In this meeting, the academic team will introduce their findings from their new research on the scale and nature of the returns fraud, and new ways to tackle the problem

Over the last twelve months, the researchers have immersed themselves in a) the dark web and platforms such as Telegram to learn the methods and habits of returns fraudsters, b) they have conducted a survey of over 6,000 internet shoppers over five countries to understand the prevalence of the different types of fraud, from wardrobing to bricking, and finally, c) they interviewed dozens of retailer experts and engaged them in brainstorming events to imagine new interventions to the most common fraud types.

In this meeting they will share the insights they have gained from the dark web, the results from the quantitative survey on consumer's likelihood to participate in returns fraud and then for eight of the most common returns frauds methods, the academics will introduce completed but generic crime scripts developed and critiqued by a panel of retailers.

Most importantly, the academics will also introduce a new method, crime scripts, that ecommerce loss prevention professionals can begin to adopt that can help them with the ideation process, for their specific context and fraud problems, to generate a broader, cross company, palette of interventions that can disrupt the fraudsters processes and ways of working.

Above all, this research will help guide retailers towards new ways to think about the returns fraud problem and how to go about creating new interventions, including technology.

This meeting is for retailers, brand owners and academics only.