Shoplifting and Employee Theft Report

June 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Shoplifting is a crime.  Policymakers, local law enforcement, private retail security, and consumers know that.  Stores acrshoplifting2oss the nation display signs warning the would be shoplifters of the intent to prosecute them if they shoplift. Shoplifting and employee theft cost retailers billions of dollars every year, but the problem persists, and in some communities shoplifting incidents have increased.  So, what can you as a retailer or small business owner do about it?  Is more security the answer? Are more security systems in place the answer? A better trained management team in your store the solution?  Retailers and local law enforcements have team up in states to combat this crime, but  shoplifting and employee theft are problems that retailers will be facing for many more years.

27th Annual Retail Theft Survey Reports Over 1.2 Million Shoplifters and Dishonest Employees are Apprehended by Just 25 Large U.S. retailers in 2014

Wesley Chapel, FL – Over 1.2 million shoplifters and dishonest employees were apprehended in 2014 by just 25 large retailers who recovered over $225 million from these thieves, according to the 27th Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by Jack L. Hayes International, the leading loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm.

“Something has to change, as we continue to report increases in apprehensions and recovery dollars year after year. In 2014, the number of apprehensions and recovery dollars were up again for both shoplifters and dishonest employees. Shoplifting apprehensions rose 7.4%, while dishonest employee apprehensions rose 1.7%. The dollars recovered from apprehended shoplifters and dishonest employees also rose, 7.5% and 18.1% respectively”, said Mark R. Doyle, President of Jack L. Hayes International. “These increases, follow similar increases reported the previous three years!” Mr. Doyle added, “I believe the solution starts with education. Educating the public as to the severity of the theft problem and how it negatively effects them on a daily basis. Educating our elected officials as to the negative impact theft plays on our communities and economy. Also, we need to do a better job educating our school aged children to the consequences of theft and the seriousness of the problem.”

6 Top Items Stolen From Stores

At this point in time, we can all pretty much agree that stealing is wrong. We’ve all witnessed the random teenager swiping a candy bar from the local corner store, or perhaps even been a victim of theft on a grander scale. Theft is all around us even though the act has been vilified throughout history in the Code of Hammurabi, the Ten Commandments, and today, in modern laws.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and in a turbulent economy, marred by long-term unemployment, drastic upticks in the cost of living, and levels of inequality not before seen in modern America, it’s only expected that some people will resort to theft to get what they want. As unfortunate as it is, people stealing out of desperation, or straight malice or selfishness, costs business owners billions annually. According to one study conducted by Centre College professor David Andersen in 1999, the total aggregate of theft costs the economy more than $1.7 trillion every year. That number has likely gone way up over the past 15 years, giventhe rise of cyber crime.

Local retailers join to combat shoplifting

A recent shoplifting case at Walmart in Sahuarita pointed to possible connections to organized criminal activity that local authorities are now taking steps to combat.

The case involves a man and woman from Sonora, Mexico, suspected of stealing cartfuls of merchandise including boxes of diapers. The woman said they planned to sell them south of the border, according to a Sahuarita police report.

Cases like this are known as organized retail crime, or ORC, and nationwide it’s a $30 billion problem, said Pat Marshall of Walgreens. She was among five representatives from three retailers in Sahuarita and Green Valley attending a meeting Wednesday with Sahuarita police and a Pima County Sheriff’s detective.

They’re part of a new arm of the Arizona Organized Retail Crime Alliance (AzORCA).

Items most stolen
According to the National Retail Federation, these are the items most often stolen: Cigarettes, energy drinks,, high-end liquor, infant formula, allergy medicine, diabetic test strips, pain relievers, weight loss pills, high-end vacuums and other appliances, children’s electronic toys, laundry detergent, jeans, designer clothing and handbags, GPS devices, laptops/tablets, cameras/recorders, cell phones, teeth whitening strips, pregnancy tests and razors.
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Warning Signals Of Employee Theft

May 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

theft (2)As Business Owners we are “hit” with something that we did not or could not see coming. A piece of equipment breaks, a key employee is in an accident and gone for an extended period of time, etc.  Many times this also applies to employee theft: We simply did not see it coming.

However, there is a difference with employee theft and the first two examples. Employee theft is usually preceded by warning signals. Many Business Owners and Managers simply do not know what they are or do not see the forest for the trees.

When you look at this list, keep something in mind. One of these things, all by themselves probably mean nothing but in my 35 years of dealing personally with 2300+ employee theft investigations, I have found that most of the time two or more of these factors are present in enough time that a responsible party should have seen the warning signals. 

Personal behavior is the key area to watch:

1.Double talk or inconsistencies by an employee who is explaining discrepancies or “errors”.

2.Borrowing, particularly from loan sharks, but also habitual borrowing of any kind.

3.Symptoms of a drug user.

4.Admission of theft from prior employer.

5.Violent temper or other unpleasant behavior, which tends to discourage people from asking questions.

6.Expensive habits such as heavy drinking, drugs, extra-marital affairs.

7.Having more money or spending more than earnings could support:

–  Flashes big roll of money

–  Buys expensive items–jewelry, car, house, boat

–  Has expensive hobby

–  Always picks up check at restaurant

–  Dresses expensively

8.Disgruntled, dislikes boss or company and complains about being underpaid or overworked.

9.Heavy gambling on horses, cards, numbers, sports, etc.

10.Abnormal fear of, or antagonism toward, security or management personnel.

11.Possession of knife, gun or other weapon.

12.Terrorization of one employee by another.

13.Advocating violence as a way to resolve routine problems.

14.Never takes time off or vacation, comes in during vacation or day off.

15.Concealed family relationships among associates.

16.Chronic employee conversations that cease when management approaches.

17.Employees who never make purchases.

18.Employees who are “wary” of members of management.

19.Constant complainers.

Too often, signals pointing to internal theft, even when noticed, are mistakenly ascribed to chance, error, coincidence, or some other benign circumstance…and the signals are ignored.

Remember, a thief, like a magician, depends on you misinterpreting the obvious…or on his or her ability to confuse you.  Don’t be deceived, distracted or misled.

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Take a Bite out of Shoplifting – Literally

May 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

shoplifting5Shoplifters are great. Well, not great for business, but great for laughs sometimes. Most of the times, shoplifting incidents are pretty serious business. You’re confronting someone who has just committed a crime. You don’t know their state of mind and you definitely don’t know what they are capable of. I’ve personally been pepper sprayed by a shoplifter as they tried to escape, along with seeing countless managers suffer the same fate. Often suspects immediately want to become physical and more simply will flee the store. Every now and then karma and a little luck is on your side.

I was training a new LP agent last summer in a very active market. It was day four of our training and she had already thrown a half dozen folks in jail. So far, no problems, this particular agent was an attractive young female who didn’t take lip from ANYONE! It was amazing how many shoplifters hit on her… but we’ll save those stories for another time. The clock was ticking away and it was just about time to call it a night when one of our frequent flyers entered the store. I had busted this guy on no less than three previous thefts and he was definitely a runner. I had my new agent begin observation while I contacted the police. At the very least, I was going to charge him with trespassing. 

About 15 minutes goes by and like always, the shoplifter starts loading his pants up with electronics. About this time, the police were arriving, so I went outside to inform them of the situation and wait for the thief and my agent to exit the store. Well, she didn’t disappoint. Our thief exits, but completely ignores the agent and takes off running. The next thing I know he’s gone. He’s hiding around the vehicles in the parking lot, but we can’t seem to find him. The officer gets on his loudspeaker and announces that he’s going to let the K-9 unit loose if he doesn’t turn himself in. No answer. 

Standing a full 3.5 feet tall and weighing in at about 120 pounds, K-9 Officer Scout is ready for action. This is a game for the pooch and I can tell he’s ready to play. Within seconds of jumping out of the patrol car, he and his handler are on the scent. Like a scene from a movie, out of nowhere, the shoplifter emerges. Only… he doesn’t surrender. In true idiot fashion, he starts sprinting across the parking lot. I don’t care how fast you think you are; you will never outrun a German shepherd whose sole purpose in life is to take you down. And take him down he did. When the handler finally reached the scene the shoplifter had a knife he was trying to stab the K-9 officer with. Not only did this shoplifter go to jail with some pretty serious bite wounds, he also got to feel what 100,000 volts of electricity from a Taser felt like. 

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Shoplifting and the Law

May 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment

theft (3)

Some have called shoplifting the silent crime that is plaguing the US. Shoplifting for some people is considered their full time job, and retail organized crime is abundant in this country.  Shoplifting affects small business owners tremendously and  the retail industry as a whole lose millions of dollars yearly passing the loss to the consumer and therefore affecting you financially.

Shoplifting is a serious crime ,and some states are taking strong measures to make sure the penalties applied to the shoplifter are harsh. To read more follow the links below.

Retail merchants fear theft bill will increase crime

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –

Retail Merchants of Hawaii president Sheri Sakamoto said a bill to raise the threshold for felony theft from $300 to $750 will encourage shoplifters to steal more.

“It will really affect retailers specifically. They now can steal up to $749.99 and have less consequences to their crime,” she said

Rep. Karl Rhoads is chairman of the House Judiciary committee. He said the bill targets agricultural theft, and shoplifting is considered separate but prosecutors do have leeway. “Even if the Governor signs this bill it’s still a crime to steal amounts between $300 and $750, it’s just the penalty is not as high,” he said.

Theft is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Advocates for raising the dollar threshold say $300 is way too low, and it costs taxpayers about $49,000 a year to incarcerate an offender. “So when we’re talking about property crime that’s under $1,000 and we’re paying $134 a day, you’ve got to start looking at that and saying, That really doesn’t pencil out,” Community Alliance on Prisons advocate Kat Brady said.

Shoplifting gangs operating on ‘industrial scale’

PROSECUTORS have vowed to smash serious organised crime groups who are using “steal to order” shoplifting to fund their illegal activities.

The Crown Office said shoplifting was happening on an “industrial scale”, with some groups travelling from overseas to target Scottish retailers.

More than 200 people have now been identified as being involved in what prosecutors called “professional shoplifting”.

The details emerged as the Crown Office published figures showing £8.6 million has been seized in 2014/15 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca).
The money includes assets seized from the gangs, as well as from brothel keepers, money launderers, and drug dealers.

Solicitor General Lesley Thomson said specialist prosecutors had worked closely with a dedicated police inquiry team during the past year to dismantle shoplifting groups, who specialise in targeting expensive clothing and designer handbags.

Battling The $36 Billion U.S. Problem Of Retail Shrinkage Losses

The financial cost of retail shrinkage is huge. The latest Annual Shrink Report issued by Dr. Richard Hollinger and Dr. Read Hayes at the University of Florida puts the total at $36 billion annually.

Shrinkage has several causes: customers shoplifting , employee theft, supplier fraud and administrative errors.

Frequent inventories and accounting audits counts can catch administrative errors and supplier fraud. But stopping shrinkage caused by theft is a larger undertaking.

“There are two kinds of thieves,”says Keith Aubele, CPP, president and CEO of the Bentonville, Ark.-based Retail Loss Prevention Group. “First, there is the opportunistic non-pro. Second, there are professionals working in Organized Retail Crime Syndicates (ORCS) — vast organizations that buy stolen goods from professional thieves for pennies on the dollar and then repackage and resell the goods to mom-and-pop stores, back into the retail pipeline, internationally — through any of a number of markets for stolen goods.

“Employees are the front line of defense — as well as the most economical defense — against shrinkage losses.”

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Motive, Means and Opportunity = Occupational Fraud

May 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment

theft (8)Building a successful small business is a part of the American Dream for many people.  Every year millions of dollars, untold hours of sweat equity and unlimited hope are poured into starting and maintaining them.  Unfortunately, also every year, occupational fraud is responsible for closing about 30% of these businesses (U.S. Department of Commerce).

Fraud negatively affects smaller companies more than larger ones; they’re simply unable to absorb the loss.  Participants in the 2014 Global Fraud Study “Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse” estimated the average small business loses approximately 5% of revenue each year to fraud (The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners). 

5% in a small business can mean the difference between a profit or a loss. Therefore, controlling employee theft can be the difference between staying open or closing the doors.  It can also influence whether the owner is able to pay himself a living wage or not.  Given its potential for harmful impact it’s unfortunate that many owners are unprepared to fight fraud.

Most think it’ll never happen to them, not understanding that probably it’s already happened, is currently happening and/or will happen in the future.  Depending on the study 75% — 85% of employees admit that given the “right” circumstances they would or have committed fraud.  The right circumstances are usually a combination of motive, means and opportunity.

Motive is the rationalization the employee uses to steal time, money and property from the company.  Rationalizations are the reasons people create to justify their behavior and are as varied as the people who make them.  These self-deceptions provide the employee with an excuse to steal, even from an employer who they like.

But, motive is not enough for fraud.  A person also has to have the means — the ability, knowledge and access — to manipulate the system.  A bookkeeper can embezzle money because she knows how to “cook the books”.  Stock starts to go out the back door when the warehouse foreman creates an inventory method that only he understands or uses. 

Finally, an employee can be willing to steal and know how to do it, but the opportunity must be present.  An employee has her shoplifting friends come to the store when the easily distracted manager is working, not when the attentive one is.  A clerk learns the cash register camera is unreliable and pockets cash transactions on the days its offline.

Occupational fraud is a broad and all encompassing term, whether it involves petty theft or a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme.  Its cornerstones are motive, means and opportunity.  A smart and success business owner will learn its dynamics and use this knowledge to take steps to combat it.

Nicole Abbott is a writer and psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in the fields of mental health and addiction.  She’s an educator, consultant, lecturer, trainer and facilitator, who has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, college classes and seminars.

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What You Need To Know About Background Checks

April 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

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Many small businesses think twice about hiring a new employee, especially if that business is going through a rough time.  The actual cost of hiring a new employee is expensive, and not only because of the salary they will be paying.  Recruiting and training alone will be costly, not to mention the time spend for interviewing the possible candidates.  Hiring the right candidate can become quite an ordeal, but by doing background checks on an employee before hiring them can save you time and money in the long run.

 Class Action: Amazon Violates Federal Law With Employee Background Checks

 Amazon.com Inc. and a staffing company that aids the online retailer in its hiring are facing a class action lawsuit, alleging that they have violated federal law because they did not disclose the information found in a background check that was used to deny employment.

Plaintiff Gregory Williams claims in his class action lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Washington state federal court that Amazon and Staff Management Solutions, which is also called SMX, violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Williams claims that he applied for a job with Amazon as a “puller” at one of the online retailer’s distribution centers in November 2013. SMX helps Amazon with hiring at its fulfillment centers primarily in anticipation of seasonal hiring.

As part of the application process, Williams also filled out a form giving SMX the authority “to obtain his consumer report for employment purposes.” That form stated that if anything is found in the background check that could affect his employment that he would be given a copy as well as an explanation of his rights under the FCRA. It also stated that the information can be disputed if the applicant deems that it is inaccurate.

Georgia Background Checks: What you need to know

There are a number of ways for employers to gather information on the background of an applicant for employment. Employers may simply call an applicant’s former employer to confirm the applicant’s dates of employment and title and to try to obtain a more detailed reference from a supervisor. However, more and more frequently, employers are hiring third parties to conduct background checks on applicants who have been offered employment. In addition, depending on the nature of the position, employers are requesting reports about an applicant’s driving record, criminal record, and/or credit history. There are often legal limits on employers obtaining and using this type of information. When employers hire a third party to conduct a background check or obtain reports from outside agencies, such reports are subject to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state laws. In Georgia, employers must comply with laws concerning criminal background checks and driver’s record information.

Background Check Industry at a Crossroads: Raising Uptime Standards

Why does uptime matter?

In today’s lightning-paced business climate, companies and organizations in virtually every industry are paying more attention than ever to the speed, efficiency and dependability of the systems, software and other support tools that enable them to serve and retain customers and thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy. It’s an era of Google, Amazon and smartphone-enabled instant gratification, and we expect immediate answers to all of our questions and same-day shipment of every conceivable consumer product. And companies’ system availability, or uptime,makes this all possible.

Companies are also under heightened scrutiny from regulators, and from their own internal auditors, to meet stricter accounting and reporting guidelines, to prepare for every possible disaster scenario that could disrupt their business or their customers’ business, and to operate more efficiently in everything they do. Uptime is at the very core of all these concerns.

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How Are You Preventing Shoplifting?

April 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment

shoplifting5There is always so much debate about how to fight shoplifting in the retail industry.  There are loss prevention teams in all the major retail stores, and the management team at any other store is, if not trained at least aware of what to do when facing a shoplifting accident.  Millions of dollars are lost due to shoplifting, and the matter seems to get bigger every day.  New government policies are making sure shoplifting is punishable accordingly, and retail stores are spending millions of dollars in security and personnel to fight this crime, but why is that not enough?  Follow the links to read more about this and other stories. 

Shoplifting & Loss Prevention: Do We Need A Fresh Look?

Traditional Loss Prevention is not working. If it was working, the retail world would not still be suffering $35 million or more a day in losses. If it was working, retail owners and store directors would not be going through security and loss prevention officers or the security companies they represent like the free samples they often hand out to customers. Security experts and loss prevention companies would not be constantly scrambling for new accounts, or be in conflict with the accounts they service.

Shoplifting is one of the least detected and most unreported crimes. Stock control in many stores is so deficient that few retailers know how many goods they are losing to shoplifters or their own staff. Statistically, so long as shrinkage does not exceed 2-3% of goods sold, retailers pay little attention to shoplifting. There are also financial incentives for managers to increase the bottom line profits. The bonuses they receive are often based on profit margins, and paying for security services can be a drag on profits. Managers are under constant pressure to justify expenses in a corporate world driven by profit.

Shoplifting Prevention: Top 5 Tips

Shoplifting is of major concern to vendors, so much so that it’s considered normal to budget 10-15% in losses due to store theft. This means each honest customer is paying 10-15% more due to the sins of his fellow shoppers. This budget figure can be reduced by one of your company’s most important assets: Your employees. Real, live, people. While we recommend security cameras, computerized security tagging, door security guards, and even undercover security personnel, this article will address how your employees – often the most involved people with your customers – can also be involved in shoplifting prevention. Here is a Top 5 list of suspicious behavior often exhibited by shoplifters, all of which are easily spotted by employees.

      1. Baggy or oversized clothing. There’s reason it’s called “baggy” – shoplifters are using their clothes as veritable bags, stuffing their stolen ware on their person as if it’s part of their wardrobe.
      2. Hands in pockets, or hidden otherwise. A regular shopper has nothing to hide. In contrast, a shoplifter has everything to hide.
      3. Teaming Up. Shoplifters might hang together when planning or passing along stolen items. If you see two or more people in a group speaking in low tones, looking over their shoulders, diverting their eyes, or of course, stuffing their or others’ pockets, it’s a sound suspicion of illicit activity. Regular shoppers, on the other hand, will likely happily chat away at full volume, and keep their non-purchased items in full view.

Japanese organization considers shared biometric database to combat shoplifting     

The National Shoplifting Prevention Organization (NSPO), a nonprofit organization of major Japanese retail businesses, is considering developing a biometric database to share facial recognition data in order to combat shoplifting across Japan, according to a report by The Japan News.

The NSPO said it would consider allowing retail stores to share the facial data with other stores in the same industry or other establishments in the region.

The organization proposes to set up a shared biometric database, and store managers can enter the facial data of shoplifting suspects into said database to continually monitor the suspects as he or she visits other stores.

Many retail stores have been using biometric technology in the past five years, however, the majority establishments that use facial recognition do so without publicly notifying any of their customers.

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Employee Theft

April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

theft (4)Employee theft according to the research done by many independent companies, is the number one reason stores across the  country lose profits.  A loss prevention team can help you address the issue and solve it, but most often than not, the theft that is happening in your store can go undetected for many months, or even years before your or your loss prevention team is aware of it.  Training and educating your loss prevention team could save you thousand of dollars every year by making sure they attend workshops or seminars that keep them aware of the happenings of loss prevention every year.

Follow the links below to read more about this topic.

U.S. retail workers are No. 1…in employee theft

Light-fingered employees cost American stores (and consumers) more than shoplifters do.

It’s almost Groundhog Day, but for retailers, the holiday season is finally winding down.

“The four months from October through January are when stores see not just their biggest sales volume of the year, but also the most returns and exchanges,” says Ernie Deyle, a 30-year veteran of the retail loss-prevention wars who leads the business consulting practice at London-based data analytics firm Sysrepublic. “Unfortunately, the same four months account for about half of all annual shrinkage.”

That shrinkage, made up of missing goods from shoplifting and other causes, costs U.S. retailers about $42 billion a year, according to the latest Global Retail Theft Barometer, an annual industry study led by Deyle and inventory management firm Checkpoint Systems.

 What Wal-Mart U.S. Executives Learned By ‘Walking The Store’

I began my career in the grocery business as a bagger. During that time I observed that my boss, and sometimes his boss and some other senior executives, would “walk the store”. These walks provided the opportunity to perform visual inspections to see what was going right and wrong with the store. We all understood that we needed to be on our toes in case someone from headquarters decided to pull a surprise visit. This is exactly what the senior management of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) U.S. recently did.

Eight months ago Greg Foran took over the U.S division of Wal-Mart, which has struggled with hit and miss same store sales ranging from -1.5% to positive 2.4% over the past five years. He and his team decided they were going to make it their top priority to understand the business under their charge and that included store visitations. On Apr. 1, they gave investors a strategic update indicating that Wal-Mart U. S. may be losing its grip in executing some basic common sense retailing principles. Let’s examine.

Empty shelves

One of my bosses in the grocery industry had a saying, “we sell groceries not real estate” in reference to empty shelves, with the underlying implication that shelves need to be full of merchandise so that customers can buy it. Customers aren’t interested in the air above empty shelves. Greg Foran noted some occurrences of empty shelves and full backrooms in some of the stores he visited:

Group steals bags of cash from D.M. stores, police say

A group of thieves distracted employees at four grocery stores over the weekend and stole bags of cash, including $10,000 from one business, police say.

Three females and a male would enter a store and pretend to buy items while distracting employees to another part of the business, security video shows. One of them would then steal from behind the counter or an office.

They robbed La Cruz 3 and El Palomino on East 14th Street and La Favorita on East Grand Avenue on Saturday. Saigon Market on Euclid Avenue was robbed Sunday morning, according to police reports.

“They seem to be targeting mom-and-pop type places. Businesses like QuikTrip and Kum & Go have rules about dropping off cash once they get to a certain amount,” said Sgt. Jason Halifax of Des Moines Police Department. “It may suggest the suspects had prior knowledge of how the businesses handle cash.”

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E-Commerce Fraud:What You Need to Know

March 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment

theft (13)With the digital age came different types of fraud retailers were not used to encounter in their daily operations.  Shoplifters came to the store and the loss prevention team knew the policies and procedures to follow to apprehend the shoplifter.  Now, retailers fear online fraud and debate on how to keep customers information safe.  The most prevalent fraud retailers are to be aware of is card fraud. Keeping cardholder’s information safe is a top priority for online retailers, and monitor suspicious transactions has become a top priority for them.

To learn or read more about e-commerce fraud follow the links below.

e-Commerce Fraud: The Rapidly Growing Challenge for Retail Investigations

Just as the word “e-commerce” has come to refer to a menagerie of different specialized markets, so e-commerce fraud comes in many different guises. And as the great pace of retail evolution dictates that retailers’ transaction processes are constantly changing, so the frauds change with them.

In a bid to stand on the top of the heap competitively, retailers are offering as many options to consumers as possible when it comes to ways to buy. You can place an online order at an in-store kiosk to be shipped to your house. You can place an order from your mobile device to be picked up at a local store. You don’t like the color of the new curtains you ordered through the online customer rewards program? You can return them to the nearest brick-and-mortar store to save on shipping.

There are multitudes of different ways for customers to shop in the modern omni-channel retailing world. But this proliferation of transaction processes can leave behind more and more holes that malicious actors can exploit. “You have this almost complete melding of digital and physical worlds now, and the primary challenge is keeping pace with that evolution,” said Jerett Sauer, director of loss prevention at Gap Inc. “Awareness of risk has always been a core part of any great LP program, and historically, digital space was outside that sphere of awareness; the focus was on people touching a POS or physical merchandise.

Kount and Ethoca Join Forces to Help Ecommerce Merchants Eliminate More Fraud, Accept More Orders

Kount, a leading provider of fraud detection and sales boosting technology, and Ethoca, the industry standard for collaboration-based technology solutions that help card issuers and online merchants increase transaction acceptance and stop ecommerce fraud, today announced a strategic partnership to help ecommerce merchants increase their overall acceptance levels.

Ecommerce merchants aim to strike a delicate balance: eliminating as much fraud as possible, while maximizing the acceptance of good orders. With the increasing frequency of data breaches and online security threats, many ecommerce merchants are tightening their fraud tools to stop as much fraud as possible, but that often results in too many good orders that are wrongly rejected and result in lost revenue.

Through its partnership with Ethoca, Kount now offers merchant customers worldwide an additional, complementary service with Ethoca Alerts. These alerts provide a safeguard to catch fraud that has already been confirmed between the card issuing bank and the cardholder.

Smart Card Technology Will Affect Your Fraud Prevention Strategy

With large retail chains like Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels experiencing massive data breaches, U.S. banks and brick-and-mortar merchants face serious pressure to increase credit card security measures by implementing smart card technology.

This shift to more secure card-present transactions at physical, smart-card ready terminals will impact ecommerce sites as fraudsters are stymied at brick-and-mortar stores and turn their attentions to card-not-present (CNP) transactions online.

As smart cards become standard in the U.S., forward thinking ecommerce merchants must prepare for the coming increase in online fraud. Now is the time for software companies to ensure that their fraud prevention system is ready.

Brick-and-Mortar Merchants Face Serious Pressure

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Video Surveillance In Your Store

March 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment

shoplifting2Surveillance in your store can be a big deterrent for shoplifting and employee theft.  The knowledge that your store is protected, or at least that there are cameras capturing images of employees and customers, can help you save thousand of dollars yearly.  Employee theft is costing the retail industry millions of dollars every year and installing a type of security in your store can help you reduce the shrinkage you are experiencing.

For more about shoplifting, follow the links below.

Surveillance best cure for shoplifting

Aside from the holiday seasons where people aimlessly weave through cart-to-cart traffic down aisles in department or convenience stores, it’s difficult to predict when there will be spike in theft.

Particularly, shoplifting.

As of Friday, the Hutchinson Police Department has worked two cases of shoplifting this month. Granted, only nine unpredictably cold and not-so cold days have scooted by in March. But January and February were hot months for shoplifting with officers responding to 61 combined reported cases of shoplifting, according to Hutchinson Police bulletin archives.

There were 24 reports of shoplifting in December. Numbers from the archive bulletin suggests the shoplifting occurs at three of the most recognizable stores in the city: Wal-Mart, Dillons and various Kwik Shops.

Hastings, Target, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s are also sprinkled on the list of popularly shoplifted stores.

But why the heart-monitor like spike in thefts recently? Police Lt. Martin Robertson isn’t sure of the answer himself.

US based company allows shoplifters to avoid the police by charging them for an online course

IN THE game of Monopoly, there’s nothing better (apart from maybe winning free parking) than turning over that community chest card to see the words “get out of jail free.”

Now imagine that someone hands you that card after you’ve committed a criminal act in real life.

That is essentially what one company based in the United States is doing.

The Corrective Education Company (CEC) is a start-up, and works with businesses to offer shoplifters an alternative path to reform other than the boring old legal system.

Founded by a pair of Harvard graduates, it offers the chance for apprehended shoplifters to pay $411 ($US320) in order to avoid a phone call to the boys in blue.

That money goes towards the cost of attending an online course which is run by CEC that claims to reduce the likelihood of recidivism for the individual.

The obliging shop owners who refer the shoplifters get a cut of about $US40 per offender, and according to Slate around 20,000 offenders have so far coughed up for the program.

That works out to be $7.2 million that CEC has profited by blatantly circumventing the established judicial system.

Walgreens Shoplifting Duo Captured On Surveillance

 

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