Recently I’ve been writing a lot of customer stories about Veryfi’s technology in CPG promotional campaigns. And one pattern keeps showing up: fraud.
More than 72% of promotional campaigns face fraud at some point during their run. Most of it slips through unnoticed because fraudsters today are using methods that go way beyond what most teams expect. We’re talking account takeovers, fake accounts, insider fraud, bots, “buy and fly,” coupon abuse, and the list keeps growing.
These tactics are meticulous, and they’re expensive. Collectively, they’re costing businesses billions every year, while detection has historically lagged far behind. For CPG promotions, the risk is even sharper because in many markets, receipts aren’t always issued. That means packaging itself, bottle caps, strips, QR codes, becomes proof of purchase. And that opens the door for duplicate codes, tampered QR stickers, and screenshot abuse at massive scale.
This is the hidden fraud problem in CPG promotions.
Where Fraud Shows Up in CPG Promotions
When you run CPG promotions at scale, fraud shows up in some pretty familiar ways.
Duplicate packaging codes are one of the biggest. A single bottle cap or snack strip can get copied and passed around in WhatsApp groups or resold online. Suddenly, the same code is being submitted hundreds of times by different accounts. For brands, that means rewards meant for real customers are drained by a handful of bad actors.
Then there’s QR code tampering. Fraudsters are no longer just reusing printed codes, some are generating fake QR stickers that look identical to the real thing. Others redirect codes to spoofed landing pages, tricking consumers and siphoning traffic away from the brand.
And of course, screenshot abuse. Instead of capturing the actual packaging or receipt, people share screenshots of someone else’s valid proof of purchase and redeem it across multiple accounts. It’s quick, it’s easy, and without the right checks, it’s almost impossible to catch.
These patterns aren’t hypothetical, they’re the exact challenges we’ve seen in campaigns with PepsiCo, LALA, and Crem Helado. The mechanics change from bottle caps to packaging strips to receipts, but the fraud attempts are very much similar.
Why This Hurts Brands
Fraud in promotions isn’t just a nuisance, it directly eats into budgets and damages trust.
Every fraudulent redemption comes out of the rewards pool. If a campaign allocates $5M for instant prizes, even a 3–5% fraud rate could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars lost. That’s money taken away from genuine customers.
Trust takes a hit, too. Imagine being a real shopper, scanning your product, and finding out all the rewards are gone because fraudsters gamed the system. Once consumers feel cheated, they’re less likely to engage with the brand again.
Fraud also distorts performance metrics. On paper, participation looks high, lots of scans, lots of entries, but much of it is noise from fake accounts and duplicates. Marketers end up making campaign decisions based on inflated numbers.
And then there’s the operational drag. Without automation, brand teams end up buried in manual reviews, support tickets, and blacklist maintenance, which slows everyone down and adds hidden costs. With Veryfi, fraud detection happens automatically in the background, freeing up teams to focus on growth instead of chasing fraud.
How Veryfi Stops Global CPG Fraud
The good news is fraud can be managed, and even turned into a competitive advantage, with the right technology. Veryfi’s fraud detection suite brings together:
- Live capture only → Scans must be taken in the moment, blocking uploads and screenshots.
- Duplicate detection → Stops repeat submissions of the same code or document instantly.
- Device fingerprinting → Flags suspicious behavior like dozens of fake accounts from the same device.
- Metadata & AI checks → Detects tampered or AI-generated images before they hit the rewards pool.
- Cross-channel consistency → Works across mobile apps, web, and WhatsApp, so fraud controls are unified everywhere campaigns run.
In campaigns across the US, Europe, and Latin America, these safeguards have proven to reduce fraudulent redemptions dramatically, saving brands millions, protecting real customers, and giving marketers accurate performance data.
Turning Fraud Into a Competitive Advantage
Fraud in CPG promotions isn’t going away, it’s evolving. But with the right tools in place, brands can stop fraud before it drains budgets, keep consumers engaged, and run larger campaigns with confidence.
That’s exactly what Veryfi enables: fraud detection built into every redemption, across every channel, in every market. From duplicate code prevention to live capture verification, we’re helping CPG leaders worldwide protect their promotions and deliver rewards only to real customers.