Retail Crime
Retail crime costs Australian businesses an estimated $9 billion every year, resulting in higher prices of goods and fewer jobs for employees. Retail crime is more than just shoplifting; it involves armed robbery, burglaries, porch piracy, employee theft, vendor fraud, assaults against staff and online fraud.
We aim to provide actionable advice to curb retail crime problems. Taking an outcomes-focused approach, we look at practical steps businesses can take to understand their retail crime problem, organise interventions, monitor impacts and plan for the future.
GCI Retail Crime Lead: A/Prof Michael Townsley
PUBLICATIONS
Loss Prevention in a Time of Accelerated Change
In this report, we look at the disruptions from COVID and the resulting health directive on operational practices and loss prevention teams in retail organisations in Australia and New Zealand. LP Managers provide their predictions of what changes to the retail crime landscape will be sustained and which are temporary.
Card-Not-Present Fraud: Protecting Online Retail Businesses
This report introduces card-not-present (CNP) fraud and the scale of this problem for the retail sector and its growing online sales channel. Drawing on a range of sources, we discuss who the bad actors are and the businesses at a higher risk of being targeted. After breaking down the problem of CNP fraud, we turn to practical steps businesses can take to protect themselves. This involves identifying critical steps in the commission process and recommending how businesses can use these as disruption points. The report concludes with some general recommendations on broader practices to help businesses identify and respond to evolving threats in future.
Card‐Not‐Present Fraud: Using Crime Scripts to Inform Crime Prevention Initiatives
This article is written for an academic audience to understand the commission process of CNP fraud in online retail settings. Drawing upon previous crime script articles and industry reports, we outline the steps involved in the three stages of CNP fraud: preparation, doing it, and getting away. From this script, points of disruption are identified. We discuss prevention measures that stakeholders such as businesses and financial institutions could implement to reduce bad actors' opportunities for CNP fraud.
Podcast
Associate Professor Michael Townsley discusses his latest study on 'Loss Prevention in a Time of Accelerated Change: How can Loss Prevention Future-Proof the Businesses they Protect?' with Retales: Conversations with Profit Protection.