What is Digg?166 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -23/+117Return "fraud" is the natural consequence of selling consumer cheap, poorly made Chinese crap... deal with it.
- tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46Reginald: I say, good sir, mine bootie for yonder steed has come aloose and is of the bent. Nay I beg of you, good blacksmith, dost me this good will and giveth back mine gold for this devious steel bootie so that I may trade for a more solid device, lest my steed run upon a treacherous stone along the path.
Blacksmith: Havest thou a parchment of purchase, good sir?
Reginald: Alas, it has been lost among the thicket as i madest my way hither. Praytell take me at my word, fair blacksmith, it was indeed your shop what provided said metal bootie for my noble steed.
Blacksmith: Then I shall accomodate you, friend, a full refund and sincerest apologies at the behest of my merchant pledge. I beg a fair pardon for your troubles, good sir.
Reginald: haha. Sweet - trevah, on 10/12/2007, -12/+55And bad return clauses.
Big retailers are doing fine. This is all accounted for in the mark-up. Don't try and make consumers feel bad for this, especially when just about all of my personal return experiences are horrendous. If you can figure out a way to trick the big ones into giving you money, by all means, go for it. It's not like if return fraud disappeared, the retailers would drop the prices anyways... - ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33and you're a ***** for doing so.
- MediaShipper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22***** you very much!
- Jeffrey903, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Since it's down and DuggMirror didn't get it, here it is:
The Biggest Crime You've Never Heard of -- Return Fraud -- and How the Criminals Do It
by www.SixWise.com
While returning the bright pink sweater your aunt gave you for the holidays may hurt her feelings, it's certainly not unusual. Retailers expect that nearly 9 percent of gifts will be returned from the holiday season -- a disappointment to sales? Yes. Illegal? No.
There is, however, an immoral and often illegal phenomenon that's costing retailers billions of dollars and, in turn, making shopping more expensive and inconvenient for all of us: return fraud. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), "Criminals commonly take advantage of companies' return policies to receive cash for stolen merchandise, launder money or return an item after it has been used."
This return fraud cost retailers an estimated $3.5 billion during the 2006 holiday season, and a full $9.6 billion for the entire year, according to NRF. Some estimates even say return fraud amounts to $16 billion in losses to retailers each year.
"Retailers have often viewed lenient return policies as a cost of doing business with honest shoppers," said Joseph LaRocca, NRF vice president of loss prevention. "Unfortunately, due to an increase in return fraud, retailers are being forced to strike a delicate balance between servicing loyal shoppers and discouraging opportunistic criminals."
How is Return Fraud Committed?
The most common form of return fraud, according to the NRF's Return Fraud Survey, is returning merchandise that has been stolen, either for cash or for store credits. An alarming 95.2 percent of retailers said they had had stolen goods returned within the past year (you can check out an example of this return fraud caught on tape in this ABC News video).
"These people are going from store to store, mall to mall, stealing merchandise thousands of dollars at a time, and then coming back and returning it to the store," LaRocca said. "They can make millions if they're very good at it."
Another type of return fraud occurs when criminals return merchandise that was originally purchased with fraudulent or counterfeit tender. Over 69 percent of retailers had experienced this fraud within the past year, and another 52.4 percent had had returns made using counterfeit receipts.
A practice known as "wardrobing," though not illegal, per say, is also a form of return fraud that's affected 56 percent of retailers. Wardrobing describes the consumer who intentionally returns merchandise that's not defective, but that has been used. For instance, buying a prom dress, wearing it once, then taking it back for a refund (this also happens with high-end electronics like digital cameras).
Aside from costing retailers money (they must either discard the merchandise or resell it at a steep discount), wardrobing can strip stores of merchandise in the most popular colors, sizes and styles so that other customers cannot purchase it.
There's also a con known as price arbitrage, which consists of buying items that look similar but have very different prices, then returning the cheaper item as though it's the more expensive one. For instance, buying two watches, switching the boxes and returning the less expensive one for the more expensive price.
As criminals get more and more brazen, they may even fill the box with a completely different item, such as a deck of cards, and return the item for a full refund (betting on the fact that the clerk won't take the time to look inside the box).
More Return Fraud Means More Expense, and Less Convenience, for Consumers
As retailers lose billions of dollars to fraud, they're being forced to raise prices to honest consumers to make up for the losses.
"You and I as consumers are paying a little extra at the register, almost a hidden crime tax, to cover those losses committed by people stealing merchandise and taking advantage of retail return policies," LaRocca said.
Meanwhile, many retailers are making their return policies stricter than ever, a change that will impact consumers this year. Over 69 percent of retailers said they'd changed their return policies in the past to address return fraud, according to the NRF survey, and another 25 percent plan to tighten their policies this year.
While some stores are enlisting investigators to search online for stolen merchandise or sites selling fraudulent receipts, others are scanning driver's licenses every time a return is made to keep track of people who are making excessive returns in short periods of time.
Still other stores are putting unique numbers on merchandise to keep better track of whether an item has been returned or purchased before, shortening return periods, charging significant restocking fees or limiting the amount of returns one customer can make.
"We are used to liberal return policies, but the liberal return policies are fading away," said Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, a Massachusetts-based consumer resource guide. "They are being replaced with these far more complex ones, and ones that I call 'sliced and diced.' Different categories of items have different return rules."
The bottom line is, if you plan to make any returns this year, make sure you keep your receipt and ask the store to spell out exactly what their return policy entails. - kkl3218, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19I think the bigger question is, "Is it ethical?"
I understand that we may be ripped off by Best Buy, Target, Costco or even Gap with markups, "restocking fees", etc but you need to speak with you dollars and stop shopping there. Fraud returns hurt everyday honest customers. - beerbaron, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19I'm surprised that they didn't mention the tactic of buying a small expensive item, such as an iPod or a camera, carefully opening the box in such a way that it can be resealed (to make it look like it was never opened), then replacing the iPod with a block of clay weighing roughly the same amount. This happens all the time at electronics retailers, where they don't open and check items that haven't been "opened" because they have to give open item discounts
- applebyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15@ beerbaron
that sounds like what happened to this couple who bought a camcorder and got a box of spaghetti sauce:
http://tinyurl.com/wq5gp - JackyTreehorn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18@eponymously named anonymoustroll
"Return 'fraud' is the natural consequence of selling consumer cheap, poorly made Chinese crap... deal with it."
"Murder" is the natural consequence of one person hating another person... deal with it.
"Rape" is the natural consequence of an attractive female turning down an eligible male... deal with it.
"Theft" is a natural consequence of things costing too much... deal with it.
"Arson" is the natural consequence of things being too flammable... deal with it.
Fraud is fraud. And fraud is illegal no matter how you slice it. I dare you to commit "return fraud" and tell the judge that China is to blame. He'll put you in your place. - lockfist, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Never heard of? I'm sure this has been going on since Jamestown. In any case, retailers mark up their products to cover shrinkage anyway. I've never heard of a company going out of business because of return fraud. I think this is a rather non-issue.
- oldman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Just once I'd like to see some justification to these huge loss numbers that always accompany these articles. It's amazing that anyone is making any money at all.
- Wytefang, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12And here's an even bigger fraud - rip-off retailer prices and shoddy customer service. Everyone's a scammer, get over it dude.
- ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11did you bother to check to see if duggmirror got it, or did you simply post this in the hopes of earning mad digg cred with all your online 'friends'?
- thenameisbam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10wow you really are a douche bag!
edit: apparently i'm not the only one who doesn't like this jackass - HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I wish I could "accidentally" put my boot through the screen and contact your thieving punk ass with it.
- ohearn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@LucerinRed: "what, I'm a ***** because I ***** over Best Buy, who everyone constantly rips on for being horrible. How many times has there been a "best buy scam" article on digg. I used to work for Best Buy, they promised me promotion within 3 months, 6 months later they weren't giving me *****, because it wasnt it the budget.I should be able to raid the store for all I'm concerned."
No your not a ***** for doing that, you're a thief, which in my mind is much worse. Congratulations, you are now classified as a complete waste of usable air in my book. - NICU, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13From the article:
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), "Criminals commonly take advantage of companies' return policies to receive cash for stolen merchandise, launder money or return an item after it has been used."
If those numbers are real and not overblown like all RIAA, MPAA, and the Software piracy group makes, then the companies deserve to lose that much. Its their policies... If your car gets stolen because you left it unlocked with the keys in it, don't blame crime blame yourself. - HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yeah. Pretty much. When you get robbed, I can't say I'll feel too sorry for you.
- deesnutz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Here's how messed up things are now ...
This year I did all my shopping for toys on Amazon.com. I found many great deals many at half the price of Toys R Us (TRU), Target or even Wal-Mart. Plus; I got free shipping on almost all of it. With that said, I ended up spending a great deal for my kids. All of it was great and delivered.
Unfortunately, my parents, who live in another state, drove down with a bunch of toys for my kids (They spoil them rotten, I'm their only son). They are not into the internet. So they bought all their toys at Toys R Us.
Come Christmas time, the kids opened their toys. And we had our fair share of duplicate toys. I asked my parents how much they paid for them. And the prices where nearly double of what I paid. I then told my mother that I could take the toys she brought at TRU and get a refund. She told me she didn't have a receipt with her, nor did she think that she kept it.
Not knowing, the new BS Toys R Us policy, I took all those toys there to get a refund, credit or what ever. They flat out told me that they couldn't. My mother who was with me, got upset because she paid good money and told the lady that she lived in another state. And that she drove down with all these toys that she purchased at their store where she lived.
The lady didn't budge and said no. There was nothing that they could do for us because of no receipt. I had to drag all those toys back to my car and go back home.
My mother, who is a very gentle person, lost it. She was so angry. I never in my life see her like this. She felt insulted as if the lady was calling her a liar in that she didn't buy the toys from Toys R Us (because the lady made a comment on "how do we know that you bought it from us").
She nor I will ever go to Toys R Us. Geoffrey the Giraffe could kiss my a$$ good bye.
And for what, I got my toys at half price on Amazon. Shopping at Toys R us surely isn't on price. And now, we know it surely isn't on customer service. Never again. - rezonq3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Sorry, digg me down.
- Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I once overheard two teenage girls talking about how much they disliked Old Navy, because the clothing store wouldn't let them return merchandise without a receipt.
"They're haters," one spat, and the other agreed.
I tried hard not to assume they were shoplifters by trade, but I don't think I succeeded entirely... - ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Hrmm, return fraud ... sounds like what a lot of diggers were advocating, or bragging about, in yesterday's "screw campus bookstores" discussion.
- DeepDoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6If Wal-Mart wants to not get burned by refund fraud, they would have to change their return policy. I swear, you could buy a pair of jeans there, wear it for 6 months, take them back, and get a new pair for the exchange.
- AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@LucerinRed
"what, I'm a ***** because I ***** over Best Buy, who everyone constantly rips on for being horrible."
No, you're a ***** for ripping off other, honest customers who have to pay a higher markup because of pieces of ***** like you defrauding the store.
"I used to work for Best Buy, they promised me promotion within 3 months, 6 months later they weren't giving me *****, because it wasn't in the budget.I should be able to raid the store for all I'm concerned."
That's some of the most *****-up logic I've ever seen. You might as well say "My girlfriend said that she'd sleep with me, but then she broke up with me, so I should be able to rape her for all I'm concerned." That makes about as much sense as your justification for ripping off Best Buy and everyone who shops there. That is, none at all. - ZackScott, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I just have a question as to what counts as return fraud. Here are things I have done before at places such as Wal-Mart. I'm fairly honest about it.
Scenario 1: Received something for Christmas, but I'm not sure where it is from. I don't have the receipt and it is unopened.
Solution: I go to Wal-Mart with it and tell them I got it from Christmas, but I'm not sure where it was bought. Clerk says it is fine but can only give me gift card. I accept.
Scenario 2: Bought something from Wal-Mart and it ended up being really crappy. I still have the receipt and the item is opened.
Solution: I took it back and told them I didn't want it anymore and that I would probably but a different one of better quality. The clerk agreed to give me my money back.
Now I don't think either of those scenarios are fraud because the clerk agreed and I did not misrepresent myself. But here's something I have thought about doing. Most stores have a 30 days or 7 day price policy. I have thought about buying seasonal items and then getting the difference back after the holiday is over. Again, I would explicit that the price has dropped and I would like the difference. I'm sure I would get the difference as well. Is that fraud? - edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Audible mirth.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4But you've just inspired many sub-18 year olds to carry on your dream.
- KayIslandDrunk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is also the reason Best Buy now has a 15% return policy on all opened notebooks, cameras, and video cameras. Because people would use them for a weekend and return them. A retail store is not in the business to rent.
- BigPapi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I agree. I bought a floor model LCD television from Costco. I was worried about it breaking since it had been on for 10 hours a day for a few months straight but the salesman said that if anything happened to it in 4 months... 8 months... a year... two years... whatever, I could take it back and get it replaced. Obviously I'm not going to come back in 4 years and demand a replacement, but one of the selling points is that they have a "No Hassle" return policy which they bragged about to me, so how is it immoral to take advantage of it?
The employees make good money, the company's stock is high and I'm sure the executive board isn't living off of cereal, so how is it hurting them? - Nerys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Did anyone else notice BIG PROBLEMS with there "flag" conditions ???
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Buying a product at a discount, such as from the store's selection of "loss leaders," (low-priced products stores lose money on that are designed to attract customers) then reselling it on eBay for a premium price.
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AHhh Hellow what the hell is the problem with this ? I am not stealing it I am not returning it for refund or credit. I am RESELLING something I legitimate legally and morally bought? First how would they EVER KNOW and why SHOULD it be any of there damned business what I do with MY PROPERTY.
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Finding rock-bottom prices on Web sites, then challenging stores to pay up on their lowest price guarantees.
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Your objective is to make as much profit as you can. I am fine with this. MY OBJECTIVE is to GIVE YOU as little money as I possibly can. Do you have a particular problem with this ?? THAT is called capitalism buddy. Its called a SMART SHOPPER
If you don't want people doing this then either HAVE the lowest price of DON'T have a low price guarentee. Who the hell are you to get upset at me for doing my research and taking advantage of YOUR OWN POLICIES !!!!
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Taking up an employee's time to ask questions about a significant purchase with the intent to buy it elsewhere.
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This happened a lot to me and its annoying but its the COST OF DOING BUSINESS - all you can do and all you should be allowed to do is suck it up do a good job and hope to EARN some of those customers business. Or lower your prices. Complaining about it shows how pathetic you are. Nothing more. Annoying yes ILLEGAL OR IMMORAL hell no.
Its called SMART SHOPPING get used to it and get competitive. - forgetmenots, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I worked retail for five years and returns without receipts were rampant. Often the case is theft. We saw scenarios as bad as a customer picking up a pair of expensive jeans in one department, walking to another register and claiming a return without a receipt. What do we have to do? Give them a gift card (it's all inside *cough*) More than three of these a year and you're banned from returns without receipts.
Anyways I didn't get to read the article because the site is down but I know first hand that people cheat the system when possible, so no surprise here. - KnytFyre, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8All big business loves to pump up their loss numbers when reporting about items like this. Look at how much money the RIAA claims a single pirated Internet download costs them. (I would post a link to the article about the RIAA suing Allofmp3, but I can not search for it right now 'Digg is experiencing heavy traffic') These numbers are totally made up. I would like to know how a retail chain is able to claim that a particular return was return fraud. It seems that this would be a difficult thing to quantify and define.
- meltingrobot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah, but with the way jeans are marketed, that would work out better for Wal-Mart since faded jeans are designer and cost more. ;)
- BullTaco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You are bragging about ripping off 2-3 dollar dvd's?
Yawn.
Let me know the next time you steal an oil tanker
:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/main/news.php?newsid=76 - JackyTreehorn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@NICU
"If your car gets stolen because you left it unlocked with the keys in it, don't blame crime blame yourself."
So if it's really easy to open your window with a crowbar, I'm free to take everything in your home? Heck, I'll be free to claim the home as my own and label you the intruder, right?
Why on Earth do you want to blame a victim for grand theft auto? So what if it's easy to gain entry to the vehicle and drive off. When the owner reports the car as stolen, the party will end real quick. Ever see those police stings on COPS where the agents will leave a running car in a parking lot? When someone jumps in to steal the car, they get busted immediately.
Want another example? What happens when Large Bank Inc.'s software gets hacked and 100,000 SSNs are released to the world? Inevitably people complain that Large Bank Inc. should be fined by some authority, or the CIO should be locked up. Someone will say that the tech firm that wrote the software should reimburse the victims for their loss.
That doesn't happen, does it?
The tech firm that wrote the software is already indemnified from legal action as per their EULA. Large Bank Inc. is insured, but they still make a public apology. The bank's customers remain pissed. However, it is the hacker that gets hauled off to jail. Why? Because that's the person who committed the crime. No matter how "easy" it is to break into bank software, you can't blame the victim for the crime.
It's no different with a car or with product returns. - HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It's not Best Buy's fault that ***** are too stupid to use their gift cards.
And you hold that against them? - rrunboy12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I knew this girl that would save all the tags from her clothes....wear her clothes for a few months to a year, and then put the tags back on them and return everything.
- windhawk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@N1XUK: Haven't you heard of RENTING video games if you want to try them out? It is a lot cheaper and its is LEGAL?
What a dope... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Higher cost = i dont shop there = your loss
get use to it - Onychophora, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How about this one?
Grabbing a bunch of batteries from the spinner 5 feet directly in front of the front register, walking up to the register and trying to "return" them to the clerk who just watched them do it. I think the 'customer' was a bit high at the time, though.
[RadioShack] - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That is one of their store policies that I actually appreciate. You can return just about anything with little to no hassle. The downside of that is the people who do commit return fraud end up burning other customers due to wal mart's carelessness (remember the "puta" incident).
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Interesting. Because if you say "I think it should be $75", technically you're only lying if you don't think that. You're not saying "It should be $75". Although, it's kinda dodgy.
- tidu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Man, bad site for duggmirror. They mirrored the mirror, so nothing works.
I remixed a remix; it was back to normal! - ohearn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My wife is an inventory manager for a store in a major retail chain, trust me shrinkage happens a lot. Of course it doesn't help that the partricular store she works in is not in the best part of the city.
- tdhurst, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You're a dick. Your actions are borderline criminal AND they affect the rest of us.
- Touchdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Tell that to my wife...:)
- gsadamb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Years back I used to work at a Circuit City and sometimes got front counter duty. Someone tried to return a very basic PCI video card in the box of a $300+ video card. They were pretty amazed I knew the difference and muttered something about accidentally boxing the wrong item and that they'd be back later with the right card. I can see this particular scam being very effective for most front counter clerks who wouldn't know a 7900GTX from an OEM PCI video card.
- modernjazz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Might make up for all the money stores keep from selling gift cards that never get spent... they earn money without actually having to sell any real product. Believe it or not many people never spend their gift cards due to loss/forgetfulness/disinterest
- Butros, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4tuxido, you need to post ***** like that more often.
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