Retail Internal Fraud
There are common types of fraud that take place internally in the Retail Environment
Discount Fraud
Discounts/price overrides present a significant area of risk through abuse by cashiers who can severely impact margin. Staff Discount is a strong benefit for employees and enhances loyalty and increases sales. It is often a reason why staff join and remain with the business. However, frequently this is abused and staff give their discount to family & friends.
Item Voids or Error Corrects
The Error Correct function is available for cashiers to allow them to correct mistakes within transactions. Often the use of this key requires supervisor control but this is still very open to abuse. In this type of transaction, the cashier will remove larger value items from a transaction and leave a low residual value on the register. It can be indicative of cash theft or collusion with an accomplice.
Low value Sales Fraud
Cashiers will ring through a Low Value Item in place of the Item that the customer wants to buy. Typically, this will be an Item kept close to the register or button on the register itself. In this scenario the customer will not be expecting a receipt and will be paying in cash. This behaviour can indicate collusion (free-bagging / ‘sweet-hearting’) or straight cash theft of the true value of the items
Refund Fraud
A cashier processes a fraudulent refund in order to retain the value of the refunded item(s), often for cash. There are numerous different areas of refund analysis including: high value cash refunds, same item refunds and single item cash refunds.
No Sale Fraud
The No Sales function is available for cashiers to open the till draw in order to add or remove cash, for example on setting up the till float or a pickup if the drawer is full. Often the use of this key requires supervisor control but this is very open to abuse. It can be indicative of cash theft or collusion with an accomplice.
Cancelled Transactions
A cashier processes a transaction and voids the entire sale in order to retain the value of the full transaction, often for cash. Can also be linked to collusion with a customer (i.e. sweet hearting / free-bagging)
Zero Value Sales
A cashier processes a sale of a single item then immediately scans and refunds the same item, and always for cash. This could indicate that the cashier is keeping the cash value of the item, or they are free bagging the item in collusion with someone else. This is an area of high-risk behaviour for many of our fashion retail customers.