The Big Apple's 'Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card' for Shoplifting
NYC Shoplifting Rates Surge 90% Since 2019
Shoplifting incidents in New York City have reportedly surged more than 90% since 2019, leading to a roughly 90% increase in financial losses for retailers. The National Retail Federation has ranked New York as the second most affected city by organized retail crime. Manhattan District Attorney candidate Maud Maron has criticized District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his lenient policies contributing to the crisis.

Maron said, “The surge in shoplifting is not surprising.” She added, “The get-out-of-jail-free card that Alvin Bragg has been issuing for the last three and a half years is not subtle.”

Maron argued that Bragg’s memo on unprosecuted crimes has revealed a tolerance for wrongdoing. She called for stricter retail law enforcement, prompting Bragg campaign spokesperson Richard Fife to counter, citing crime reductions.

Maron said, “Alvin Bragg ran as a George Soros-backed progressive prosecutor, and his implementing progressive criminal justice policies means that he tries to keep as few people in jail as possible. He tries to prosecute as few people as possible, and he tries to prosecute the lowest possible charge that he can get away with doing.”

Fife argued that rising shoplifting rates haven’t reflected the administration’s efforts against organized retail theft. He highlighted Bragg’s cooperation with law enforcement.

Fife stated, “While there is much more to do, in the last two years, NYPD stats report that burglary is down 11%, robbery is down 8%, grand larceny is down 11%, and murder is down 35%.” He added, “When experienced prosecutor Alvin Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in January 2022, NYC—like nearly every city—was still reeling from the COVID national crime spike.”

Retailers reported an average of 177 daily shoplifting incidents in 2023, with some sectors exceeding 1,000. The NRF warned that without comprehensive strategies, reducing retail theft and protecting consumers remains difficult. msn.com


'Record-Breaking Theft' in the UK
ONS figures show another record-breaking year of shop theft

The retail industry has responded to the publication of record new crime figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2025 figures, released this morning (24 July), show the number of shoplifting offences that have been recorded by the police over the last year. In the year to March 2025, shoplifting offences rose by 20% to 530,643 from 444,022 in the previous year.

This is the highest figure recorded by the ONS since the figures started being collected in this way in 2003, continuing a trend of record-breaking levels of theft.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) highlighted the continued need for action on shop theft and other retail crime offences.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “These record-breaking shop theft figures continue to demonstrate the need for retail crime to be taken seriously throughout the justice system, as only then will we be able to start bringing the numbers down and stop widespread reoffending by criminals that are acting with confidence that they will not be apprehended."

“We encourage retailers to report every crime that is committed against their business.”

Figures from the ACS 2025 Crime Report show that convenience stores recorded over 6.2million incidents of shop theft over the last year and that more than half of retailers (59%) believed that organised crime had increased over the last year.

The report highlights significant challenges with the level of crime reporting – just over a third of all crimes (36%) were reported to the police by retailers over the last year, with those figures much lower for shop theft incidents. talkingretail.com


'Anti-Theft Arms Race'
The Retail Sector's Anti-Theft Arms Race and the Unintended Surge in E-Commerce

Retailers face 26% shoplifting surge, deploying AI locks and surveillance to combat theft but alienating 58% of consumers who shift to e-commerce.

The retail sector is undergoing a seismic shift as traditional brick-and-mortar stores grapple with surging theft rates and the unintended consequences of their anti-theft strategies. From 2022 to 2023, shoplifting incidents rose by 26%, with 42% of retailers reporting violent theft-related incidents.

In response, retailers have deployed aggressive security measures—locked displays, tamper-resistant cages, and AI-driven surveillance systems—to curb losses. However, these tactics are not only alienating consumers but also accelerating the migration of shoppers to e-commerce platforms, where convenience and perceived safety are paramount. For investors, this dynamic presents both risks and opportunities in the evolving retail vs. e-commerce value shift.

The Cost of Security: Consumer Alienation and E-Commerce Migration

Retailers like Walmart and Target have spent billions on anti-theft measures, including RFID tagging, AI-powered checkout systems, and "smart locks" that restrict access to high-value goods. While these strategies have reduced shrinkage (Walmart's e-commerce sales grew 21% year-over-year in 2025), they have also eroded the in-store shopping experience.

A 2025 Flock Safety and Zencity survey revealed that 58% of consumers prefer e-commerce due to retail crime, with 63% of those who witnessed theft in person shifting to online shopping. Younger consumers (under 35) and minority shoppers are particularly sensitive to these changes, with 40% more of the former and 50% more of the latter avoiding physical stores.

The frustration is palpable: 78% of shoppers find locked displays "annoying," and 70% struggle to locate staff to unlock them. These roadblocks create a transactional, impersonal experience that e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart+ have capitalized on. ainvest.com


Is the Cure Worse Than The Shoplifting Problem?
CVS and Target's anti-theft crackdown hurting sales

CVS, Walmart, and Target have all made a controversial change that many honest customers don’t like.

Most Americans don’t shoplift. In fact, the vast majority of shoppers pay for all of their items and want to have the easiest experience possible.

The problem, of course, is that some people do shoplift and their numbers have arguably increased due to the rise in retailer's using self-checkout. It appears that some otherwise honest people perhaps don't make a full effort to scan every item at self-checkout.

Retail stores run on tight margins and a few percentage points could easily be the difference between a viable location and a money-losing one. Locking up items may make it easier for stores to track easy-to-steal (or not scan) smaller items, but the locked cabinets are sending customers away.

Over 60% of shoppers will "typically wait for assistance when they encounter locked up merchandise, and 9% say they order the item online from that same retailer. However, 17% say they will switch retailers (10% online, 7% in-store), and 10% say they will abandon the purchase altogether.," according to the report.

That's a lot of people walking away from purchases and a ton of money not being spent in stores locking up merchandise. Locking up merchandise may cut down on theft, since the store knows which items have been taken off the shelves, but the cost may be too high. thestreet.com


The Great Global Debate Over the Theft Surge
UK: “Shoplifting Comes Down To Open Borders!”
Shoplifting in England and Wales has hit its highest level in over 20 years, with more than 530,000 offences reported in the year to March 2025—a 20% rise, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Retailers say theft is "spiralling out of control" and warn that organised gangs are targeting multiple stores in a single day.

The British Retail Consortium said the crime wave is costing businesses and customers £2.2 billion a year and putting staff at risk of violence. The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) reported over 6 million thefts from smaller shops and said many crimes go unreported due to lack of police response.

Retail leaders are calling for tougher action, including scrapping the £200 threshold that limits police involvement in lower-value thefts. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said new measures in the Crime and Policing Bill would boost patrols in over 500 town centres and add 3,000 more local officers by next spring. youtube.com


Maryland store turns to AI technology to catch potential shoplifters

Canada: Local businesses suffering as shoplifting incidents increase
 

Retail Cyberattacks are Surging
I am a cybersecurity pro and here's the most powerful strategy criminals are using against retailers right now

Retail ransomware surges via trusted tools, insiders

The recent ransomware attack on Peter Green Chilled, a UK logistics provider responsible for refrigerated deliveries to major supermarkets, didn’t just delay shipments. It sent a warning shot to the entire retail industry. When chilled goods can’t reach stores, the consequences are immediate: shelves go empty, supply chains falter and customer trust erodes. This attack joins a string of recent incidents targeting retailers including Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Harrods, Adidas and Victoria’s Secret.

What’s happening isn’t random. Retail is being deliberately and strategically targeted by cybercriminal groups aiming to create high-impact disruption. These organizations are particularly vulnerable because they rely on just-in-time logistics, operate on thin margins and depend on a vast network of third-party vendors and suppliers. When one link in that chain breaks, the effects cascade, making retailers more likely to pay ransoms to get back online fast.

Scattered Spider and the Evolution of Social Engineering

Among the groups behind this wave of attacks is Scattered Spider, also known by its designation UNC3944, a highly sophisticated collective that has focused its efforts on enterprises in both the UK and the U.S.

Scattered Spider rose to notoriety through phishing and SIM-swapping campaigns, but it has since evolved into a much more formidable threat. Today, the group employs a blend of social engineering, credential harvesting and abuse of legitimate tools to infiltrate environments and evade detection.

Key to Scattered Spider’s effectiveness is its ability to impersonate internal support teams. By using tactics like help desk impersonation and SMS-based phishing, also known as smishing, they exploit trust relationships within an organization. Employees, particularly those in IT and administrative roles, become the primary targets. When these workers are convinced to reset MFA settings or hand over credentials, the attackers gain immediate, privileged access.

What sets Scattered Spider apart is its fluency in English, familiarity with Western business operations and ability to operate in real time. These are not language-barrier-limited, spray-and-pray operations. These are targeted intrusions executed with precision. techradar.com


'Millions of Customers Scrambling to Protect Personal Information'
Australian Fashion Retailer Sabo Exposes 3.5 Million Customer Records in Unsecured Database

In the ever-vulnerable world of retail cybersecurity, an Australian fashion powerhouse has become the latest victim of a massive data exposure, leaving millions of customers scrambling to protect their personal information.

In the ever-vulnerable world of retail cybersecurity, an Australian fashion powerhouse has become the latest victim of a massive data exposure, leaving millions of customers scrambling to protect their personal information.

According to a recent report from TechRadar, the breach involves an unencrypted database belonging to Sabo, a popular online fashion retailer, which was left exposed without password protection. Discovered by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler in collaboration with vpnMentor, the database contained over 3.5 million records, including sensitive details like full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and shipping information dating back to 2015.

The exposure underscores a glaring oversight in data management practices at Sabo, a brand known for its trendy apparel and global reach. Fowler’s investigation revealed that the database was publicly accessible, potentially allowing unauthorized parties to harvest the information for malicious purposes such as phishing scams or identity theft. While there’s no immediate evidence of exploitation, the sheer volume of exposed data—totaling 3,587,960 records—raises alarms about the potential for widespread fraud, especially in an era where cybercriminals increasingly target retail sectors for quick gains.

Industry experts point out that such breaches often stem from basic configuration errors, like failing to secure cloud-based storage. In this case, as detailed in the TechRadar analysis, the database was hosted on an Elasticsearch server, a common tool for managing large datasets but one that requires rigorous security protocols. Sabo has since acknowledged the issue, claiming to have secured the database promptly after being notified, though questions linger about how long it remained vulnerable and why it wasn’t encrypted from the outset. webpronews.com


Remote Worker Scams
Treasury sanctions North Koreans involved in IT-worker schemes

Authorities also charged several of the indicted people with attempting to evade U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday sanctioned three North Koreans and their company for participating in remote IT worker scams and other operations designed to generate revenue for Pyongyang.

The sanctions target the North Korean firm Korea Sobaeksu Trading Co., Sobaeksu employee Kim Se Un, Sobaeksu “IT team leader” Jo Kyong Hun and Kim’s associate Myong Chol Min.

The Treasury Department calls Sobaeksu a front for North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons program. North Korea “has previously utilized Sobaeksu to send teams of IT workers overseas, including to Vietnam, in order to generate revenue,” the department said.

North Korean IT workers have increasingly infiltrated U.S. companies in recent years, with the intruders using their access to exfiltrate proprietary data and other information. cybersecuritydive.com

What 50 companies got wrong about cloud identity security

Online Shopper Deception
Is Shopper Deception Worse Online Than Offline?
A recent survey found 72% of Australian consumers encountering “a potentially unfair practice” from an online retail marketplace in the previous 12 months, such as hidden charges, accidental clicks, or accidental subscriptions.

The survey of over 3,000 Australians aged 14 and older acted as part of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) five-year investigation designed to better understand consumer’s experiences using online retail marketplaces — such as U.S. sites Amazon and eBay, China’s Shein and Temu, and Australia’s Kogan.

The research broke the potential infractions into five offense areas:

• Marketing e-mails: 42% received marketing-mails after their purchase or visit reminding them about things they didn’t purchase/left in their shopping cart; 23% received marketing emails they never knowingly signed up for, or felt ‘tricked’ into receiving.

• Forced sign-up: 16% were required to sign up for marketing communications in order to complete a purchase; 8% were required to sign up for a paid subscription in order to complete a purchase.

• Repeated reminders: 19% received repeated reminders to purchase addition service at checkout (such as a paid subscription or insurance); 18% received related reminders for sign up for additional marketing e-mails at checkout.

• Accidental subscriptions: 10% accidentally signed up for a paid subscription due to the way the option was worded.

• Accidental clicks: 20% clicked on a product or service in search results that they didn’t realize was an advertisement.

• Hidden charges: 21% discovered fees or charges at the checkout that weren’t disclosed beforehand (including delivery fees).