2019 GLPS - Group LP Selfies
Your Team - Your Pride - Our Industry
Building Industry Pride - One Team Selfie at a Time

Lawrence Hartman, CFI promoted to Senior Director of Risk Management, Loss Prevention and Safety for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, Inc. Lawrence previously held the position of Director of Risk Management, Loss Prevention and Safety since last August. Prior, Lawrence was a Regional Loss Prevention Manager for Burlington Stores for nearly eight years. He also held various roles in retail loss prevention, working as a Regional Loss Prevention Manager for K-Mart for nearly four years and a District Operations/Asset Protection Manager for The Home Depot for over a year. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Kaplan University. Congratulations, Lawrence!

Anthony Paserchia, CFI promoted to Director of Asset Protection and Risk Management for Areas, United States Previously, Anthony was the Interim Director of AP and Risk Management. Anthony has been with Areas, United States since 2014, when he started as an Asset Protection and Risk Manager, and in 2016 was promoted to Regional Asset Protection and Risk Manager. He's also held other asset protection/loss prevention and security positions during his 20+ years in the industry including Regional Asset Protection Manager for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Manager of New York Security and Loss Prevention for Liz Claiborne, Area AP Manager for Circuit City, Regional LP Manager for Limited Brands, Regional LP Manager for Rock Bottom Inc., Regional LP Manager for G&G Rave and District LP Manager for Herman's Sporting Goods. Congratulations Anthony!

Submit Your New Corporate Hires/Promotions or New Position

Officers arrested a Paso Robles man on Thursday who was allegedly running a scheme in which he would used fraudulent credit card numbers to purchase items online, then resell them on eBay.

Paso Robles and Atascadero police officers, as well as county sheriff's deputies, served a warrant at the home of Christopher James Sprague, 34, where they found numerous items of unopened merchandise. The times included collectibles, clothing, cologne, video games, movies, water filtration devices, baby items and hair conditioner, a Paso Robles Police Department new release states. Read more

For further information on PROACT, email inquiries to PROACT@eBay.com.

StopLift's 'SmartAssist' AI Demo at NRF
Prevents False Alerts, Detects Self-Checkout Theft
[Booth #4963]

Retail chains can now receive real-time reporting on self-checkout theft and other scan avoidance, prevent false alerts, and improve customer service at the self-checkout with StopLift Checkout Vision Systems' 'SmartAssist' artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Watch live real-time demonstrations of theft detection at Booth #4963.

SmartAssist AI prevents false alerts and interventions, immediately flags unscanned merchandise at the self-checkout, and alerts the attendant before the customer leaves the checkout. The system can also identify an item not meant for purchase but placed in the bagging area, such as a purse or reusable shopping bag, so that no alert will be sent and no beep will occur.

U.S. retailers lose about $14 billion in shrink every year at the checkout, and the risk of loss increases as retailers deploy more self-checkouts.

The technology works in the entire spectrum of self-checkouts and POS systems. NCR Corporation has incorporated StopLift's AI capabilities into its self-checkout solutions to address retailers' concerns over shrink and to provide frictionless checkout. NCR is the global leader in self-checkout technology, with more than 250,000 installations worldwide.

Working with retailers on four continents, StopLift has already detected and confirmed more than 3.2 million scan avoidance incidents at thousands of manned and self-checkouts in retail chains, and enabled retailers to improve cashier and self-checkout attendant training. StopLift's patented video analytics technology visually determines what occurs during each transaction to immediately distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent behavior at the checkout.

"SmartAssist enhances weight-based security to handle a broader spectrum of cases," said Malay Kundu, Founder and CEO of StopLift. "Until now, security at the self-checkout has been performed solely by weight scales. Unfortunately, weight scales take time to settle, and legitimate purchases do not always match their expected weight in the database. As a result, conventional security measures often produce mistaken alerts which frustrate customers, leading some retailers to disable security and expose themselves to theft."

StopLift's video analytics enables self-checkouts to detect theft and unintentional scan avoidance that circumvent the weight sensor. For example, the system can detect merchandise left in the shopping cart or bagged outside of the bagging area without scanning. With real-time alerts, the attendant is notified right away and can take immediate action before the customer leaves the checkout.

By utilizing StopLift's video analytics to "double check" potential alerts, SmartAssist can effectively prevent unwarranted interventions. This protects the shopper from the annoyance of having the transaction interrupted, the embarrassment of having the self-checkout light flash, and the frustration of waiting for an attendant to come and clear it.

"This means no more customer complaints of, 'The machine beeped at me!'" Kundu said.

Fewer false-positive alerts make their way to the attendant, who can now act properly on legitimate alerts and cover a greater number of self-checkout stations. This means greater productivity gains and associated labor savings for the retailer.

Customers have fewer interruptions, less time at the self-checkout and more positive face time with attendants. Every self-checkout customer checks out faster in shorter lines. Retailers make more sales, and customers have a more positive checkout experience.

Watch live real-time demonstrations of StopLift theft detection
at Booth #4963 at the NRF Big Show.
 

Secret Service: Theft Rings Turn to Fuze Cards
Lets fraudsters switch between 30 different cards at the POS with the push of a button

Street thieves who specialize in cashing out stolen credit and debit cards increasingly are hedging their chances of getting caught carrying multiple counterfeit cards by relying on Fuze Cards, a smartcard technology that allows users to store dozens of cards on a single device, the U.S. Secret Service warns.

Launched in May 2017, the Fuze Card is a data storage device that looks like a regular credit card but can hold account data for up to 30 credit cards. The Fuze Card displays no credit card number on either side, instead relying on a small display screen on the front that cardholders can use to change which stored card is to be used to complete a transaction.

An internal memo the U.S. Secret Service shared with financial industry partners states that card theft rings are using Fuze Cards to avoid raising suspicions that may arise when shuffling through multiple counterfeit cards at the register.

"The transaction may also appear as a declined transaction but the fraudster, with the push of a button, is changing the card numbers being used," the memo notes.

Fraud rings often will purchase data on thousands of credit and debit cards stolen from hacked point-of-sale devices or obtained via physical card skimmers. The data can be encoded onto any card with a magnetic stripe, and then used to buy high-priced items at retail outlets - or to withdrawn funds from ATMs (if the fraudsters also have the cardholder's PIN). krebsonsecurity.com

The Sales Associate's Assistant
How AI is Making an Impact on Brick & Mortar
Keeping Pace With the Customers Need for Speed
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also making its way into stores...but not in the way you may think.  We aren't quite at the future where robots will be roaming around stores catering to every customers' need. However, where AI is playing a pivotal role in stores today is by acting as an assistant for store employees - helping them provide a better overall experience.   

For example, often, customers have questions that aren't common knowledge for the store workers. They either must call the internal support team for answers or the deflect the question completely - leaving customers waiting and frustrated. AI is helping make these painful situations significantly better. Whether it's an update to a return policy, redeeming reward points, registry issues, sale questions -- AI is helping provide answers to those "HQ-level" questions so that the clerks have everything they need at their fingertips.

It can also help these employees provide personalized service for every person that walks in the door.  By providing contextual answers, information can be tailored based on the location, seasonality or other policies that would vary from store to store. AI can recommend options or services that are available in that store and avoid making general suggestions that may be out of stock or not available in that specific location.  This type of service would be impossible without AI working in the background to quickly access data. It's helping make associates smarter on business issues and even the customers that walk into the store - so they can create a "wow factor" experience that leads to long-term loyalty. retaildive.com

Armed with tech, Goodwill joins fight against designer fakes
Shopgoodwill.com, the e-commerce site used by several Goodwill organizations to sell items online nationwide, on Thursday announced it will use an AI-based solution from authentication technology firm Entrupy to guarantee that luxury accessories sold there are genuine.

As donations come in to stores, Goodwill employees will use Entrupy to verify authenticity before listing them on the site. Items found to be counterfeit will be dismantled and repurposed for other uses like craft materials or textile recycling, Ryan Smith, senior director online operations at shopgoodwill.com, told Retail Dive in an interview. retaildive.com

Things Have Gotten Worst Not Better For Kaspersky Labs
Even After Identifying a NSA Contractor - Leaker in 2016
For security vendor Kaspersky, who played a vital role in identifying and convicting a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor leaking 50 terbytes of classified U.S. government data in 2016, things have actually gotten worse for Kaspersky Lab as far as its relations with the US government are concerned. US federal agencies are currently banned from using Kaspersky Lab products and are under instructions to jettison any products of the company that they might have purchased previously.

The ban stems from suspicions that Kaspersky Lab is allowing Russian intelligence to spy on and scoop up data from computers running the company's anti-malware tools. Kaspersky Lab has vehemently denied the allegations against it and has said the ban has seriously hurt its reputation and its ability to sell to US customers. The company has even taken the extreme step of offering up its source code for inspection by third-parties to support its claims.

Kaspersky Lab had nothing to lose by turning Martin in; and some, in fact, could view the whole sequence of events as a clever play by Russian intelligence to take suspicion off the company, he says. "So, we are still where we were - no evidence Kaspersky Lab takes orders from Russian intelligence, but no real way to prove they don't."

After all the leaker emailed them initially and all they did was turn him in. darkreading.com

'Inside the LPRC IMPACT Conference' 2018
An Eight-Episode Series Presented by Sensormatic

Assessing The Real-World Impact of LP Efforts
The LPRC Delivers Evidence-Based Solutions and Actionable Results

New Solution Providers' Expectations

The Value - Expectations - Benefit
Discussing the Expectations and Reasons for Joining LPRC

Mark Ebersbach , Sales Director, Retail, FaceFirst
Phil Thomson, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Auror

In our 4th episode, hear from two relatively new members of the LPRC, who share their perspective on why they joined, what their expectations are, and how they measure success. 

Phil Thomson, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Auror - a new solution provider to the U.S. market specializing in ORC software - tells us what motivated the New Zealand-based company to join the LPRC and how it fits their industry approach of seeing themselves as part of a larger ecosystem of retailers, solution providers, and products.

Mark Ebersbach, Sales Director, Retail, FaceFirst - the leading facial recognition solution provider for retailers in the U.S. - explains how being able to meet with other LPRC members and participate in working group projects helps FaceFirst develop a better product and ultimately puts more technology in stores.
 

Exclusive Sponsor:

See more of our 2nd LPRC series here. Watch our 1st series here.
Take the time to learn. As this is the LP/AP academic "Think Tank".

Biggest E-Commerce Irritant? Post-Purchase Problems
Preliminary holiday e-Commerce sales reports have been encouraging, but they don't tell the whole story: 61% of global consumers felt let down by their online shopping experience during the period, up from 47% in 2017 and 41% in 2016, according to the 2018 Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Study. While the U.S. had a lower percentage of shopper dissatisfaction than the global average, 56%, that percentage represents a dramatic increase from the 2017 figure of 36%.

Retailers have been making strides in eliminating friction during the shopper journey, from introducing AI-powered curation to helping shoppers try before they buy with augmented reality. However, the pain points irritating shoppers occur mostly after their orders have been placed. Common complaints include late delivery, expensive shipping, tracking inaccuracies, confusing return policies and lost or incorrect items.

Retailers can't afford to let these issues go unaddressed: Pitney Bowes found that in response to a bad post-purchase experience, 90% of U.S. online shoppers will take action that can hurt a retailer's brand. These can range from sharing their frustrations on social media to never purchasing from that site again. Millennials in particular are happy to go public: 30% will complain in an online review or social media post after they experience post-purchase issues.

Pitney Bowes found that high-growth retailers (25% or greater year-over-year revenue growth) place a greater emphasis on the post-purchase consumer experience, which includes offering services like free returns, day-definite guaranteed delivery and easy returns with preprinted labels. Nearly half (49%) of shoppers consider "free and easy returns" to be a priority, so meeting these needs gives top retailers a tangible advantage.

"Fast" (66%) and "free" (80%) are the two most important criteria U.S. shoppers consider when deciding where to shop online, and 91% of shoppers will leave a web site if such services aren't available. retailtouchpoints.com

Credit card data breach at DiscountMugs.com
DiscountMugs.com, a large online custom mug store, had a four-month-long data breach just before the Christmas holiday season, according to TechCrunch.

The hackers stole credit card numbers, the security code and expiration date, as well as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and ZIP. Hackers siphoned off credit card numbers from customers who made orders through its site between August 5 and November 16, 2018 using code injected on the company's payments page.

However, the malicious card skimming code was removed from the site after it was discovered. The company didn't say how many people were affected by the breach. It's believed to be thousands of customers who made purchases through the site during the four-month period. thepaypers.com

Walmart expands driverless delivery efforts

Amazon removes bathmats and items imprinted with verses from the Koran following complaints

Greenville, SC: Police arrest 6 in investigation of Organized Theft Ring;
$76,000 in merchandise from Home Depot and Lowes
Greenville Police believe they have thwarted a theft ring targeting home improvement stores in Greenville and across South Carolina. The Greenville Police Department arrested six people in connection to the operation. Four others are wanted. The investigation began with complaints of ongoing thefts.

"We entered into a collaboration with several retailers, security, their loss-prevention officers...Lowe's and Home Depot, especially," said Howie Thompson, captain of investigations at Greenville Police Department. Investigators found about $76,000 worth of merchandise was shoplifted from Oct. 19 to Jan. 1 from multiple stores in the Upstate. About $71,000 was taken from Home Depot, while more than $5,000 was stolen from Lowe's. Police say the thefts were part of an organized crime ring. In total, six people have been arrested, including the man police say served as the ringleader in the operation, Thomas Brenore Sullivan. wspa.com

Urbana, IL: Three women charged in $13,000 gift-card theft scheme at Target
Three of four women arrested last week in Champaign in connection with a gift-card theft scheme were criminally charged Wednesday. Appearing in court Wednesday for arraignment on a charge of theft over $10,000 were Dejujuana Poke, 20, Asia Neely, 22, and Lakeya Miller, 30. A fourth woman, Symone Simmons, 26, was issued a notice to appear in court Jan. 16 to face a similar charge. According to police, the women were allegedly responsible for the theft of several thousand dollars worth of merchandise and gift cards from Target, between Dec. 13 and Jan. 3. The report said security officials at the store became aware that Poke, who was employed as a cashier over the holidays, had accepted counterfeit motion picture bills from four unknown people on two occasions. By viewing store security video, the officials learned that Poke allegedly accepted the fake bills without counting them, put them in the cash drawer and gave no change in exchange for about $13,176 worth of gift cards and merchandise, such as high-end vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. Champaign police detectives were at the store Jan. 3 when Poke was working and watched as she again accepted bills from women in exchange for several prepaid Visa gift cards totaling thousands of dollars. news-gazette.com

Taunton,MA: Woman with 6 Outstanding Theft Warrants busted at Target
for $2,000 theft
Items that were concealed under the sweater of Amanda Manning and Casie Svedine, police said, included 2 baby monitors, 3 Amazon Fire Sticks, a Nintendo controller and a Fitbit fitness band. southcoasttoday.com

Greenwood, IN: Police track suspect, persons of interest in mall shoplifting case
Greenwood police need your help identifying four alleged shoplifters. Investigators say three women and a man entered Macy's at the Greenwood Park Mall a week before Christmas. Targeting clothing, they grabbed as much merchandise as they could carry and tried to leave the store without paying.

When a store employee tried to stop them, the man and two of the women dropped what they were holding and took off. Only one woman, according to police, held on to the almost $1,800 worth of North Face gear she was carrying. wthr.com

Guam: Home Depot Loss Prevention arrested for $4,700 theft
A Home Depot security guard has been charged with theft after a manager said he helped someone else take $4,700 worth of merchandise from the store, according to a magistrate's complaint filed in Superior Court. Ken Manuel, 36, was charged with retail theft as a second degree felony and criminal facilitation to commit retail theft as a misdemeanor. guampdn.com

Hendersonville, TN: Three suspects wanted for $1,000 theft from a Shoe Store

Chesterfield Township. MI: Man wanted for shoplifting nearly $300 in underwear from Meijer

Windsor, ON, Canada: Optical Shop targeted by well Organized Thieves; $40,000 of merchandise stolen
 

Submit Your New Hires/Promotions or New Position

Featured Job Spotlights

	Asset Protection Director, Analytics & Fraud Management Pataskala, OH The Asset Protection Director, Analytics & Fraud Management will be responsible for leading teams focused on delivering insights and managing fraud risk for the enterprise through the use of advanced technology and statistical analysis. The Analytics & Fraud Management teams will serve multiple internal customers at the Ascena level and within the brands...
	District Loss Prevention Manager Eastern PA/NJ The District Loss Prevention Manager ensures shrinkage control and improves safety in the stores through proper investigation and training. This position is responsible to provide feedback, guidance and protection for our Team Leaders and Associates. This role has oversight and responsibility for approximately 15-20 store locations...
NEW TODAY	Loss Prevention Investigator Media, PA Wawa is looking for an accomplished Loss Prevention Investigator with an undergrad degree in Criminal Justice and previous experience in the retail industry (Multi-Unit). The Loss Prevention Investigator is responsible for utilizing proper investigative techniques and act as the primary liaison with field operations management...
	Retail Security and Safety Specialist Multiple Locations This job contributes to REI's success by ensuring the security and safety of your store team and members by providing a presence on REI property and events. Activities include but are not limited to: fostering partnerships with and training store management and staff and taking action to address shrink and security. Models and acts in accordance with REI's guiding values and mission. Apply now for positions in: Soho, NY Washington D.C. San Francisco, CA Portland, OR Bellevue, WA...
	Regional Safety and LP Specialist Miami, FL The Safety and Loss Prevention Specialist is a subject matter expert responsible for partnering with both our corporate stores and franchise store operations to improve the safety and training processes. This includes reducing motor vehicle accidents, reducing work-related injuries, and ensuring OSHA / DOT compliance through the implementation of corporate or franchisee plans in accordance with local, state, and federal rules and regulations...

Featured Jobs

To apply to any of today's Featured Jobs, Click Here

Today's Daily Job Postings from all around the net - Appearing today only

To apply to today's Internet Jobs, Click Here

Sponsor Today's Internet Jobs 

Leadership Lessons from Mary Poppins, Dungeons & Dragons and Candy
 

We want to post your tips or advice... Click here

Not getting the Daily? Is it ending up in your spam folder?
Please make sure to add d-ddaily@downing-downing.com to your contact list, address book, trusted sender list, and/or company whitelist to ensure you receive our newsletter. 
Want to know how? Read Here