E-mail that Informs.

As director of loss prevention for a small chain of grocery stores, write an e-mail to store managers advising them of a surge in the use of counterfeit e-mail coupons. In recent months, the problem has grown more serious. In

July, for example, retailers were hit with a flood of bogus coupons promising free ice cream bars from Hagen-Dazs, a brand represented in Canada by Nestl. With this in mind, advise store managers to monitor the situation and closely warn cashiers to closely inspect coupons offering free or heavily discounted ditems. s and to decline coupons without bar codes and expiry dates. Of course, you realize that some bogus coupons are difficult to detect that because technophiles can easily alter manufactur ers' coupons s or r create e their own from scratch with the right tools. The Food Marketing Institute, an international association based in in Washington, DC, estimates that frauds cost the sector up to US $800 million annually. Make it clear to your readers that the cost of these downloaded forger

les is a cost you prefer to avoid.