INDIANAPOLIS -- Sears has joined a growing list of companies forced to pull online coupon offers early due to a surge in popularity.

The $10 off coupon for junior's apparel was supposed to be valid until Nov. 14, but, in a statement to Call 6's Rafael Sanchez, the company said it would no longer honor the discount.

Sears did not explain its decision, but did apologize to customers.

Lori Ann Kochowski of Indianapolis said she tried to redeem the coupon at Castleton Mall on Saturday, but was told it was fraudulent. She said the Sears corporate office later gave a different reason.

"They told me they had met their allowance for what they could give for the coupon, and that they could no longer give out free merchandise," Kochowski said.

The coupon controversy comes after other area businesses, like Marsh Supermarkets, have had similar incidents where coupons were distributed more widely than intended.

"What a lot of people didn't realize was the power of the social networking sites like Facebook.com, and posting things in the Internet," said Dan McQuiston, chair of the marketing and management department at Butler University.

He said that not only are merchants finding it difficult to control who gets their coupon, the economy is driving the demand for their deals.

"Since 2008, coupon redemption has seen a 20 percent increase," he said.

To control so-called coupon abuse, technologies are being developed to place a customer's name in the bar code to trace the source of misuse.