Georgia Alarms systems

Retail Burglary and Robbery – How To Train Employees To Prevent, React and Recove

September 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

As a Loss Prevention Manager for nearly 14 years, I was involved with training employees on robbery response. It is an unfortunate fact that store robberies do happen and it can be difficult to prevent them. We can do little to influence the choice of someone who wants to commit the crime other than to make a business an uninviting target. Public View monitors and signage indicating closed circuit television is in use can be deterrents to robbery; however a determined criminal may still choose to try to commit the crime. It is our responsibility to prepare employees on steps they can take to prevent a robbery and how to react and recover should a robbery take place.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/browse-by/national-data

It is important that employees are taught:

To make eye contact with and greet customers. Criminals don’t want undo attention.
If robbed, don’t panic. It is easier said than done but, panic makes it more difficult to comply with the robber’s demands and can make him/her more nervous.
Do whatever the robber demands. Give them what they want and get them out of the store.
During the event, pay attention to as many details as possible about the robber; what were they wearing? How tall are they? What color is their hair? Did they have an accent? Could you tell an approximate age of the subject?
If possible, watch the direction of travel when the robber leaves the store. Did they go to the right or left? Was there a vehicle waiting for them? NEVER try to follow the robber outside. Whatever you see should be done from inside the store.
Don’t touch ANYTHING once the robber leaves. This includes the cash register, the checkout counter, doors and anything else the robber may have touched.

There are also tips for managers and supervisors following a robbery:

Call 911 and report the robbery and provide any information they ask. Stay calm. The dispatcher will have specific questions to ask and needs clear responses.
If you have a supervisor or supervisors to assist, ask witnesses to stay to speak to the police and separate them from other people and each other. Information sharing tends to change a person’s perception of events. If possible, provide pens and paper and ask them to write down their recollection of events.
The building is now a crime scene and needs to be secure. If you have rope, chairs, wet floor signs, use them to block off areas where the robber was believed to have been. Locking doors is discouraged since customers may want to leave. You also don’t want to touch areas on the door where the suspect may have touched. Prop a door open, pushing it from the bottom of the door (an unlikely place for a suspect to touch) and use it for entry and exit. Have someone stay at the door to turn away new customers and ensure no one touches the doors. This person will also direct police to a manager when they arrive.
You can’t force people to stay, but you can ask them to stay to talk to police. If they are reluctant, ask if they will leave their name and contact information for police follow-up.
Be prepared and have a counseling service number in your emergency contacts. Employees and customers may experience trauma and need to talk to a professional who can help them recover from the event.
If you have video recording in your store, let the recorders run. Do not try to stop them or playback and review until the police ask for access to the recordings. Usually a Crime Scene Investigator will have the ability to retrieve the videos stored on a recorder or computer. If they need your assistance they will ask for it.

Recovery and getting back to “Business as Usual” is the final step. It is important to restore a sense of normalcy as soon as possible. Owners and managers must be sensitive to the needs of their employees. Everyone will have a different reaction to a traumatic situation. Be patient and allow for people to take some time off if necessary. There will be those employees who are ready to get back to work. For them it is their way of handling stress, so let them work. You may also have employees who were not working so they will not be affected in the same way as those who were present at the time. Rely on them to get the store back in business.

Have a robbery plan and review it regularly with employees. Being prepared will help you get through a crisis and back on your feet quickly.

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3 No-brainer Ways to Decrease Theft

September 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

If you work in retail then you know theft is a big problem. The theft of supplies, merchandise, time and money are just a few of the things managers have to deal with daily. They have to address it on many fronts (i.e., impulse and professional shoplifters, employees and their friends and families, vendors).

Unfortunately, these concerns aren’t going to go away. At this time, no one has a solution for stopping all forms of stealing. You can’t change human nature and some people are just going to be dishonest. That’s the bad news.

However, there’s some good news too. While you can’t completely stop it, there are ways you can prevent or minimize a lot of your loss due to theft. Loss – caused both externally and internally — can be decreased by making a few operational changes.

Here are 3 operational areas where you can make some headway in your on-going struggle against theft. If they seem like they’re “just common sense” you’re right, they are. But, there are a lot of managers and organizations out there who don’t do them — you probably know some.

Put the right person in the right job. We all do some things better than others; everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Putting people in positions they’re not trained to do or aren’t capable of doing affects the way they’re able to perform their job. Sink or swim is a destructive way to manage and it rarely works.

If a person is good with organization think about making them responsible for keeping a tight rein on your high-risk inventory. How about putting the out-going person in charge of greeting, engaging and monitoring customers on the floor?

Everyone is accountable for their job duties. Lack of accountability is one the biggest complaints people have with their jobs. Consequences for poor performance and behavior are some of the most effective deterrents to theft. Honest, responsible, motivated employees want to work in fair and equitable workplaces.

Prioritize effective communication. This is a simple, smart fix. Yet, most companies struggle with it. Billions of dollars have disappeared in a pocket or walked out a door because somebody didn’t: pass on important information, talk over a problem, speak up with a concern, get enough training, get the memo or listen well enough.

There are other operational ways to decrease internal and external theft. But, these 3 are a good place to start. If they are done well and consistently they might be all you need. If not, they’ll give you a good base on which to build further.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 200 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Workshop, mobile POS loss prevention, Periodic inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Tips To Stop Shoplifting In Your Store

August 23, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Some of the advice security and loss prevention personnel give to retailers and small businesses is that greeting a customer and asking if they need help, are some of the easiest and cheapest methods to prevent shoplifting in their stores. Having a clean, well lit store is helpful and can help employees keep track of customers entering and leaving the premises. If your store is dealing with shoplifting cases in a regular basis, invest in having security cameras installed, anti-theft tags on the merchandise, or anti-theft devices at the entrances. Preventing shoplifting is a necessity that most retailers have to take seriously, and take adequate measures to mitigate their loses.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

Juneau police give retailers tips on stopping shoplifters

“Greet your customer.”

That’s the most important piece of advice Juneau police Officer Ken Colon wanted his audience to remember at the end of his presentation on Friday. He was meeting with nearly 20 people in the backroom of Alaskan Dames, a consignment shop in the Mendenhall Valley.

“Shoplifters, they do not like being greeted. It hinders their ability, it takes away the opportunity and it reduces the desire to commit the crime,” Colon said.

Juneau police have reported burglary and theft rates significantly higher last year than in previous years, and they’re stepping up efforts to help residents discourage thieves before a crime is committed.

Colon has been on the Juneau police force for almost 11 years. He’s experienced the increase in property crime firsthand. He said when he responds to a theft, he looks for holes in the victim’s security so he can explain ways they can prevent the same thing from happening again. Now he’s taking the next step.

Theft is erasing some of self-checkout’s benefits

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A study of self-checkout kiosks in Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US found that self-service checkout technology likely increases shoplifting, according to The New York Times.

The study, which was conducted by the University of Leicester, audited one million shopping trips between December 2013 and February 2015 in detail, and found that out of 6 million items, 850,000 were not scanned. That represents a loss of 4% of total purchase value.

Some of self-checkout’s benefits could be reversed because of the increase in petty theft they might cause.

Retailers may turn to self-checkout because they want to save labor costs and boost sales. By substituting self-checkout for regular checkout lanes, stores hope to limit staff they need working and save on personnel expenses, though this isn’t always the case. These kiosks can also allow for easier implementation of loyalty programs and give stores access to consumer data. These devices can also increase average ticket size — at Cinemark movie theaters, self-checkout helped drive 32 consecutive quarters of increases in per-person concession orders, according to Kiosk Marketplace. That might be because without direct human interaction, consumers are more likely to purchase items that are hard to pronounce or that they’re embarrassed about, according to data from Kiosk Marketplace and the Harvard Business Review.

Springfield Police, Wal-Mart Cooperate In Attempt To Reduce Theft At Stores

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Police departments across the country are getting a little annoyed about how often they have to respond to calls at Wal-Mart.

According to an analysis by Bloomberg, a violent crime has taken place on a Wal-Mart property in the U.S. almost every day this year.

In 2013, Springfield Police responded to more than 900 shoplifting incidents at the city’s supercenters.

That accounted for about two-thirds of all shoplifting calls that year, and prompted police to ask the world’s largest retailer to take action.

After taking a closer look at where property crime occurs in Springfield, Major Kirk Manlove decided police needed a rollback on time spent at Wal-Mart.

“We’ve recognized since 2013 that the 5 Wal-Mart Supercenters were taking an enormous toll on police services,” Manlove said.

In 2013, Manlove sat down with corporate reps and asked them to do more to either prevent shoplifting, or catch thieves on their way out the door.

For about a year, he did not get the response he was looking for.

“It’s a huge corporation, no secret there and so to get decisions made down at the asset protection level is probably difficult, and budget driven,” Manlove said.

Manlove now meets with Wal-Mart quarterly, and feels the company is trying to address the concerns of local law enforcement.

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Sometimes We Simply Do Not See The Obvious

August 3, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Sometimes we simply do not see the obvious even when it is right in front of us. For many years we have worked really hard to hide or disguise Checkpoint Labels. The thought being that the shoplifter will not be able to locate and possibly defeat the label.

But new studies show that although that is still a great strategy, you should also look at the opposite. Putting a clearly identified label in plain sight with a warning on it.

Here is a good example using one of the newer clear, Checkpoint Systems stock labels. The trademarked “lock” and wording has been tested extensively.

Rather than bore you with all the details of the study, I will simply tell you that it works and works well. Visible tagging can increase sales and reduce loss. The last study found:

As many of you know I, Bill Bregar have been in the loss prevention field most of my career. So now putting that hat on let’s look at this from another view. We know that shoplifters are broken into three distinct groups; Impulse, Amateur and Professional.

The bulk of shoplifters you encounter are Impulse. I teach this in my shoplifting classes, which by the way I conduct live, in person or by webinar and are FREE of charge to Loss Prevention Systems customers. I always explain that Impulse shoplifters are easily deterred with employee contact. In other words if you greet the Impulse shoplifter with eye contact, a simple hello and “can I help you”, many studies show that the Impulse shoplifter will most likely NOT shoplift during that visit.

Well if we now apply the thought of a Checkpoint Systems visual deterrence label it makes sense. Given the same circumstances where the Impulse shoplifter has not been greeted but is faced with a visual deterrence label it casts enough doubt into their minds that they do not steal.

Well if that is the case then why doesn’t a sign like this work?

Besides being funny to us I have learned that signs do very little. Probably because of sign “pollution”. They either don’t see it or it is really not a threat. But a specific label on the merchandise they are considering stealing, casts doubt. They do not know what other element may be protecting that merchandise.

Something to consider! If you would like some samples of these labels just reach out to us. We will get them in the mail to you at no charge.

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HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP BUILD SUBSTANTIAL SHOPLIFTING CASES

August 2, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Facebook and other social media sites can be a proverbial gold-mine of information; especially if you are dealing with a rather stupid criminal. In my job, I see and interview dozens and dozens of “professional” shoplifters every month. My job is to get as much Intel as possible from them and make bigger cases. Often, that means working very closely with local and state law enforcement officials and even other retailers. No other time have I had such a prolific criminal than with “Jane”.

I first met Jane at my home store (I am responsible for 30). My agent apprehended Jane and several of her cohorts after they attempted leaving the store with several hundred dollars’ worth of clothing concealed on them. After they left for jail, I started my research. Facebook has become my first stop. 10 seconds later I find her page. Completely open to the public. First thing I see is this:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. As a seasoned investigator, Just looking at this told me it was stolen. Based on some other photos, I knew this came from one of my stores. Since Jane was nice enough to keep her profile public and include a time, date and location stamp on those pictures, I started my research. Within an hour, I found corresponding CCTV footage of her entering another one of my store locations. Sure as heck, I had video of her stealing everything in this picture. I started scrolling from there. I found that she was also returning stolen goods for gift cards. She posted some shots of a few from my stores. In the comment section (which generates a lot of activity) she was kind enough to take a photo of the rear of the card. I suspended the funds ☺

With all this great information, I decided to compile it all and share it with law enforcement and my LP contacts throughout the state. I was able to make some significant cases on this very prolific shoplifter from some simple research on a social media page. In fact, the evidence was enough to cut several warrants for her arrest, which caught up to her relatively quick in a place, far, far from her home. ☺

To me, what’s even more ridiculous is reading the comments on her “items”. It would seem as though everyone on her “friends list” is well aware of how she is obtaining the merchandise and are even encouraging the actions. These are the types of people that hurt big box retailers and that can put small shops out of business. These are the shoplifters we need to focus on and the ones that the criminal justice system need to come down hard on. The only thing that will stop Jane from stealing is being behind bars. This is her full time job.

Jane is not alone. Across the country and in every city, there are shoplifters that are targeting your stores that do this for a living. They steal full time instead of getting a job. As Loss Prevention professionals, these are the cases that deserve prosecution to the fullest extent allowed by law.

So the next time you’re dealing with a shoplifter, take the extra step and see what you can’t uncover from their online footprint. You may be surprised at what you find!

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Localize Your Loss Prevention Efforts

August 2, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

“Think globally, act locally” is a saying associated with the Green Movement. It encourages people to be aware of the environmental needs of the whole planet, while taking positive action in their own communities to promote its health. Over the years the idea, and the phrase, has been co-opted to discuss other issues.

One of these other issues is the problem of loss prevention. It’s a national problem that can only be solved on a local level. It’s becoming clearer to law enforcement and loss prevention specialists that while broad, generalized recommendations have validity, they’re only the place to start. True prevention success depends on how they’re applied on a city by city, store by store basis.

Here are some things to think about when assessing the needs of your particular store and its loss prevention requirements.

High-risk goods – What are they? Where are they displayed vs where they should be for tighter security? Who should be responsible for monitoring them and how should they be tracked? What are their margins and what’s the ROI (return on investment) to protect them?

Thief profile – Who’s stealing from you? How much of your problem is internal (employees) vs external (shoplifters)? Does your merchandise attract petty thieves or professional ones, and how should you deal with the different types?

Risk tolerance – How much risk can you tolerate financially, systemically and personally? Where are you comfortable putting your efforts and money (i.e., guards, staff training and hiring practices, technology/equipment, aggressive prosecution)?

Community resources – How involved and interested is your local police department in the problem? What help and resources do they provide? What community resources can you draw on (Chamber of Commerce, merchant organizations, neighborhood block watch, Better Business Bureau)?

Store layout – Do you know your store’s blind spots? How can they be covered? Do goods disappear from one area more than another? When was the last time you really evaluated the lay out for security holes? Do you need someone with fresh eyes to look it over?

There are a lot of good loss prevention ideas and recommendations available. But, they’ll work better if you adapt them to the specific needs of the store, its customer base and merchandise. They’ll also be more effective if you combine them with the community’s resources, where your combined local efforts just might impact the global good.

LP Personnel And Safety

July 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The billions of dollars the retail industry loses every year due to shoplifting and employee theft have not decreased, but rather will likely continue to increase every year. Deaths due to shoplifting are not rare anymore. News about managers and employees getting shot while trying to stop a shoplifter is commonplace now. Training your LP staff to follow strict regulations when approaching a shoplifter should be a top priority for your business.

Read more about this topic by following the links below.

To stop a thief: Shoplifting is a daily battle for retailers

On any given day, more than $35 million worth of merchandise is stolen from retail stores across the country by shoplifters – amateurs and professionals alike – who steal clothing, jewelry, electronics and a host of other items, including food.

Some sneak quickly and quietly with the merchandise, others make bold getaway attempts.

In Tupelo, the retail and financial hub of Northeast Mississippi, the Tupelo Police Department gets hundreds of reports each year.

In 2014, TPD took 483 reports related to shoplifting, according to TPD Public Information Officer Chuck McDougald. Last year, that number fell to 260. So far this year, the department has taken 162 calls.

“Higher shopping volume days correspond to more shoplifting calls,” he said. “Those include weekends and holidays.”

As for the timing of when shoplifters are busiest, apparently they’re not early risers.

RETAIL INVENTORY SHRINKAGE INCREASED TO $45.2 BILLION IN 2015

The 2016 National Retail Security Survey, conducted in collaboration by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida, reveals that retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by $1.2 billion from 2014.

According to the report, 47 percent of retailers surveyed reported increases in overall inventory shrink in 2015, with shoplifting accounting for the greatest cause with an average loss of $377 per incident (39 percent), up nearly $60 from 2014.

Robberies continue to be a growing expense for retailers, costing an average of $8,180.17, up from $2,465. The rise in robberies in 2015 was driven by an increase in jewelry stores reporting extremely high average losses.

“With a constantly evolving retail landscape, loss prevention becomes more complex every day,” said NRF Vice President of Loss Prevention Bob Moraca. “LP professionals have been working diligently to find advancements in technology aimed at deterring crime in our industry, sometimes even before it happens – but as our techniques get more sophisticated, so too do the criminals.”

Shoplifting: Retail’s $45 Billion Problem

Retailers are struggling to keep tabs on shoplifters who are increasingly becoming their top source of loss, averaging $377 per incidence, up $60 from the year before.

At 39 percent, shoplifting was found to be the biggest contributor among factors that led to overall inventory shrinkage in 2015 causing a $45.2 billion loss across the United States, according to NRF’s 2016 National Retail Security survey. The new numbers reflect a $1.2 billion increase in losses from 2014.

The inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales and saw 47 percent of retailers reporting losses in 2015.

Another factor adding to inventory shrinkage was a rise in robberies that exclusively targeted jewelry stores. The average loss reported by robbed stores increased from $2,465 per incidence in 2014 to $8,180.17 last year.

“Loss prevention professionals continue to do an exceptional job at locating the issues and finding solutions to prevent additional loss in their retail stores,” said Dr. Richard Hollinger, University of Florida criminology professor and lead author of the NRSS. “It is important for retailers to continue building relationships with law enforcement and leverage new technologies that can further provide protection to their assets, customers and employees.”

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What Shoplifting Costs The Taxpayer

July 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The financial damage shoplifting does to the retail industry is measured in billions of dollars every year. For the tax payer, the financial burden that they have to endure due to the constant calls made by retailers to the police due to shoplifting is equally damaging. Walmart is one of the retailers with the most call to the police due to shoplifting incidents, and it is unlikely things will get any better.

For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Macy’s barred from detaining, fining New York shoplifting suspects

An injunction was granted this week barring Macy’s stores in New York from detaining and fining suspected shoplifters in response to a class action lawsuit, according to court records from the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

The lawsuit filed by Cinthia Orellana and later joined by Samya Moftah claims the loss prevention units in some Macy’s stores in New York operate “like a typical jail, equipped with holding cells.”

The women claim they were detained, coerced into signing confessions and forced to pay to be released, all before law enforcement involvement, according to court documents.

Officials for Macy’s, headquartered in Cincinnati, have told multiple media outlets that its loss prevention practices have changed since the women’s alleged incidents.

Judge Manuel Mendez stated that New York law allows a business to detain suspected shoplifters for the purposes of investigation and questioning and allows businesses to fine shoplifters five times of the cost of the merchandise up to $500.

However, Mendez suggested Macy’s was pairing the laws unfairly.

Cop Quietly Pays For Family’s Essentials After Shoplifting Bust

A kindhearted cop in Redmond, Washington, came to the rescue of a family after the mother and father were allegedly caught trying to shoplift essential items for their children.

The Redmond Police Department officer stepped in after managers at a Target store decided not to press charges against the couple, reports local station KING.

He quietly took the diapers and clothing, which the parents were accused of trying to steal for their two kids, aged 8 years and 4 months, back to the checkout.

After paying for the items from his own pocket, he handed them back to the family and informed them where they could go to obtain more help.

News of his act of kindness emerged after an eagle-eyed police supervisor spotted the details in a shoplifting report. The department posted an excerpt from the account on Twitter.

“Sometimes our officers don’t tell us everything,” the post stated. “An attentive supervisor spied this in a recent shoplifting report.” It is now going viral.

Crimes at Jacksonville’s big box stores last year cost taxpayers $75K

Most calls at Walmart deal with shoplifting.

ACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police officers in Jacksonville spent 3,533 hours — the equivalent of 147 days – responding to petty crimes at Walmart stores in Jacksonville last year, I-TEAM research found.

Officers spent another 667 hours working shoplifting and other minor calls at Target stores in the city.

An analysis of data from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office found 5,298 police calls to the 15 Walmart stores in Jacksonville in 2015 – five times the number of calls to the eight Target stores in the city.

The Walmart on Normandy Boulevard had the most calls: 864. Shoplifting made up half of those calls, followed by thefts, then disputes.

The Walmart store at 103rd Street came in second and had 668 police calls for service last year, with the a similar breakdown of offenses.

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HOW SHOPLIFTERS CAN DECREASE THE VALUE OF YOUR BRAND

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’ve already read how shoplifters cost you money. It’s probably hard to digest the dire financial implications that shoplifters have on all of our businesses. Without adequate controls in place, you are putting your business and your financial well-being at risk, and honestly, you just can’t do that. That’s why we have to have a camera system and why EAS systems are a necessity and not just a “nice to have” technology. That’s exactly why we have to invest in exception reporting tools to help us identify criminal activity and why we preach the value of exceptional customer service in our stores.

Value. Your customers shop with you because you provide them with value. They could shop at 12 other stores and some of them might even be more competitively priced than you, but there’s something that draws them into your store. That’s the value of your brand. Retailers have a following just like any band, performer or Hollywood movie start. Believe it or not, you have fans, some of which will refuse to shop anywhere else. Ever stop to think what it is about your store that causes this? There could be several reasons, really. In my personal experience (I have a few stores that I exclusively shop at for different needs). All have a few things in common.

In stock position is number one on my list. If I am going shopping, I normally know exactly what I want. I don’t spend a lot of time browsing and normally don’t need a whole lot of help from a store employee. I simply expect that the item I want be available for me to grab and go. Having available inventory for your customer is key component to your success.

If you’re constantly targeted by shoplifters and dishonest employees, those in demand items may not always be available for your legitimate customers. How many times have you walked a customer out the door because you didn’t have the thing they were looking for, even though you do stock that particular item? More times than you care to admit, I’m sure. So not only did you lose the item to theft, you’ve lost the sale to the customer as well. If that happens enough times to enough customers, you’ll be known as the retailer that “never has what I need in stock”.

Customer engagement is another factor I consider. I don’t often ask for help, but when I do. I expect an employee to be readily accessible, close by, knowledgeable and friendly. I also want to know that the employee is aware that I am in their area and available to help should I need it. This makes me feel that my business is wanted and appreciated.

Shoplifters will target stores that they know they can operate in with impunity. Those are the stores where employees ignore customers (you know the stores I’m talking about here). If a thief knows you are not paying attention, they will rob you blind and then come back for seconds. Customer service is one of the best methods to deter a criminal.

As a retailer, you have to offer value to your customers. You definitely can’t do that if your employees don’t engage your shopper, you don’t have the item in stock and your prices are out in left field compared with your competitor. Setting yourself apart from the competition is what drives business into your store and will keep you in business. As retailers and small business owners, remember that your brand carries value. Whether it’s a positive or negative value rest solely on your shoulders and has a direct effect on how your approach shrink and external theft.

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EXACTLY HOW DO YOU LOSE MONEY TO CREDIT CARD FRAUD

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

You have (or I hope you have) read the last article on preventing check fraud. It’s a great way to protect your business from a different avenue of fraud. Another, much more popular and prevalent scheme is credit card fraud. The United States lags far behind the other major countries in the fight against credit card fraud. We’ve only just begun adopting chip and pin technology and it will be several more years before we see magnetic strips become a relic of the past. So exactly how can you identify and prevent a fraudulent change from happening in your store and how exactly do you lose money on these transactions?

Credit card fraud is the one of the biggest, single fraud scheme affect my stores. While the criminals evolve their tactics quite often, there are some general rules you can follow to identify possible fraudulent transactions.

Large Dollar Gift Card Purchases| Normally, a legitimate customer will not purchase 3 $500 in back-to-back transactions with 8 different credit cards. This is a red flag and should involve management immediately.
Multiple Transactions with Multiple Credit Cards| This is another red flag that could help you identify criminal activity. The average American owns about 3 credit cards. If you have an individual using 5-8 credit cards to make several big ticket purchases, then you’re probably dealing with some fraud.
The Credit Card Lacks the Eagle Hologram|Holograms are hard to fake (although I’ve seen some really good ones). Often, the counterfeiters will skip over this step, so I always look for the eagle.
Typos| Since a lot of counterfeit cards come from manufacturers overseas, every now and then, you can spot a typo on the bank’s name, or even the credit card company (I’ve personally seen “MasterCard” about a dozen times.)
Verify ID on all purchases over $X. Now this one is tricky. About 3 years ago, this was an easy, sure fire way to spot a fraudster, as the ID and the card name would not match. Over the past 18 months, we have seen these groups become highly sophisticated in this area. They will now very often, imprint the actual name of the criminal on the card. They also imprint the card with an account number that is not the account number that is embedded in the magnetic strip, which makes identifying the card as fake at the point of sale almost impossible.

So now you have a few best practices to use in your fight against credit card theft, but you may still be asking yourself, “Why should I care? Then bank covers the loss to the customer anyway.” While that statement is absolutely true, the banks will then issue a “charge-back” to the retailer that accepted the fraudulent purchase. This means you can be out thousands upon thousands of dollars if you’re not proactive in your approach to identify and prevent fraudulent credit card purchases in your store.

Essentially, what that means is the criminal impacts two people; the customer that is a victim of identity theft and the retailer that must then cover the cost of the transaction. For a large corporation, it may not be a big deal to dole out tens of thousands of dollars per month in chargebacks, but to a small business owner, even a few hundred could make the difference between being in the red, or black.

My best advice to you is that you follow the guidelines above and update your POS systems to accept the new chip and pin technology. Hopefully, in the coming years as the old tech is phased out and the more secure chip technology takes over, brick and mortar credit card fraud will be a distant memory. (Online fraud, however will take center stage… but I’ll save that for next time.)