• TABLE OF CONTENTS •
What is Return Fraud?
Return Fraud Statistics
Why is Return Fraud such a Problem?
How to Prevent Return Fraud
Topics: fraud, fraud prevention, return fraud, retail fraud, holiday season
• TABLE OF CONTENTS •
Consumer Behavior during the Holidays
Holiday 2015 Retail Stats Review
Holiday 2016 Retail Forecast
Holiday Fraud Issues
Holiday Fraud Prevention Tips
Topics: holiday season, fraud, cnp fraud, retail fraud
For most, the start of a new year is a time to reflect on goals and positive changes. It is when people take the time to plan out what should and needs to get done for the next 365 days – or for the next 366 days on leap years, just like this year. Unfortunately, for retailers, as desirable as it is to set aside sufficient time to forecast and plan for the next 52 weeks, they often do not have this luxury. Because in the retail world, the beginning of each year simply means that they are in the midst of the holiday returns season.
Topics: retail fraud, organized retail crime, fraud, return fraud
Popular culture would have you believe that the Secret Service is an agency whose sole responsibility is providing security to the President of the United States, but they are actually an agency that deals first and foremost with financial crimes – mostly counterfeit money. In fact, the Secret Service was initially created not as a protection detail outfit, but as a method of counterfeit cash suppression.
It is the Secret Service who is called upon whenever counterfeit money turns up. And, if you’re following the news, counterfeit money turns up quite often.
Topics: retail fraud, counterfeit money, counterfeit money detectors, fraud, counterfeit detector, counterfeit
It was only a decade ago that we lived in a 4G-less world – at an intersection of equal parts dial-up users and broadband users – that had just given birth to what would become the biggest online shopping day of the year: Cyber Monday. And now, in the year 2015 – a world in which almost two-thirds of Americans own smartphones – it only seems natural that the majority of people will do almost half of their holiday shopping online. To compare: in 2004, 38.3% of people purchased holiday items online, and last year - just 10 years later – that number rose to 56.0%.
Topics: retail fraud, credit card fraud, e-commerce, fraud, fraud liability shift, emv
Traditionally, the day after Halloween has been reserved for the Catholic observance of All Saints’ Day and, in Mexico, Día de los Muertos. But in the recent years, the day after Halloween has instead come to be known as the first (un)official day of Christmas decorations. Head to the mall the day after Halloween and you’ll be sure to already hear familiar songs about Santa Claus, angels, and snow playing over the speakers in all the department stores. And with the embellishments of Christmas decorations and ambiance comes the preparation for what the holidays are really about: presents.
Topics: retail fraud, Black Friday, fraud, christmas, holiday season, receipt fraud
Employees tasked with running cash registers and point of sale (POS) systems are a store’s first defense against check and currency fraud. Training point of sale employees to detect fraudulent identity documents, counterfeit money, and other problematic materials is an essential part of bolstering a company’s resistance to loss and theft. However, even the best training programs cannot take the place of specially designed fraud resistance equipment. Items like counter-mounted ultraviolet lights provide valuable support in loss prevention and company security.
Topics: fraud protection tips, retail fraud, counterfeit money, fake money, counterfeit fraud, counterfeit detection, fraud prevention protection, counterfeit fraud prevention, counterfeit money detectors, fraud prevention
Does your business handle in-store credit applications? Are you verifying the identifications of the applicants when they apply for loans? How are you verifying credit applicants’ identification? These are all valid questions you should be asking yourself if your business issues store credit on a consistent basis.
Recently we were approached by a customer, who was in need of a solution for verifying the identifications of their loan applicants.
Topics: identity theft, retail fraud, ID Verification, counterfeit fraud prevention
According to a recent survey of major U.S. retailers, conducted by the National Retail Federation, retail return fraud is estimated to be about $2.9 Billion this Christmas shopping season. That's Billion with a capital "B".
Topics: retail fraud
Money counting is a matter of time and accuracy. Either you save time with the CountEasy(tm) Scale - and therefore save money - or you spend an inordinate amount of time hand counting the cash registers at the end of the day and therefore lose money. When you consider the likelihood of necessary recounts, inaccuracies, mistakes and theft that occur when counting by hand instead of using money counting machines to end your store's operation for the day, the opportunity to save money becomes magnified even greater.
Consider your business. If you have several cash registers to close-out every shift, the process requires a cashier or office worker to hand count the money. Each drawer can take up to fifteen minutes to count down. Multiply that by 4 registers and you've spent an hour counting down the drawers. If you have more tills to count the time increases to the point where a fair part of the day is wasted counting the money. Using a CountEasy(tm) scale would reduce that time to as little as ten minutes to count all four drawers. The employee time saved can be put to better use like interfacing with customers or tending to the shop.
Take a look at the following example of an average store with only 2 registers to set up and count down.
Topics: retail fraud, money counting
