, but themselves.
Thanks for reading my blog lol.
Who/what are you quoting?
How do people have the balls for this?
Sexist comment or innocence ? Can someone be prosecuted for using a particular gender features to generalise superiority of power in a public forum ?
When retailers put out codes or offers which are "1 per person", they always know that some people are going to go out of their way to attempt to use it multiple times, but 99/100 people aren't going to do that and depending on the deal they probably make more money than they lose by night being stricter on it's use.
I did it recently. I wanted to use Amazon prime shipping in the US, and I'm already a Amazon AU prime subscriber. To my surprise Amazon prime is not connected globally. I refuse to get another Amazon prime sub for each country I visit out of principle. I feel no moral quandary exploiting prime free trial on a new account for that purchase
I wonder how your mate is actually doing what he does with Guzman. It needs an email plus a phone number for free burrito. Is he buying $2 sims as well?
theres websites you can use numbers to get texts sent to
Are there any free one's?
I did this with a few numbers with burrito bar & the franchisee caught on & complained to me. I thought corporate paid for the sign up deal but apparently the franchisees eat the cost of you using loyalty points at their business. I stopped doing it.
I am happy to bleed corporate, but if a single franchisee is eating my penny-pinching thats too much.
It's illegal.
GYG will file a lawsuit demanding a spicy repayment plan - 10 burritos in damages, garnished with extra cheese!
Cost of doing business.
scamming free burritos is what OzBargain was intended for I believe?
Although I would say your friend is fibbing because that GYG hasnt worked for a while unless I have missed something?
Could you imagine how many burritos someone would need to eat for such an action to be even remotely viable?
If you have a Gmail account you have unlimited emails. Just type a + before the @ symbol, then any letters or numbers after and it will email your main account.
Will email [email protected], but will be a "new" email you can sign up with.
Enjoy your burritos.
a mate
Lol - it's just you.
Get a domain and use email aliases, good idea in general so you can just nuke em when they sell ya data to
It's definitely fraud. There's probably very little risk of being caught. However given that the consequence might be you lose your job and end up with a criminal record over a burrito, I'd also describe this as an intelligence test. No one posting on Ozb is too poor to afford food. Claim one, and if you really like it buy your next ones.
It happens more than you know. My cousin did 18 months in Wacol for lying about having a Dominos voucher.
It all depends on the deal. If it is specifically for "new customers" then yes it is essentially fraud, i.e. financial advantage through deception. Though in reality no one will be chasing you for this, at worst you might get banned from the business altogether unless you are abusing it to ridiculous levels where it is costing them 1000's.
It also depends on the business. If it's a startup, it might want a larger customer base to inflate its worth, but nobody cares. On the other hand, once it's reached a certain point and needs to curtail its spending as Boozebud did, the new customer deal can only be used once per physical address.
lol