After Chip and Pin is deployed, what will the next security challenge be?
October 28, 2014
Blog Post by Angela Mansfield-Swanson, Marketing Director for CognitiveTPG
Two women caught on surveillance cameras are questioned for alleged receipt fraud. Sources say the women entered the store together, one left with the purchased goods and an original receipt while the other approached a staff member stating she had not received a receipt for her transaction. The duplicate receipt was printed and the women used both receipts to claim a refund.
Fraud schemes like this affect nearly every retailer. According to the National Retail Federation, retailers lose $8.9 billion per year to retail fraud and it’s predominantly related to cash receipts. Even though receipt fraud has existed for years, it has become more sophisticated as technology has advanced. These culprits can come in the form of individuals or organized retail crime groups. Either way, both parties understand that retail fraud is very profitable. They bring the stolen merchandise back to the store with a fraudulent receipt, receiving full value for the item plus sales tax, netting them 106-108 percent on the item compared to the 30-70 percent of retail value they would make on selling the item on the street or the Internet.
Fighting these crimes takes a lot more than extra security guards and the support of the police. Criminals also know that retail return fraud is difficult to prosecute, requiring significant investigative resources and intricate paper trails of evidence. Retailers can and should take precautions that make it nearly impossible to modify, duplicate or tamper with the receipt.
What most retailers don’t understand is that adding security features into the receipt can actually be very simple. Security options can range from including a watermark on the printed receipt to embedding discerning security features such as microprint, pantographs, guilloches, and hidden barcodes into the printer, enabling the retailer to create a closed loop, secure track and trace solution that will work within its existing infrastructure.
Serving the thermal printing market for over 35 years, CognitiveTPG has developed a secure thermal printing technology called DocuShield, giving retailers the ability to take blank, unsecure receipt media and add value by printing security features directly from the printer. Contact a DocuShield Security Specialist for more information.
*Article was featured on Business Solutions Magazine Online - POS & Payment Processing Executive Commentary. View here.