NRF Report - Criminals Getting Organized, Online

Ed Kountz | June 05, 2008, 01:05 PM

The National Retail Federation has just released its 2008 survey on the impact of organized retail crime (ORC) on U.S. merchants. NRF reported that 85% of retailers (out of 114 merchants responding) reported that they’d been the victim of ORC. That number is up 6% vs the prior year, although the number of firms reporting an increase in ORC activity vs. the prior year was down slightly.

While the impact of ORC is at core a multi-channel issue and concern, it’s worth noting again how fraud, like commerce, is evolving into a multi-channel vehicle. The report reinforces the role online auction and for-sale sites have (along with traditional channels, like pawn shops and swap meets among others) as ways to reintroduce stolen goods back into the supply chain. Steal at the POS, then list the goods online for resale...It also highlights retailer views on the topic, and select legislative and law-enforcement-partnerships as ongoing efforts to address. Given consumers' trust issues regarding the safety of their data online, efforts to increase trust from both angles (through education and efforts to increase data security, and through efforts to reduce the amount of stolen goods that are fenced online) offer important, overlapping strategies through which "trust" can be increased.

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