THE RISE OF CREDIT CARD FRAUD
Every month, our Treasury department emails us a list of all credit card chargebacks for the previous month. I used to ignore this report as I didn’t understand the implications of each chargeback. Once I realized that my company was essentially paying for criminals to go on shopping sprees, it forced me to change my tactics when it came to investigating credit card fraud.
Historically, the only times I would investigate credit card fraud would be when a customer would contact one of my stores to report a bogus charge. I would find the transaction, save the video and turn it over to law enforcement. My job would be done. Not very proactive and I’d go back to my normal routine. It wasn’t until our VP of Treasury held a conference call on this subject that I fully understood the financial impacts of these transactions. I always assumed that the banks absorbed the losses, but I was dead wrong. These were passed directly on to our company and it was impacting our bottom line significantly.
We (the investigative arm of our company) began changing our approach about 2 years ago. We now fully investigate credit card fraud and try to bring the culprits to justice as much as possible. That has led us to develop key relationships with members of local and federal law enforcement agencies. In fact, we recently helped bust a significant ring that had stolen the identities of thousands of hard working Americans and swindled my company out of nearly 5 million dollars.
It started by us reviewing a rash of high dollar chargebacks around a certain area of the country. From there, we drilled down further, to the transaction level and saw that all the purchases were for the same items, pre-paid Visa gift cards. If you ever want to launder money… that’s the way to do it. Once funds are placed on those gift cards, they are pretty much untraceable and unstoppable. Visa also doesn’t help much with tracking the cards once they are used either… A little more investigating and we see the same group of about 20 making these purchases. Very organized and very disciplined. They would target a dozen or so stores all at once, almost in unison. It’s very different from one or two boosters traveling down the interstate.
This went on for months, without a lead. We would have no warning and we were not able to track their movements. Out of nowhere, on seemingly random days, we would get hit and they would disappear into the wind just as quickly as they appeared. It was equally frustrating when we’d turn it over to local police; they really lacked the resources to fully investigate, so we were stuck. Until the group began to get greedy.
They changed their tactics after a few close calls and simply began withdrawing money from the ATM’s outside of our store. Easy cash, which they would then use to purchase the prepaid gift cards. What they didn’t realize is that those ATMs are secured by the FDIC, making their crimes a federal offense. This caught the attention of the local FBI field office, which was more than happy to take what we had on this group, which eventually led to their takedown.
Need information on Credit Card Fraud? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Every month, our Treasury department emails us a list of all credit card chargebacks for the previous month. I used to ignore this report as I didn’t understand the implications of each chargeback. Once I realized that my company was essentially paying for criminals to go on shopping sprees, it forced me to change my tactics when it came to investigating credit card fraud.
Historically, the only times I would investigate credit card fraud would be when a customer would contact one of my stores to report a bogus charge. I would find the transaction, save the video and turn it over to law enforcement. My job would be done. Not very proactive and I’d go back to my normal routine. It wasn’t until our VP of Treasury held a conference call on this subject that I fully understood the financial impacts of these transactions. I always assumed that the banks absorbed the losses, but I was dead wrong. These were passed directly on to our company and it was impacting our bottom line significantly.
We (the investigative arm of our company) began changing our approach about 2 years ago. We now fully investigate credit card fraud and try to bring the culprits to justice as much as possible. That has led us to develop key relationships with members of local and federal law enforcement agencies. In fact, we recently helped bust a significant ring that had stolen the identities of thousands of hard working Americans and swindled my company out of nearly 5 million dollars.
It started by us reviewing a rash of high dollar chargebacks around a certain area of the country. From there, we drilled down further, to the transaction level and saw that all the purchases were for the same items, pre-paid Visa gift cards. If you ever want to launder money… that’s the way to do it. Once funds are placed on those gift cards, they are pretty much untraceable and unstoppable. Visa also doesn’t help much with tracking the cards once they are used either… A little more investigating and we see the same group of about 20 making these purchases. Very organized and very disciplined. They would target a dozen or so stores all at once, almost in unison. It’s very different from one or two boosters traveling down the interstate.
This went on for months, without a lead. We would have no warning and we were not able to track their movements. Out of nowhere, on seemingly random days, we would get hit and they would disappear into the wind just as quickly as they appeared. It was equally frustrating when we’d turn it over to local police; they really lacked the resources to fully investigate, so we were stuck. Until the group began to get greedy.
They changed their tactics after a few close calls and simply began withdrawing money from the ATM’s outside of our store. Easy cash, which they would then use to purchase the prepaid gift cards. What they didn’t realize is that those ATMs are secured by the FDIC, making their crimes a federal offense. This caught the attention of the local FBI field office, which was more than happy to take what we had on this group, which eventually led to their takedown.
Need information on Credit Card Fraud? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Retail Anti-Theft Devices-5 WC Blog 141
Prevent Shoplifting-3
Alpha Keepers – 5
Prevention Of Shoplifting Requires Retail Ant-Theft Devices And Customer Service
The first step a business owner or manager must take to prevent shoplifting in their stores is to use retail anti-theft devices to protect merchandise. These devices may include electronic article surveillance tags, cameras, showcases, and etc. The thing many business owners forget to address is the fact that retail anti-theft devices alone are not enough to stop theft. There has to be awareness, education and training of staff as well. Protection tools such as Alpha Keepers are great for deterring theft, but the truth of the matter is they don’t stop determined thieves, especially when employees are not nearby to respond to electronic article surveillance alarms.
For someone not aware of what Alpha Keepers are, they are solid, clear plastic boxes with a hinged top that locks in place after merchandise is placed in the box. The boxes are very durable and extremely difficult to break into without the proper detachment key. They are also electronic article surveillance (EAS) sensitive and will activate EAS antennas if they come into the proximity of the antennas. Keepers come in a variety of shapes and sizes giving options for protecting a wide range of products. Protective case designs are available for small health and beauty products to video game software and even round cases for baby formula.
This brings me to the point of this article, do Alpha Keepers prevent shoplifting? Yes and no is my answer. Retail anti-theft devices prevent theft by casual shoplifters who are looking for a quick thrill of stealing but are not interested in risk. The chance that an alarm could be set off at a door or prying off an anti-theft device could trip an alarm is enough to prevent theft by the “amateur” shoplifter. The professional shoplifter who makes their living stealing and reselling generally avoids items that will trigger alarms. Their goal is to leave a building undetected after stealing so they can return at a later time and steal again. So who does that leave since it sounds like most criminals are deterred by retail anti-theft devices? It leaves those who are risk takers and frequently these are the people who are stealing to support drug and alcohol habits.
A case in point is a recent incident at the store I work at as a sales associate. A customer came in one night and my instincts as a prior Loss Prevention Manager kicked in and I was immediately wary of him. The customer was looking around in a suspicious manner and seemed very jittery. I offered him assistance and he told me he was looking for ink cartridges. Our store keeps the cartridges in Alpha Keepers in a corralled area. I walked the customer to the ink cartridges and continued to assist him by trying to determine the cartridge style he needed. The patron said he had to call his mother to find out. Well, the store was busy and we have a limited staff so I took the chance that the ink cartridges would be okay since they were in keeper boxes. I hadn’t walked away very far to assist someone else when I heard the EAS alarm at the doors sound. The “customer” I had been assisting had selected two ink cartridges valued at about a hundred dollars or so combined and he ran out the door. The security boxes did what they were designed to do and set off the alarm, but in this case there was no one in the vicinity of the door to respond to the alarm and challenge him.
Retail anti-theft devices can and usually do prevent shoplifting, but to truly maximize their effectiveness, it is important to adequately staff a store with enough employees. Sometimes it can be as simple as having enough people that someone is in the area of the door to respond to alarms. If extra staffing is out of the question, it may be a matter of placing a cashier and a register at the exit making it difficult for a criminal to grab and run. Just remember, Alpha Keepers are not a cure-all for all theft but they will prevent a significant portion of it and keep your store profitable.
Get more information on Alpha Keepers. Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
The first step a business owner or manager must take to prevent shoplifting in their stores is to use retail anti-theft devices to protect merchandise. These devices may include electronic article surveillance tags, cameras, showcases, and etc. The thing many business owners forget to address is the fact that retail anti-theft devices alone are not enough to stop theft. There has to be awareness, education and training of staff as well. Protection tools such as Alpha Keepers are great for deterring theft, but the truth of the matter is they don’t stop determined thieves, especially when employees are not nearby to respond to electronic article surveillance alarms.
For someone not aware of what Alpha Keepers are, they are solid, clear plastic boxes with a hinged top that locks in place after merchandise is placed in the box. The boxes are very durable and extremely difficult to break into without the proper detachment key. They are also electronic article surveillance (EAS) sensitive and will activate EAS antennas if they come into the proximity of the antennas. Keepers come in a variety of shapes and sizes giving options for protecting a wide range of products. Protective case designs are available for small health and beauty products to video game software and even round cases for baby formula.
This brings me to the point of this article, do Alpha Keepers prevent shoplifting? Yes and no is my answer. Retail anti-theft devices prevent theft by casual shoplifters who are looking for a quick thrill of stealing but are not interested in risk. The chance that an alarm could be set off at a door or prying off an anti-theft device could trip an alarm is enough to prevent theft by the “amateur” shoplifter. The professional shoplifter who makes their living stealing and reselling generally avoids items that will trigger alarms. Their goal is to leave a building undetected after stealing so they can return at a later time and steal again. So who does that leave since it sounds like most criminals are deterred by retail anti-theft devices? It leaves those who are risk takers and frequently these are the people who are stealing to support drug and alcohol habits.
A case in point is a recent incident at the store I work at as a sales associate. A customer came in one night and my instincts as a prior Loss Prevention Manager kicked in and I was immediately wary of him. The customer was looking around in a suspicious manner and seemed very jittery. I offered him assistance and he told me he was looking for ink cartridges. Our store keeps the cartridges in Alpha Keepers in a corralled area. I walked the customer to the ink cartridges and continued to assist him by trying to determine the cartridge style he needed. The patron said he had to call his mother to find out. Well, the store was busy and we have a limited staff so I took the chance that the ink cartridges would be okay since they were in keeper boxes. I hadn’t walked away very far to assist someone else when I heard the EAS alarm at the doors sound. The “customer” I had been assisting had selected two ink cartridges valued at about a hundred dollars or so combined and he ran out the door. The security boxes did what they were designed to do and set off the alarm, but in this case there was no one in the vicinity of the door to respond to the alarm and challenge him.
Retail anti-theft devices can and usually do prevent shoplifting, but to truly maximize their effectiveness, it is important to adequately staff a store with enough employees. Sometimes it can be as simple as having enough people that someone is in the area of the door to respond to alarms. If extra staffing is out of the question, it may be a matter of placing a cashier and a register at the exit making it difficult for a criminal to grab and run. Just remember, Alpha Keepers are not a cure-all for all theft but they will prevent a significant portion of it and keep your store profitable.
Get more information on Alpha Keepers. Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Checkpoint label-4 WC blog 75
EAS labels-5
Stop Shoplifting-3
Electronic Article Surveillance-3
Make It Clear Thieves Are Not Welcome – Use 3210 Clear Checkpoint Labels
I recall the days when I worked as a Loss Prevention Manager and part of my job responsibilities included ensuring our merchandise protection strategies were properly employed. This included the training of a Merchandise Protection Team Member and my Loss Prevention Team Members who would assist in tagging and securing product. We had a lot of product we tagged, compact discs, video game software, computer software, digital video discs, health and beauty products, and so on. At the time we were using EAS labels (electronic article surveillance) that were solid white and had corporate information printed on them. I had to make sure that as my team tagged merchandise, as much as possible, product information and warnings were not covered up. Certainly you could never cover up a barcode that just caused havoc at the register (and an uncomfortable conversation with the store manager for me). In many cases this was a challenging task, especially if you consider the size of some health and beauty products and the lengthy warnings and usage directions on those products. There were even items I would like to have tagged, but the tags we had were too large and simply would not fit. Other items we would tag were rounded, such as large vitamin bottles. We did tag them but trying to get those tags to curve to fit the bottles was tricky. Checkpoint labels have evolved over the years. There are now options available that make it an effective tool to stop shoplifting of almost any product.
One Checkpoint label now available is the 3210 Clear EP Label. This label offers the protections afforded by larger, more traditional EAS labels but they have a clear, see through window that other EAS labels don’t have. These tags are also extremely small and can be placed on some of the smallest cosmetic products, such as lipsticks and mascara bottles. The window of the tag can be placed over a barcode and the barcode can still be scanned (no more uncomfortable conversations with a store manager!). Often cosmetics were a high shortage department for our store because we could not protect the products adequately to stop shoplifting. The items tend to be very small so concealment is easy, dropping them into purses or shopping bags or simply slipping them into pants pockets. Many Loss Prevention teams don’t make apprehensions for cosmetic theft alone because the merchandise is so small and there is a significant chance to make a bad stop. Now with the 3210 Clear EP label, should a shoplifter attempt to steal a piece of merchandise they are going to set off the electronic article surveillance antennas as they try to exit the store.
Being small does not make this Checkpoint label any less effective than other EAS labels. In fact, should a store use Checkpoint’s Evolve Electronic Article Surveillance platform, the performance of the 3210 Clear EP Label is increased up to 60%. As I consider the benefits of these labels, I know from experience that professional shoplifters depend on speed and stealth to be able to hit stores multiple times. They don’t want to risk an EAS alarm as they exit a store so they either try to avoid merchandise tagged with EAS labels or they try to remove labels. If they are stealing cosmetics, they are not counting on having to try to remove multiple little labels before concealing the products. The deterrence value of the 3210 label is going to stop shoplifting, or at least a large amount of it.
Your business may carry small products from medicines to cosmetics and until now you may not have been able to do much to prevent shortage due to theft. Today you can stop theft shrinkage by tagging your products with 3210 Clear Checkpoint label. Make it “clear” to thieves they aren’t welcome in your store.
For more information on Checkpoint labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
I recall the days when I worked as a Loss Prevention Manager and part of my job responsibilities included ensuring our merchandise protection strategies were properly employed. This included the training of a Merchandise Protection Team Member and my Loss Prevention Team Members who would assist in tagging and securing product. We had a lot of product we tagged, compact discs, video game software, computer software, digital video discs, health and beauty products, and so on. At the time we were using EAS labels (electronic article surveillance) that were solid white and had corporate information printed on them. I had to make sure that as my team tagged merchandise, as much as possible, product information and warnings were not covered up. Certainly you could never cover up a barcode that just caused havoc at the register (and an uncomfortable conversation with the store manager for me). In many cases this was a challenging task, especially if you consider the size of some health and beauty products and the lengthy warnings and usage directions on those products. There were even items I would like to have tagged, but the tags we had were too large and simply would not fit. Other items we would tag were rounded, such as large vitamin bottles. We did tag them but trying to get those tags to curve to fit the bottles was tricky. Checkpoint labels have evolved over the years. There are now options available that make it an effective tool to stop shoplifting of almost any product.
One Checkpoint label now available is the 3210 Clear EP Label. This label offers the protections afforded by larger, more traditional EAS labels but they have a clear, see through window that other EAS labels don’t have. These tags are also extremely small and can be placed on some of the smallest cosmetic products, such as lipsticks and mascara bottles. The window of the tag can be placed over a barcode and the barcode can still be scanned (no more uncomfortable conversations with a store manager!). Often cosmetics were a high shortage department for our store because we could not protect the products adequately to stop shoplifting. The items tend to be very small so concealment is easy, dropping them into purses or shopping bags or simply slipping them into pants pockets. Many Loss Prevention teams don’t make apprehensions for cosmetic theft alone because the merchandise is so small and there is a significant chance to make a bad stop. Now with the 3210 Clear EP label, should a shoplifter attempt to steal a piece of merchandise they are going to set off the electronic article surveillance antennas as they try to exit the store.
Being small does not make this Checkpoint label any less effective than other EAS labels. In fact, should a store use Checkpoint’s Evolve Electronic Article Surveillance platform, the performance of the 3210 Clear EP Label is increased up to 60%. As I consider the benefits of these labels, I know from experience that professional shoplifters depend on speed and stealth to be able to hit stores multiple times. They don’t want to risk an EAS alarm as they exit a store so they either try to avoid merchandise tagged with EAS labels or they try to remove labels. If they are stealing cosmetics, they are not counting on having to try to remove multiple little labels before concealing the products. The deterrence value of the 3210 label is going to stop shoplifting, or at least a large amount of it.
Your business may carry small products from medicines to cosmetics and until now you may not have been able to do much to prevent shortage due to theft. Today you can stop theft shrinkage by tagging your products with 3210 Clear Checkpoint label. Make it “clear” to thieves they aren’t welcome in your store.
For more information on Checkpoint labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
