Retailers, already hit hard by rampant shoplifting, face a new threat to their bottom line from fraudsters who stuff return packages with bricks, fake receipts and counterfeit goods.
Scammers are targeting this dark side of the retail industry, especially after the holiday season, in hopes of exploiting the return system and swindling billions of dollars out of them. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
According to the National Retail Federation, more than $100 billion worth of merchandise was fraudulently returned in the U.S. last year, representing 13.7% of returns received by retailers, which is twice the level of fraudulent returns in 2020. He says he will.
NRF predicts that fraudulent returns will reach 17% of all returned items this year.
Some people are “sending back a brick box instead of a TV,” or returning a lower-priced item and putting a higher-priced tag on it, Gartner analyst Tom Enright said. , Tom Enright told the Journal.
Brazen scammers can get refunds for returning packages as soon as the delivery service scans the return shipping label and before the retailer verifies that the box contains the correct item. industry experts told the magazine.
Returned items are typically shipped to our warehouse, but the package may not be opened for several days.
Some sellers send counterfeit goods back to high-end retailers in hopes of getting their money back before they are tagged as fake.
Amena Ali, chief executive of returns service provider Optro, said: “This type of fraud is definitely becoming a growing concern for retailers.”
Part of the problem, the report said, is that retailers rely on temporary staff during the busy holiday season, who may not be adequately trained to spot fraud. It is said that there is.
Some of the returned items were stolen from other stores, a troubling problem for big chains like Target and Dick's and one of the biggest challenges facing organized retail theft. It is said that this is one of the challenges.
Another common return scam is called “wardrobe,” which involves sending products back after use, the industry group said.
Retailers are trying to crack down on returns by imposing fees, but this is not a deterrent to new scams.
Instead, retailers are encouraging more shoppers to bring returned items into stores.
Thomas Borders, a manager at returns service provider Inmar Intelligence, told the Journal that in-store returns appear to have “a much lower chance of fraud” than mailed returns.
Another returns service provider, Pollen Returns, said it inspects items customers leave on their doorsteps to return, making it difficult to pass off used items as new and issue refunds. Chief Commercial Officer Christian Piller said.
The package is supposed to contain new loafers, and “if you put out your old New Balance shoes that you've been using to mow the lawn for five years…you can't hide them in a box like you would with a traditional return.” It’s a process,” he told the Journal.
