Liz Young of The Wall Street Journal reports that efforts to exploit retailers’ return programs are growing more organized, fueled by websites and messaging accounts that target merchants. Young writes:
Apparel retailer PacSun noticed a sharp increase in returns of online purchases earlier this year, including one customer who had returned some 250 orders worth $24,000.
PacSun had issued the refunds, but the company never received the actual merchandise at its warehouse. Instead, workers found “used or different merchandise returned in the box, or even empty shoeboxes,” said Shirley Gao, the company’s chief digital and information officer. Other promised packages never arrived at all.
For the Southern California-based seller of beachwear, casual clothing and footwear, the case turned out to be part of a broader pattern of purchases and bogus returns, many amounting to thousands of dollars, that started hitting the business in early May. […]
Organized returns
Retailers nationwide have seen online returns skyrocket over the past four years after rolling out generous returns policies to attract customers amid a pandemic-driven surge in e-commerce. The returns policies have helped change shopping habits: Consumers have grown accustomed to ordering items online in several sizes and colors, then returning what they don’t want.Shoppers last year returned 17.6% of items they purchased online, valued at more than $247 billion and more than double the percentage of goods returned in 2019, according to the National Retail Federation and software provider Appriss Retail. […]
A representative for Amazon said the company refers people caught repeatedly taking advantage of its returns policies to law enforcement, and that Amazon has been developing technology to detect and prevent fraud.
“We continue to make progress in identifying and stopping fraud before it happens, as well as dismantling the groups that attempt to damage the integrity of our store and the stores of retailers across the retail industry,” the representative said.
Read more here.
Also, read $100 Billion in Merchandise Fraudulently Returned Last Year
