Queenpins True Story: The Real-Life Inspiration Explained

The comedy Queenpins‘ true story gives further context to the unique crime story about two friends behind a massive couponing scheme. Queenpins reunites actors Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste — who appeared together in Veronica Mars and The Good Place — as Connie Kaminiski and JoJo Johnson, respectively. In the movie, Connie receives a coupon as an apology after she complains to a company about stale cereal. This incident sparks an idea that ends up making her, and her best friend JoJo, a lot of money. Queenpins’ true story is based on the couponing scam designed by three Arizona women.

The $40 million coupon scam may seem like a preposterous concept to some, but it is a case of fact being stranger than fiction as the events did happen. In 2012, Arizona police arrested three women possessing millions of dollars of fake coupons. Illegal couponing may not sound like a big deal, but it can cost corporations millions of dollars in lost revenue on a large scale. Queenpins‘ true story scam served as ideal inspiration for a Hollywood take on the quirky crime, but as with most movies based on true stories, the movie makes some key changes.

Queenpins Is Based (Loosely) On A True Story

Robin Ramirez, Marilyn Johnson, And Amiko “Amy” Fountain Were The Real-Life Criminals Of The Story

The women at the center of Queenpins’ true story were Robin Ramirez, Marilyn Johnson, and Amiko “Amy” Fountain. Ramirez, who was 40 years old at the time of her arrest, was considered the ringleader of the group. Johnson, then 54, and Fountain, 42, assisted her with the operation, which made them millions. The true-crime story caught the attention of Sgt. David Lake of the Phoenix Police Department, who told local TV station KPHO [via Coupons in the News]: “The opulence and the money was the equivalent of drug cartel-type of stuff.”

Regardless of the women’s financial situation before they started the scheme, they were living in luxury by the time it ended. The coupon scam was featured in the CBS documentary series Pink Collar Crimes in 2018, and Queenpins takes a more comedic approach to the story. However, the consequences faced by the women who perpetrated the crime were decidedly serious as they had to pay out a large sum and do some hard prison time for the scam.

Real-Life Coupon Scam: How It Worked

Counterfeit Coupons Were Created Outside The Country And Sold To Customers

Coupons in the News reports that Ramirez started selling fake coupons as early as 2007. In the Queenpins true story, her system involved sending coupons overseas to be reproduced and counterfeited in large quantities. Queenpins‘ true story is somewhat glossed over for the sake of time and the couponing scam itself was a victim of this. These coupons would be altered to amazing deals. For instance, a real coupon for $1 off Pringles could be changed to $50 worth of free dog food.

Some customers later admitted the deals seemed too good to be true, but they never wanted to question such good fortune. Johnson helped package and ship orders, and Fountain sometimes added hologram stickers to the fake coupons to make them look more legitimate. The coupons were then sold on eBay from multiple different accounts as well as from the group’s own website, SavvyShopperSite. This site required an invite in order to access, and also included a warning not to freely share where customers purchased the coupons.

Who Are The Real-Life Queenpins

None Of The Real-Life Criminals Are Mentioned In Queenpins

Queenpins‘ true story doesn’t directly feature the real-life criminals as Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste don’t technically represent any of the three women, Robin Ramirez, Marilyn Johnson, and Amiko “Amy” Fountain. Ramirez started the couponing scam alone as she began selling counterfeit coupons back in 2007 and was joined by Johnson and Fountain after seeing the monetary potential of the scam.

While Connie and JoJo shared equal weight in their partnership, Ramirez was the one who orchestrated the scam from the beginning. She would have legitimate coupons reproduced overseas in large quantities and then sell them via her eBay account. During the trial in 2013, both Amiko Fountain and Marylin Johnson agreed to testify against the ringleader, causing Ramirez to change her plea to “guilty”.

While Robin was the only one sentenced to jail, all three were forced to pay restitution to Proctor and Gamble to the tune of $1.2 million. Since the state of Arizona forbids criminals from making a profit off of selling their stories, none of the women benefited from the 2021 movie Queenpins. Fountain and Johnson still live and work in the Phoenix area and seem to have put the incident behind them. Ramirez has had her probation extended multiple times, and still works to pay off her court-ordered debt.

What Happened To The Real-Life Coupon “Queenpins”?

An Undercover Sting Operation Brought Down The Illegal Enterprise

Like in the ending of Queenpins, the women’s fortune eventually came to an end. One of the victimized companies, Procter & Gamble, launched an investigation when they discovered some of the fake coupons during a routine audit. Forty businesses eventually filed fraud complaints, alerting the Coupon Information Corporation and local police. Private investigators worked with the Phoenix Police Department who went undercover to track down the three women involved. The investigation lasted eight weeks, during which officers pretended to be customers purchasing some of the counterfeit coupons.

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A police raid found more than $40 million in fake coupons along with $2 million in other assets including 22 guns, cash, 21 vehicles, and a speed boat. Ramirez, Fountain, and Johnson were all arrested. Fountain and Johnson eventually pleaded guilty to counterfeiting, and Ramirez pleaded guilty to counterfeiting, fraud, and illegal control of an enterprise. She was sentenced to 3 years in prison and seven years probation while her friends served 3 years probation.

The Companies That Were Impacted By The Queenpins?

Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and the Hershey Company

The coupon scam from Queenpins affected 40 different manufacturers. Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and the Hershey Company were three of the biggest names that lost money to the scam. Estimates suggest that all the fake coupons cost these companies up to $600 million, with the biggest companies losing hundreds of millions each (via Entertainment Weekly).

The SavvyShopperSite.com site that the ladies used to sell coupons included several products under the companies mentioned above. These include DiGiorno Pizza, Tide laundry detergent, Hefty trash bags, Gerber baby formula, Pampers diapers, 7Up soda, Hershey bars, and more. While the movie showed a store seeing bad coupons coming in, in real life, it was a Procter & Gamble audit of their third-party coupon processors that uncovered the scam.

The Biggest Purchases By The Queenpins

Sports Cars, Boats, RVs, and More

In both Queenpins and in real life, the women involved in the scam bought some big ticket items, which helped lead to their downfall. When the police raided the women’s homes in real life, they found a large RV, some very expensive sports cars (21 total cars), and a 40-foot speedboat. These items alone totaled a massive $240,000 in worth. There were also 22 guns found in the raid, most of which likely were bought with the money from the scam (via Entertainment Weekly).

At the same time, the police seized $2 million in assets from the women, and this included taking their four homes. Robin even used her money to rent an actual aircraft hangar to store her car collection and other off-road toys. One of the cars taken out of the aircraft hangar was a custom Corvette worth over $150,000. When police raided the Queenpins base of operations, they seized over $40 million worth of counterfeit coupons.

Everything The Movie Changes

The Movie Paints The Criminals In A More Sympathetic Light

Queenpins’ true story is markedly different than the movie. In Queenpins, authorities first become aware of a potential problem when a Loss Prevention Officer working for the grocery store chain called A&G Family Mart receives numerous complaints of fraudulent coupons. He initially goes to the FBI for help, but the case gets transferred to a U.S. Postal Inspector since the coupons are being physically mailed out (making the scam mail fraud). This angle allows the film to be more comedic in how it covers the investigation; it also takes focus away from the harm the scam did to companies.

Although Queenpins mentions Procter & Gamble by name, the businesses are portrayed as not really being affected by the scam—instead, the event is framed as “just a write-off” for them. In reality, P&G received financial compensation for the revenue losses. Other companies also asked for reimbursement but could not prove their products were involved in the coupon scheme. Queenpins chose not to include the reimbursement the women were court-ordered to pay, most likely to make them seem more sympathetic to the audience.

Other key changes in Queenpins are also meant to further endear the two lead women to audiences. Connie chooses to take full responsibility for their crimes to protect JoJo. Yet, in Queenpins‘ true story, Johnson and Fountain turned on Ramirez in exchange for lighter sentences. The movie also gives Connie a sympathetic backstory as pregnancy complications are the cause of her and her husband’s financial struggles, which lead her toward extreme money-making schemes.

The movie simplifies the women’s counterfeiting system as well. In real life, they would send real coupons overseas to be altered and mass-produced. In Queenpins, they simply stole excess coupons from a factory in Mexico. All of their “fake” coupons were in fact real, just being distributed in much larger quantities than companies wanted. Queenpins also reduces the women’s sentences.

JoJo receives 10 days of jail time and one-year probation while Connie receives 11 months of jail time. Neither of them learns their lesson from this though in the movie Queenpins because the film ends with Connie and JoJo planning to start their coupon scam all over again, this time overseas.​​​​​​​

How The Queenpins Directors Turned A Scam Into A Story

The Filmmakers Worked To Balance The Comedy With Authenticity

Directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly spoke to SlashFilm about how they turned a real-life scam into Queenpins. Pullapilly revealed she first heard about a $40 million couponing scam on a coupon blog, and she happened to have the name of the Phoenix, Arizona, detective who worked on the case. Shortly after reading about the crime, she contacted Gaudet, wondering if something so obscure was real. The pair then called the detective and found themselves deep in research for what would soon be the story of Queenpins, despite the duo never making a comedy before.

Gaudet and Pullapilly revealed that a tremendous amount of research went into making Queenpins. Gaudet mentioned that the duo took “deep dives” into the psychology of couponing, postal inspectors, and so much more to get the story right. While Pullapilly mentioned that social issues were also layered throughout the story, Gaudet hammered home that the story needed to have authenticity:

“We researched a lot because, again, we treated it the same way and we wanted it to feel just as real and authentic and layered. We would never want to do a comedy that’s just a surface-level silly comedy.”

In looking at the psychology of couponing, Gaudet found that people do get a small “high” from using coupons and that there is a “whole psychology behind any buyer when they pick up what they want to buy.” Research into the postal service revealed that postal inspectors are the oldest branch of American law enforcement, something that Pullapilly wanted to pay homage to and “write this love letter to the post office.” The Queenpins true story is stranger than fiction, and a lot of work on Gaudet and Pullapilly’s part went into making it a success.

Inspired by a true story, Queenpins is an outrageous comedy about a bored and frustrated suburban homemaker, Connie (Kristen Bell) and her best pal JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a vlogger with dreams, who turn a hobby into a multi-million dollar counterfeit coupon caper. After firing off a letter to the conglomerate behind a box of cereal gone stale, and receiving an apology along with dozens of freebies, the duo hatch an illegal coupon club scheme that scams millions from mega-corporations and delivers deals to legions of fellow coupon clippers. On the trail to total coupon dominance, a hapless Loss Prevention Officer (Paul Walter Hauser) from the local supermarket chain joins forces with a determined U.S. Postal Inspector (Vince Vaughn) in hot pursuit of these newly-minted “Queenpins” of pink collar crime.

Release Date

September 10, 2021

Director

Aron Gaudet , Gita Pullapilly

Cast

Kristen Bell , Dayo Okeniyi , Eduardo Franco , Marc Evan Jackson , Stephen Root , Paul Rust , Joel McHale , Bebe Rexha , Kirby Howell-Baptiste , Annie Mumolo , Nick Cassavetes , Vince Vaughn , Paul Walter Hauser