9Oct/100
Taking Out the Trash
Employees are taking out your trash and your merchandise. It happens all the time. Taking out the trash is an opportunity for your employees to remove your merchandise so they or an accomplice can return later to collect what they've stolen. Strong controls around trash removal are an important part of any comprehensive loss prevention plan.
- Require two employees to take out the trash. If that's not possible they need to have another employee check the trash for merchandise just prior to removing from the building.
- Have set times to take out trash.
- Collect all trash into one location prior to removal to dumpster.
- Invest in a compactor, and require all trash to be put into the compactor. Don't let employees leave trash outside the compactor.
- Regularly inspect your dumpster/trash area for merchandise.
- Use clear trash bags.
- Require all boxes to be broken down/folded flat.
The key to any program (loss prevention or otherwise) is to follow and enforce procedures.
9Oct/100
Refund Fraud Indicators
I've compiled a list of useful refund fraud indicators...
- Multipe refunds, one receipt: Can indicate that a customer returned one item, and the cashier/manager is using the receipt to refund the remaining items for cash.
- UPC keyed, not scanned: Could mean that cashier/manager is using a found receipt to key in UPCs of items to refund (since the actual item isn't at the desk).
- Multiples of a single item: Item may be available or near the register, and cashier/manager uses that item to refund for cash.
- Percent of refund dollars to sales dollars/Percent of refund transactions/sales transactions: Deviation from the company/store average can indicate fraudlent refund transactions.
- Multiple refunds to same credit card: It's not unusual for a person committing refund fraud to refund the money to their own credit card/debit card(or an accomplice's card).
- Loose receipts at register: Receipts left behind by customers or reprinted receipts are left at register instead of being thrown away immediately.
- Reprinted receipt used for refund: A reprinted receipt (your receipts do indicate "Not original receipt" or "Duplicate" when reprinted?) is used for a refund could indicate cashier/manager reprinted the receipt to use for a refund.
- Refunds that occur before or after store hours.
Any additional methods you use?