Found Treasure (Receipts found in parking lot with IR)

[AshbobSanDiego]

The other day I was in a parking lot and found a receipt on the ground so figured I’d help keep the parking lot clean but also see if the person discarded any potential IR. The person bought 2x Guinness 6pks and there was a $3 rebate per 6pk. So it was a $6 MM. is this considered ethical by the group or am I breaking any Ibotta TOS for redeeming?

[Dean]

That would be unethical and rule breaking. Take your pick from the first 3 items under Prohibited Conduct. Obviously number 2 would be the first rule broken but you could also go with number 3 since you have no idea if the purchaser already uploaded the receipt and discarded it. Just stick with your own receipts if you want to keep using Ibotta.

7. Prohibited Conduct.

BY USING THE SERVICES YOU AGREE NOT TO:

• 1. submit to Ibotta purchase information that is false, inaccurate, fabricated, counterfeited, tampered with, adjusted, or otherwise artificial or inauthentic for the purpose of seeking to redeem Offers with Ibotta;
• 2. redeem, or attempt to redeem, Ibotta Offers for products that have not actually been purchased and retained, or for products that have been purchased but returned to a store or online vendor, following purchase;
• 3. upload receipts to Ibotta that have already been uploaded by you or another user, for the purpose of earning Rewards for purchasing products that you did not actually purchase;
• ...

[Kris712]

I'm thinking how 1. The receipt is real and 2. The items were purchased for real. Rule 3 is what makes this practice a bad idea because double submissions are disallowed and there's a tiny chance the original buyer submitted it already.

[Dean]

@Kris712 

Receipts should be for items you purchased, not random receipts found in parking lots and trash cans. That's going against the spirit of using Ibotta and other rebate apps. But I'm sure that's what some people do, and when they get caught and banned, they shouldn't complain how Ibotta cheated them out of their savings.

[AshbobSanDiego]

Got it, so what you’re saying is loose lips sink ships?

Look, in the 5+ years I’ve used and supported the brands & retailers that Ibotta gets its revenue from, if I happened to find 1 random receipt that has an IR, I don’t think Ibotta is going to waste any time investigating it and cross referencing if I was the actual purchaser. 
Now if I worked for a specific retailer and I was printing false or duplicate receipts and submitting them, then yes, ban that user.  The odds of randomly finding a receipt that has an IR and then also the chances the original purchaser actually redeemed it, is like finding a needle in a haystack or “buried treasure”. It’s almost a once in a life time situation. 
I understand the Spirit of using Ibotta but I technically do not see any issue in the TOS with uploading a found receipt as long as no one else has uploaded the same receipt, it’s within 7 days, & the product was not returned. 
Does Ibotta need to update their TOS with stronger verbiage like ReceiptJAR?-

Receipt Ownership

You can only submit receipts that directly result from your own shopping behaviours. Do not submit receipts that are not from your own shopping trips or that have been changed, modified or received by third parties. Receipts that are not eligible for rewards may include (but are not limited to):

• receipts obtained from friends, roommates or colleagues; 

• receipts obtained from customers; 

• receipts obtained for commercial or work-related purposes; 

• receipts obtained from strangers, including receipts collected from the bin; or

• receipts obtained from distant relatives.

• Fraudulent Activity

  Any fraudulent activity will result in immediate suspension or termination of your Account and reward points.

  Fraudulent activities include (but are not limited to):

  • uploading receipts that are not your own;

  • uploading the same receipt multiple times;

  • breaking up your shopping purchases to obtain multiple receipts;

  • answering survey questions with misleading or untruthful information;

  • creating multiple accounts to gain referral points; 

  • scanning the wrong barcodes or taking photos of the wrong products for points; or

  • any other activities which we determine are fraudulent or dishonest.

[Aliciapaige14]

I do that all the time. One man trash is another man treasure!

[AshbobSanDiego]

Here is a new moral dilemma I came across today. Origins Water has 2 available IR on their 6pks. 

$1.50 IR on 450ml bottles

$3.00 IR on 900ml bottles

i claimed both offers before I read the terms on the different bottle sizes. The picture thumbnail looked identical. 
My store had a club member price of $3.99 plus $1.5 DQ on the 450ml. Add in the IR, OoP would be $1. 
Before submitting to Ibotta, I scanned the UPC on the item. I wasn’t really paying attention when the iBotta match screen showed the item match. I assumed it would have detected the 450ml deal since I scanned that UPC. Turns out Ibottas AI matched the 900ml $3 IR. 
So my $1 OoP purchase turned into a $0.50 MM. 

Am I supposed to open a ticket and report this to Ibotta and ask them to take the $1.50 cash money back from my account?

 

 

 

[Dean]

@AshbobSanDiego 

I’ve reported overages twice in the past, both because the app read the receipt line number as the number of items purchased. In both cases, I was told to keep the earnings for being honest enough to report it. It probably wasn’t worth the time to reverse the small amounts. Yours is more than both of mine combined so you might want to report it to avoid a reversal in the future.