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I was recently hired in an AP position for a major retailer. Still wet behind the ears, but I'm trying to approach this position with confidence and take it as seriously as I can (or as corporate policy allows, at least).
Getting the hang of noticing the tell-tale signs of someone who may attempt to shoplift, well that will be an undertaking in itself, but now I have another concern:
When I told my brother about the job, we got to talking about retail theft in general, and he out of the blue said, "I could come into your store and steal without you or anyone else knowing."
Of course, I had to ask... How?
And what he told me was something that I had definitely heard before, as I'm sure you all have heard of as well -- the barcode fraud scam. The first I ever heard of it was when the high-ranking executive of a Silicon Valley firm was caught doing this with legos. And for those who don't know, the scam involves printing barcodes for low-priced items, sticking them on similar but high-priced items, and getting a discount.
And in our conversation, I found out for the first time that my brother has first hand experience with getting away with this crap.
I told him simply that I reckon these barcode fraudsters will have similar behaviors of a shoplifter (shifty, looking at cameras, trying to find blind spots, etc) and I would spot one putting on a barcode label. Many times these fraudsters try to return the same merchandise to get full price refund or store credit, and many get caught this way.
He said he was never caught. I think I can understand why. It seems quite easy to stick on a UPC label without really being noticed. That's the problem, here. The five steps (or six, really) have that step of concealing merchandise. And passing all points of sale... But a barcode fraudster, he would enter the area of the merchandise, select the item, take it to a Point of Sale, pay for it, and leave. Like a regular customer. Even worse, is my store has a self-checkout area. The transactions are monitored, but the items themselves are not handled by a cashier.
That being the case, how could I make an apprehension if my only proof is that I witness a transaction taking place that prices the item lower than it should be?
Any advice would be appreciated... how to spot these guys, how to catch them red-handed, etc. Or maybe I'm just worrying too much, and it's not all that common? Should I just focus my attention on traditional shoplifting and internal theft?
Getting the hang of noticing the tell-tale signs of someone who may attempt to shoplift, well that will be an undertaking in itself, but now I have another concern:
When I told my brother about the job, we got to talking about retail theft in general, and he out of the blue said, "I could come into your store and steal without you or anyone else knowing."
Of course, I had to ask... How?
And what he told me was something that I had definitely heard before, as I'm sure you all have heard of as well -- the barcode fraud scam. The first I ever heard of it was when the high-ranking executive of a Silicon Valley firm was caught doing this with legos. And for those who don't know, the scam involves printing barcodes for low-priced items, sticking them on similar but high-priced items, and getting a discount.
And in our conversation, I found out for the first time that my brother has first hand experience with getting away with this crap.
I told him simply that I reckon these barcode fraudsters will have similar behaviors of a shoplifter (shifty, looking at cameras, trying to find blind spots, etc) and I would spot one putting on a barcode label. Many times these fraudsters try to return the same merchandise to get full price refund or store credit, and many get caught this way.
He said he was never caught. I think I can understand why. It seems quite easy to stick on a UPC label without really being noticed. That's the problem, here. The five steps (or six, really) have that step of concealing merchandise. And passing all points of sale... But a barcode fraudster, he would enter the area of the merchandise, select the item, take it to a Point of Sale, pay for it, and leave. Like a regular customer. Even worse, is my store has a self-checkout area. The transactions are monitored, but the items themselves are not handled by a cashier.
That being the case, how could I make an apprehension if my only proof is that I witness a transaction taking place that prices the item lower than it should be?
Any advice would be appreciated... how to spot these guys, how to catch them red-handed, etc. Or maybe I'm just worrying too much, and it's not all that common? Should I just focus my attention on traditional shoplifting and internal theft?
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