Vesdia Responds to Recent Coupon Fraud

Company to Make Patent-Protected Technology Widely Available in an Effort to Solve Industry-wide Problem.

ATLANTA, GA (PRWEB) August 26, 2003 --- In response to a recent spate of Internet coupon fraud cases that have plagued grocery chains in the South, Vesdia Corporation announced today that it will make its patent protected coupon technology available to grocery stores and consumer packaged goods companies interested in protecting themselves against abuse of their couponing programs.

The online coupon technology, which is currently incorporated into the companys award-winning microinvesting platform, was obtained by Vesdia as part of an asset acquisition transaction earlier this year with New York-based Nuvisio Corporation. The technology enables grocers and consumer products companies (CPGs) to broadly distribute fraud-protected coupons online.

Kimberly-Clark, Mott's, Clairol, Fleischmann's, Birds Eye, GlaxoSmithKline, Georgia Pacific, and Borden Foods were among the first to promote their products online using the technology when it launched in April 2001. At its peak, the program featured more than 35 major brands, 90 consumer offers, and access to more than 25 million consumers.

Winner of the Global Electronic Marketing Award for best electronic marketing programs in the grocery industry in 2001, Vesdia has limited the use of the technology to its own member-based microinvesting programs since the acquisition. Similar to traditional coupons, the Vesdia technology allows consumers to print the online coupons for in-store redemption.

However, unlike traditional coupons, the value of the coupons is not credited to the customer at the register. Instead, the coupons value is tracked from the point of purchase through the coupon clearing system and then deposited directly into the shoppers checking, savings, or investment account, such as a mutual fund, money market account, or 529 college savings plan.

The Internet and advanced technology arent the culprits here, they are the saviors", says Peter Davis, a former Procter & Gamble executive who is Vesdias chief executive officer. Coupon fraud has been a problem long before the advent of the Internet. The reality is that the Internet is by far the most cost-effective and targeted method of coupon distribution. With the protections built into our technology, it is also the best way to prevent unlawful coupon usage. In fact the unique patent protected program protects against both consumer fraud and merchant fraud".

Vesdias decision comes on the heals of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that Publix, Kroger, and other major grocers have discontinued the acceptance of coupons downloaded from the Internet as a result of a major coupon counterfeiting scam that is the largest of its kind to take place in more than a decade.

Kathy Kuzava, president of the Georgia Food Industry Association, told the paper that several grocers have been impacted by the bogus coupon scam, including Wal-Mart, SaveRite, and Sam's Club. "These coupons are like counterfeit money," Kuzava told the paper. "It's a mess out there, and it's bigger than we ever could imagine." According to the Coupon Information Corporation (CIC), a not-for-profit association of consumer product manufacturers that issue coupons, industry analysts estimate that grocers and product manufacturers lose in excess of $500 million annually due to coupon fraud.

Weve made the decision to make our technology available to any CPG or grocer who would like to use it because the time is right to bring this technology to the broader market", continued Davis. The end result will not only be more unit sales and higher levels of customer loyalty for those firms that take advantage of it, but also significant savings based on fraud reduction. We are so confident in our ability to mitigate the risk associated with coupons, we are offering grocers and CPGs that deploy the technology a fraud protection guarantee."

About Vesdia Corporation

Headquartered in Atlanta, Vesdia is the nations leading microinvesting technology company. Through its nationwide network of retailers and name brands, Vesdias patent-protected technology enables individual investors to save towards major life events without incurring out-of-pocket expenses. In addition to serving as the savings engine" behind its own award-winning savings programs, BabyMint and NestEggz, the company's proprietary technology is also licensed by financial institutions, retailers, and credit card issuers to facilitate customer loyalty.

For more information please visit http://www.vesdia.com.

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