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Solution Provider News - Keeping You Informed
The busiest time of year - When it all counts

Nedap Awards Under Armour 5 LPF Scholarships
Nedap, the global leader in RFID-based retail solutions, awards Under Armour, Inc., the lead inventor, marketer and distributor of branded performance athletic apparel, footwear and accessories, with five Loss Prevention Foundation (LPF) scholarships.

Nedap selected Under Armour due to its continuous partnership with Nedap and its innovative loss prevention approach. These scholarships will help support Under Armour's loss prevention team by enabling them to achieve their LPCertified designation (LPC), which is rapidly becoming the standard in loss prevention and asset protection professional development. nedap-retail.com   Meet Nedap at NRF PROTECT, booth #830.

Pictured Left: Mike Kujawa (Senior Regional Manager- Asset Protection at Under Armour) and Wouter Ubbels (Director of Sales at Nedap)

Vector Security® Secures $450M Credit Facility
Vector Security - a leading provider of residential and commercial security and automation solutions; and the fourth largest security company in the United States - announced today that, effective June 3, 2019, it has entered into a $450 million credit agreement led by PNC Bank, National Association as Administrative Agent; PNC Capital Markets LLC as Sole Bookrunner and Joint Lead Arranger; with Bank of America and U.S. Bank acting as Joint Lead Arrangers and Syndication Agents.

Vector Security plans to use the proceeds of the credit agreement for repayment of its existing credit facility, for working capital purposes, to finance acquisitions such as the recently announced purchase of ADS Security based in Nashville, Tennessee, and for general corporate purposes. vectorsecurity.com   Visit Vector Security Networks @ NRF Protect Booth #685

At NRF Protect, 3xLOGIC Showcases TRENDS, Other Innovations for Retail
3xLOGIC, Inc., a leading provider of integrated, intelligent security solutions, and a three-time Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winner, today announced the company will be showcasing its AI-enhanced TRENDS Business Intelligence software at the NRF Protect show (booth #733) - starting 11 June - among a wide array of innovations for the retail market.

3xLOGIC TRENDS is designed to meet the needs of medium to large multi-site enterprises. The software provides actionable intelligence from the massive amount of dark data available from devices such as sensors, cameras, time/attendance systems, access control devices, ATMs, point of sale, and other analytical tools. Read more

Loss Prevention is Just The Beginning
Join S-TRON in honoring service men and women at NRF PROTECT - Booth #911

With conflicts around the globe hindering our quality of life and national security, we live in a time of uncertainty. As such, our brave men and women in the armed forces are currently deployed to many assignments overseas. At S-TRON, our founders and 30% of our employees are veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. This year, we're sending out thousands of post cards with notes of encouragement and appreciation to deployed service members.

When you stop by booth #911 at the NRF Protect Convention this year, we'll have blank post cards available for you to write an encouraging note to our service members, thanking them for their sacrifice. s-tron.com
 

Wicklander-Zulawski Announces Dave Thompson, CFI as Partner
International training organization, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates (WZ) is excited to announce Dave Thompson, CFI and VP of Operations as a Partner of the firm, joining fellow leaders Shane Sturman, CFI, CPP and Wayne Hoover, CFI. Thompson has been an integral part of the leadership team and consistently contributing to the evolution of WZ, following in the footsteps of industry titan, Dave Zulawski, CFI, CFE.

Thompson has occupied various roles with WZ over the previous five years including management of investigations and consulting, leading research and innovation and currently as the VP of Operations. His passion for continued education, academic partnership, business acumen and providing WZ clients with the most current and relevant information all contributed to the decision by Sturman and Hoover. Thompson will continue to serve in his role at WZ, including instructing programs on non-confrontational interviewing methods across the globe. Read More Here

Inside The Secretive World Of Counterfeit Printer Ink,
And The Raids Used To Fight Back
Deep in the bowels of companies like Hewlett-Packard, an elite squad composed largely of former law enforcement personnel is currently hard at work planning a series of covert raids around the world.

Their target: Counterfeit printer ink and toner cartridges. According to the Imaging Supplies Coalition, the annual market for counterfeit printer cartridges adds up to roughly $3.5 billion in market value. To combat this issue, manufacturers and other interested parties extensively with law enforcement around the world to track and raid these printer pirates.

To learn more about the world of counterfeit printer supplies, Forbes spoke with Andy Binder, HP's Vice President & General Manager of Office Supplies and Solutions, about how his company is fighting back.

Let's talk raids for a second. Talk to me about how you guys work with law enforcement, how raids are carried out?

BINDER: This is a very interesting and cool part of the business. We have a bunch of regional investigators who oversee investigation work all over the world. These people most often have former law enforcement backgrounds, and so they are used to being very conscious of this type of behavior and they go out and they follow up on leads. They establish a communication link with local law enforcement. Essentially, what they do is build the case. They do evidence, they do surveillance, and then bring it to the local office and law enforcement to take action.

HP often does this on behalf of other manufacturers as well, because some of the counterfeits are not just counterfeiting HP, but they're making them of many other brands' products as well.

So we work with the local officials and bring the case to them and they go through the appropriate approval processes and then take action. Sometimes it's in marketplaces, as in physical stores, where they'll go in and raid the stores and confiscate all the product as well as arrest the individual there. In other cases, we find manufacturing facilities where they're able to take over the entire manufacturing facility and capture the components as well as the finished goods they have there.

So in 2018, we had over 500 raids, confiscating over eight million units of counterfeit products and components. So it's a very significant process that we have in place with lots of raids in order to keep on top of this and really create a clean marketplace for our consumers. forbes.com

Hawaii: Retailers push against bill allowing gift card cash redemption
House Bill 314, which sits on the Governor's desk waiting to be signed into law, is worrying local retailers. It states that for any gift certificate or gift card with a remaining balance less than $5, the retailer is required to redeem the remaining value for cash. Tina Yamaki, president of Retail Merchants of Hawaii, said that this bill could potentially hit small retailers in Hawaii.

Customers and criminals abusing the the gift card cash redemption privilege is the biggest issue Yamaki sees Hawaii retailers facing if the bill is signed into law. According to Retail Merchants of Hawaii's Retail Security Committee, there have been cases of criminals using gift cards as currency by stealing an item, returning it as a "gift" they received without a receipt and receiving the full purchase price back. bizjournals.com

Wine Biz Bilked Investors Through 'Shark Tank' Glass Scheme
A wine dealer pled guilty in a Long Island federal court on Monday to wire fraud charges after prosecutors accused him of swindling investors out of over $500,000 with promises to invest in innovations like those featured on the TV show "Shark Tank."

Long Island alcohol vendor Joseph Falcone, 59, allegedly took in $527,064 of investors' money intended to fund innovative products, such as a single serving of wine in a sealed glass that was featured on ABC's "Shark Tank," but instead used the money to buy a house in Florida and make other investments.

In 2014 and 2015, Falcone allegedly defrauded investors through his wine and liquor distribution business, 3G'S VINO LLC, based in Farmingdale and Bethpage, New York, according to prosecutors. justice.gov

U.S. Customs & Border Protection says photos of travelers taken in data breach
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Monday that photos of travelers had been compromised as part of a "malicious cyberattack," raising concerns over how federal officials' expanding surveillance efforts could imperil Americans' privacy.

Customs officials said in a statement Monday that the images, which included photos of people's faces and license plates, had been compromised as part of an attack on an unnamed federal subcontractor.

Fewer than 100,000 people were impacted, said CBP, citing "initial reports." The photographs were taken of people in vehicles entering and exiting the U.S. over a month and a half through a single land border entry port, which CBP did not name. washingtonpost.com

Huawei Represents Massive Supply Chain Risk: Report
The Chinese technology giant's enormous product and service footprint gives it access to more data than almost any other single organization.

A new report from threat intelligence firm Recorded Future portrays Chinese technology giant Huawei as presenting a substantially bigger threat to US interests and organizations than currently perceived.

According to the firm, Huawei's enormous range of technologies and products and its global customer base has put the company in a position to access an unprecedented amount of information on organizations, governments, and people worldwide. Huawei's obligations to the Chinese government under various national security and related statutes puts that data at risk of interception and compromise, Recorded Future said. darkreading.com

Department of Justice Reminds the Public to be Aware of Fraud When Disaster Strikes and Report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud
As the 2019 hurricane season begins, the Department of Justice reminds the public to be on the lookout for fraud against natural disaster victims, and report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF). The Atlantic Hurricane Season opened June 1 and runs through November 30.

The Department of Justice established the NCDF in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region, which opened opportunities for criminals to exploit people during vulnerable times. justice.gov

To learn more about the NCDF please visit the website at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud and watch a public service announcement.

Sears Owes $20M For Hurricane-Damaged Store, Mall Says
The management of a Puerto Rican shopping mall has told a New York bankruptcy court that Sears broke its lease when it failed to rebuild a store damaged by Hurricane Maria and owes it $20.8 million in damages. Santa Rosa Mall LLC alleged in a complaint filed Friday that Sears Holding Co.'s lease required it to repair the hurricane damage and that any insurance payout be earmarked for that purpose, but that Sears instead abandoned the store and passed the insurance proceeds on with other assets in Sear's bankruptcy sale. law360.com

Thousands of Jobs Eliminated as Nestle, Kellogg's & Others
Dump Their Direct-Store-Delivery Routes
Nestlé U.S. announced last month that it was ending its DSD (direct store delivery) program for brands including DiGiorno and Skinny Cow in a supply model that seems to be about to disappear outside of bread, soda and beer.

Nestlé will instead ship goods to retailer distribution centers for them to move to individual stores - meaning lots of drivers, merchandisers and other staff will no longer be needed. Some 4,000 jobs will be lost as the operation covers 230 facilities, 1,400 trucks and 2,000 different delivery routes. In 2017, Kellogg announced plans to eliminate 1,200 distribution jobs as it exited direct store delivery for similar reasons. retailwire.com

The Art of the Out-of-Office Reply
The first day of summer is days away, and if you have any upcoming vacation, it's time to brush up on crafting your out-of-office email. Whether you keep it simple, or you plan on injecting humor into your OOO, it's good to have a plan. The New York Times collected some exemplary replies, including one with the subject line "nope" and a message that read, "I'm not planning on reading any old emails when I get back." nytimes.com