The retailer Game like others seeks to make buying easy for its legitimate customers, while targeting and disrupting digital dishonesty from fraudsters. The gaming brand has hundreds of stores across the UK and Spain, besides operating international experiential gaming events such as Insomnia. It uses anti-fraud tools to capture prolific offenders. One tool is Claims Detect Online (CDO) from National Business Crime Solution (NBCS), the UK not-for-profit body that works with police and business members on serious and organised crime. NBCS services include forensic analysis of malicious Goods Lost In Transit (GLIT) claims; as featured in the December 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
UK estimates put the cost of GLIT at £400m a year, with £40 being the average cost of a claim, but retailers fear this could be the tip of an iceberg as many retailers put the losses down to the cost of doing business and pay-out. Game is not one of those companies.
It’s using CDO to monitor and analyse the audit trail of thousands of transactions across multiple retail businesses to spot suspicious claims and anomalies.
John Low, head of risk for Game, who has been a member of NBCS for five years, said that with other fraud tools, Claims Detect Online forms part of defences against disingenuous refund and returns. “We have solutions that provide live decisioning in all channels, whether it’s store to store, online into store or, as in the case of CDO, online to online, especially GLIT claims. Such dishonesty jumps sales channels so Claims Detect Online was a key element in completing the circle in our omni channel, enabling us to have all bases covered.
“Matches were identified with serial refunders and returners (R&R) in our retail brand but, with the syndicated data solution that provided early warning of multiple brand R&R bad actors, it is ensuring we can be more responsive prior to experiencing multiple claims.”
NBCS-contributing retailers such as Game have already identified millions of pounds of potentially fraudulent claims through a dashboard reporting system. They are able to identify persistent refund behaviour, as well as the modus operandi and claim matches from other users, while specific confidential data is anonymised to comply with GDPR (EU-wide data protection) requirements.
John Low added: “It is part of an overall arsenal that has helped reduce disingenuous R&Rs by millions of pounds while improving the customer experience for genuine customers wishing to return goods.
“We are supportive of the networking and syndication of GDPR compliant data and intelligence opportunities that NBCS/CDO provides. Furthermore, we would encourage any prospective participants to join in this collaboration at the earliest opportunity so that all stakeholders get the added benefit of reduced R&Rs and GLIT claims, gained from a wider range of retailer inclusion. Bad actors network and syndicate, and so should we.”
Simran Baghara, fraud and legal services manager for Claims Detect Online, is pictured. She said: “Game is a major inputter into CDO which allows it to actively interrogate its returns and refund data and make informed decisions that impact the bottom line. Such collaboration means businesses no longer need to write-off fraudulent claims as the cost of doing business. It will also help contributors with information to assist their negotiations with third party delivery companies where an issue is identified at that point of the customer journey.”
Visit www.nationalbusinesscrimesolution.com.
