Fifty-three percent of retail fraud is now 'cyber-enabled', while abuse and violence against retail employees has risen by 40% since last year, according to the British Retail Consortium yearly Retail Crime Survey.
Data show that 3.6 million retail crimes were committed, with direct financial costs to the industry of £660 million in 2015-16.
The BRC found that fraudsters are using much more sophisticated technology to bilk customers, including phishing, data theft, social engineering, and doxxing.
Phishing is a technique of sending emails purportedly from reputable companies, such as banks, which encourage individuals to reveal sensitive informations, such as passwords.
Doxxing occurs when hackers publish personal identifying information, sometimes maliciously, on the internet. Social engineering is any type of manipulation that is used to get people to reveal private or personal information for fraudulent purposes.
Retailers are concerned that current methods aimed at stopping these attacks are not effective, and there is a feeling in the industry that offenders can get away with their crimes, the survey revealed.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the consortium, said of the findings: "A significant aspect of the cyber security challenge for retailers is the attractiveness of customer data from the point of view of criminals, many of whom operate outside UK borders but can nevertheless gain relatively easy access to UK digital networks".
“Retailers are doing everything possible to ensure that staff members and customers are safe and protected. But this rising tide should be stemmed through even stronger cooperation between industry, the government, law enforcement and the private security industry".
The survey covered 37% of the retail industry by turnover and 35% by employees, equaling 1.1 million staff.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up for ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
