Many retailers experience fraud
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In 2008, some 57% of Canadian retailers experienced fraud. The most common type reported was the fraudulent return of goods, accounting for 32% of all fraud, followed by credit card fraud and the use of counterfeit money, each making up 15% of retail fraud.
Among retailers who experienced fraud in the previous 12 months, about 80% said they suffered direct monetary losses.
More than half (53%) of retailers were victims of fraud by individuals other than employees in 2008, while 19% were victimized by employees.
Almost half of retailers (47%) said they never or rarely notify law enforcement when they are victims of fraud, often because they feel the incident is too minor to involve police. On the other hand, 34% of retailers always or often report incidents to police. Retailers' most common reasons for reporting fraud were because the fraud-related losses were significant (61%) and because they wanted to recover their losses (58%).
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