Moe’s redeemed more vouchers than it had given SUNY Cortland for a burrito giveaway last semester. Some of the vouchers were fake, but no one is sure what happened, or who was responsible for the scheme.
Nothing was adding up.
Last semester, Moe’s Southwest Grill discovered that they were redeeming more free vouchers than SUNY Cortland had given out. A closer look revealed there were fake vouchers in the mix, according to Moe’s employees.
Every Wednesday, the Instagram page “cortlandreddragons” announces two set of initials. Students that have those initials receive a voucher for a free burrito or bowl from Moe’s.
During the spring semester, Moe’s employees noticed something was wrong. Moe’s had redeemed around 600 vouchers, but they had only given the school 440 to hand out, according to the general manager. As the employees looked closer at the vouchers, they noticed some were phonies. The employees said they contacted Cortland administration about this.
I spoke with the general manager and another employee of Moe’s. I also spoke to a SUNY Cortland staff-person that worked with the voucher program and the President of SUNY Cortland, Erik Bitterbaum.
When I spoke with the Moe’s employees, they said that a graduated, former SUNY Cortland student was selling or distributing fake vouchers. Both employees said that the person came to the store and had to be escorted out after staff confronted them. They said that the student had gotten access to the real vouchers and copied them.
The general manager said that they contacted the Cortland staff person overlooking the program. That staff person told Moe’s they did not believe one of their interns was responsible.
The Cortland staff person who ran the program confirmed that they did not believe that a student, or a 2025 graduate, was involved.
“I really don’t have much information on it. The Moe’s manager called me about an influx of vouchers coming in and I changed the voucher to help mitigate the issue,” said the staff-person. “When the manager and I talked soon after, the issue was resolved. From what I understand, it wasn’t our students attempting to use these vouchers.”
They said SUNY Cortland students were not attempting to use the fake vouchers, but the Moe’s workers said they believe it was Cortland students redeeming the vouchers.
The staff member acted right away and changed the voucher design so it would no longer be an issue. Winners are also now required to show a Cortland ID to both pick up and redeem the voucher. Winning students can only pick up their voucher on Thursdays between 9am and 2pm.
President Bitterbaum said that he was unaware of what had happened with the fake vouchers before I contacted him about this story.
Since the redesigned vouchers and the new redemption requirements, there has not been a single attempt to use a fake voucher this semester, said the Moe’s general manager.