Cutting down on fradulent returns

The Detroit Free Press writes that retailers are agressively working to cut down on fradulent returns in the Christmas season. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, conducted with 90 retailers, 69% of retailers admit that they have changed their policies to reduce these returns. An estimated $3.5 billion is what retailers expect their returns tally to add up to in the Christmas season and $9.6 billion in the entire year.

More than 95% of retailers surveyed said that stolen merchandise returns were the most frequent type of fraud, followed by 69% getting returns of items originally bought with counterfeit money and 52% seeing returns with fake receipts.

In the past two holiday seasons, many retailers have changed return policies by shortening the time allowed to return items, requiring receipts with returns, charging restocking fees or using sophisticated computer software to track returns.

Among retailers that haven't altered their policies in response to the problem, the survey found that 25% expect to toughen their return policies this year, 70% said their policies will remain the same and less than 5% planned to loosen their policies. The survey was conducted Oct. 2-27.