Cash loss to inventory loss- Employee Theft

Sometimes discovering employee theft is about looking past the obvious problem and seeing what the real method of theft is about. Cash losses are often covered up by inventory losses based on the method of theft discovered in an employee theft investigation.

If a cashier is stealing by means of refund fraud, they will be driving your inventory shrink losses up, while they are benefiting monetarily from it, not benefiting by directly stealing merchandise.

Here’s how it works: an employee who has access to conduct refunds selects items of merchandise for a fraudulent refund. The merchandise might be an item that is in the area because a customer refunded it earlier in the day. We have also seen employees write down item numbers from merchandise that they want to refund for a specific reason.

Maybe they know the item is below a certain dollar amount that won’t be researched. Perhaps it is an item that is shoplifted frequently, so the employee thinks any losses they create will be lumped in with the rest of the shoplifting losses.

However they pick the items to refund, the next step is the same. They will refund the item, forge any signatures that are required, and take the money that was refunded. It could be cash or a store credit, or even a refund back to his or her own credit card- depending upon what the POS system will allow them to do.

Because the refund is processed through the POS, there will not be a drawer shortage to alert you to the fraud. Instead, you will see inventory losses as a direct result of the refund.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.