The show runs on May 1 at the Novotel London West, in Hammersith. Paul Bessant, Director of Retail Events said: “Retail fraud is a major issue, and continuous development into understanding how fraudsters work and using that intelligence to devise ways of preventing the crime is imperative. At Retail Fraud we promise to offer delegates the opportunity to find out how to make savings by listening to some of the industry’s most innovative players and seeing first hand the progress being made into solutions designed to combat the problem at one all-inclusive event.”
Chairing the talks are Prof Joshua Bamfield


To register for a delegate place, visit www.retailevents.co.uk
Mozart v Mosquito

Dispersing gangs of youths from outside retail stores is a challenge for all community-based shops, but the latest technology may not be the long-term answer. Health and safety questions have been raised surrounding the possible long-term indiscriminate damage linked the Mosquito device which emits a high-pitch irritating noise only heard by the young. The Co-op has its own answer – Mozart. Andy Pope from the Co-op explains why the composer is such a turn on to trade, but a turn off to trouble.
Andrew Pope JP, National Business Crime Partnership Manager, The Co-operative Group
Trying something new today
Sainsbury’s is one of the UK’s iconic retail brands which has just completed the install of 3G Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) technology into its last remaining UK stores. Phil Wilson, head of operational support for Sainsbury and David Nuttall, managing director for Checkpoint Systems in the UK will explain in more depth the benefits of EAS for Sainsbury's and where and how this system was installed before moving onto new ventures between Checkpoint and Sainsbury's that include the Virgin programme and The 149 project. They will wrap up by talking about the launch pad for source tagging.
Phil Wilson, head of operational support, Sainsbury’s and David Nuttall, managing director for Checkpoint Systems
Pointing the finger – the 99 Cents Chilli Crisis

A human finger found in a Wendy’s 99 cents Chilli sauce almost resulted in brand meltdown. This single digit discovery could have cost multi-digit losses for the business, but Chis Manning and his loss prevention team launched a fascinating fraud investigation and soon the finger of blame was pointing elsewhere. This 50-minute presentation from the US illustrates why global brands are targets for organised individuals who, as this case highlights, will use the most macabre tactics to defraud and blackmail big business
Chris Manning, director of loss prevention, Wendy’s International Inc

Why do they do it?
Convicted (ex) fraudster Elliot Castro's tells his unique story as the only British individual who has stolen hundreds of thousands of pounds from the credit card system. Led in the interview by Dave Pope, Marketing Director of 192.com will be divulging the weaknesses he identified in numerous banks' security systems, how he committed online fraud and how he managed to evade capture for so long. His unique presentation helps the audience to better understand the methodology of a fraudster and how retailers can defend their businesses against fraudulent attacks.
Elliot Castro interviewed by Dave Pope, Marketing Director, 192.com

RFID: Its Opportunities and Chellenges
Whilst the contribution of RFID to UK loss prevention has so far been disappointing, retailers and suppliers in North America and Europe are now running significant trials of RFID merchandise tags to see how they can get the best from this technology. In the UK, RFID is now used widely in payment and loyalty cards, for transport passes (e.g the Oyster pass), and is currently being trialled for 'contactless' payment by Barclays. Whilst the technology is up and running, some consumer activitists have branded RFID as 'Spychips'. This session will provide an update on the opportunities and challenges of RFID. Professor Joshua Bamfield Director, Centre for Retail Research

How to sell Loss Prevention to your organisation

How do you make every employee a shrink champion? The success of profit protection depends upon everyone in the organization understanding their role in Loss Prevention.
Syed Raza will expand upon the Ralph Lauren success in this process during 2007 and how ‘Spend a little, save a lot’ became a guiding mantra.
Professor Joshua Bamfield Director, Centre for Retail Research and Syed Raza, CFI. - Senior Director of Asset Protection-Europe & Asia Polo Ralph Lauren Office

Accidents, robberies, theft, burglaries, employee fraud, till snatch, physical and verbal abuse are just some of the incidents that happen in retail stores around the world every day. Head offices need to understand what is happening and where as well as the impact it’s having on the business – on their customers, staff and financially. Argos had put in place an incident reporting system, but as the business expanded the system became antiquated and was bulging at the seams with literally years of crime data. So Argos has recently introduced – IncidentReporter – a web-hosted, intelligence-led system for logging, monitoring, reporting on and interrogating incidents that happen within their estate.
Lloyd Emmerson, Crime Analysis Manager at Argos explains how they use IncidentReporter* within their business to proactively address bottom line loss and exercise their Duty of Care

Alarm Bells Ringing
Some 96 per cent of all retail alarm activations are false according to a recent industry report carried out by SSS Management Services. This is bad news for retailers as ACPO has imposed stringent new guidelines on responses to false alarms. The Co-op is at the vanguard of trying to promote a technology that reduces false alarm activations and ensures that stores hold onto their precious police response.
Phil Willsmer, Head of Operational Risk, The Co-operative Group, and Phil George, SSS Managed Services.

Stopping fraudsters while keeping business moving

Experian Footfall Index for February highlighted how shopping trends are going through a fundamental shift. Consumers are becoming more sophisticated, purse strings have been tightened and alternative purchasing channels such as the web are as popular as ever. Retailers are faced with a tough balancing act. Encouraging genuine customers to buy has never been more crucial but getting these customers through the buying process as quickly as possible without becoming a target for fraud has never been more challenging. Sandra McWilliams from the Data Authentication team at Experian looks at how organisations such as Beaverbrooks Jewellers are using Experian's vast data assets to single out fraudsters at point of sale without slowing down genuine business. Nick Mothershaw, Strategy and Consulting Director for Experian Fraud and Identity Solutions, will also demonstrate how sharing valuable information about known fraudulent transactions across the retail sector, and looking for anomalies in new transactions, is one of the best weapons in the fight against fraud.

One stop to stop fraud

Understanding cross border margin erosion and compliance is a challenge to all multinational retailers who struggle with different cultures, IT formats, reporting systems and languages.
The Carphone Warehouse; one of the most iconic brands in the telecommunications sector, has, like all retailers, long been a target for identity thieves and internal fraudsters, but, the profit protection team that co-ordinates loss prevention across 10 European territories has recently launched a One-Stop management information system (MIS) in partnership with The ORIS Group that harmonises data in a web format, and is proving to be instrumental in changing the cultural behaviour surrounding margin erosion and compliance across its European business.

Richard Grant, Head of European Loss Prevention & Fraud for The Carphone Warehouse will talk about the issues the business faced and how ‘’One Stop MIS’’ is providing a central repository for all margin erosion and fraud data as well as tasking all employees with accountability for margin erosion related KPIs as well as driving behaviour change through the business.
Richard Grant, Head of European Loss Prevention and Fraud – The Carphone Warehouse
Why outsource your stocktaking?

In today's economic climate it is even more important that retailers manage their stocks tightly. Regular accurate counting of store stocks by Orridge certainly provides significant assistance in achieving better stock management, both in terms of understanding the net loss to the store ( i.e. shrinkage, in its numerous forms ) and the gross inaccuracy of the stock file (i.e. at SKU level ). Inaccuracies in the stock file occur at all stages of the products’ movement cycle, from supplier delivery inaccuracies through to the miss-keying of returned items. When store stock files are accurately updated replenishment instantly improves and increased sales figures are evident thereafter. Therefore, stock counting has a key role to play in retail. By outsourcing to Orridge - a supplier with proven expertise the retailer benefits from flexibility, integrity and accuracy, all of which are essential, without the cost and labour intensity that is typical of an in-house process.
Keith Gosling – Head of Finance, New Look

Fresh Insights into staff fraud
Insights is a well-established and respected psychometric technology that is designed to build teams of complementary skills and personality traits. It is being used to great effect in the loss prevention community and Brad Gentry, an Insights mentor from the ORIS Group shows how it can be harnessed to coach and influence profit protection leaders as part of this loss prevention masterclass in getting the best out of your team.
Brad Gentry, Insight
Blind Data?


CIFAS the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service with 270 Members spread across banking, credit cards, asset finance, retail credit, mail order, insurance, provides an snapshot of how the CIFAS database developed and how it works to help track fraudsters as well as providing an overview of the role of HR departments and how CIFAS works with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Arjun Medhi, Staff Fraud Advisor, CIFAS

Arena Flowers - Saying IT with Flowers

Given his previous experience of in charge of communicating both the eBay and PayPal's trust and safety messages to the eBay community, Will thought he be well prepared to deal with fraudsters when he launched Arena Flowers. However, he quickly found out that even in the online world of flowers, there's room for some fairly cunning fraud, over and above simple chargebacks. Will highlights some of the more cunning ploys and some of the things he has done to counteract the fraudsters.
Will Wynne, Arena Flowers
Double Whammy means retailers need to ask, who are we employing?
The Retail sector is an attractive area for migrant workers due to the lower qualification requirements of many of the core roles. It is, equally, an attractive sector for any workers intent on committing internal or collusive fraud. If at the outset of employment you are unsure of who is in your business, how can you be sure of who is defrauding your business? But now if you don’t know you are more accountable – to the tune of £10,000 per offence – if you don’t check the legality of staff in your employ.
On 29 February 2008, the Government introduced changes, which UK employers need to be aware of, to avoid liability for payment of a civil penalty for employing illegal migrants. An employer who employs someone subject to immigration control aged over 16 who is not entitled to undertake the work in question will be liable to pay a civil penalty of up to £10,000 per illegal worker.
Nick Harness, managing director of Background Checking.com

Keeping Posted on Fraud

There are few businesses that can claim to reach everyone in the UK but The Royal Mail achieves exactly that employing almost 193,000 people in the UK - almost 1pc of the working population. Every working day it collects, process and deliver around 84 million items to 27 million addresses at some of the lowest prices in Europe. With such scale and reach the Royal Mail is a likely target for fraud who like the parcels it processes on a daily basis, come in all shapes and sizes. Paul Donald, Project Manager, Royal Mail will discuss The Royal Mail approach and provide an overview of Royal Mail’s proactive approach to online fraud
He will be accompanied by Tim Sparrow, Consultant, Client and Technical Services, CyberSource who will focus upon combating fraud and maximising profits by taking an
overview of the main fraud tools, including the latest developments and urging the audience to consider centralising its fraud tools to focus on profits, not your fraud
Paul Donald, Project Manager, Royal Mail and Tim Sparrow Consultant, CyberSource
Card Not Present
The Home Retail Group, Monsoon and The 3rd Man will assess the real cost of CNP Fraud, the Prevention methods used, and the use of technology including the benefits to the retailer, the bank and the consumer.
Mari-Ann Wiggin will present a case study on the business drivers behind their fraud prevention review at Argos in terms of what they did, what they discovered and what they achieved.
Richard Lawrence will present on how Monsoon tackled a number of persistent fraudsters through Use of 3rd party fraud analysts. He will discuss the implementation process – its highs and lows and what has been achieved to date
Paul Simms CEO from The 3rd Man will present on specific benefits delivered to retailers as a direct result of the SuperSearch data-sharing scheme. How much fraud is prevented as a result of shared intelligence and what other techniques remain essential?
Mari Ann Wiggin, Fraud Prevention Manager Home Retail Group Richard Lawrance Head of Audit and Loss Prevention for Monsoon

Collaborating against the Fraudster

Fraudsters are collaborating! So it makes good business sense that solutions providers, merchants and other industry organisations come together to beat the fraudsters. Sharing intelligence is often a difficult issue to cover as we face the commercial competitive landscape. But, there is more to be gained by working together. This presentation will demonstrate how to beat the fraudster at their own game.
Paul Rodgers, Chairman Vendorcom and Visa or European Payments Council (TBC)

Changing Times: Rethinking Your Online Fraud Strategy

With the release of the first merchant and consumer fraud studies from CyberSource, Dr Akif Khan examines the findings and asks that as times are changing in terms of the levels of sophistication fraudsters are now using, what makes an effective anti-fraud strategy in light of European payment complexities?
He will then explore the prevention aspect of fraud and how to implement an effective anti-fraud strategy and provide best practice tips
Dr Akif Khan, Head of Client and Technical Services, CyberSource

Get Safe Online
Safe Shopping is Secure Shopping - Get Safe Online More and more business transactions are conducted online, but there is an increasing anxiety from consumers and retailers about the likelihood of falling foul of the fraudsters through the misuse of credit or debit cards and other sophisticated scams conducted through the ether. Tony Neate, Managing Director of GetSafeOnline.org will talk about the educative role of this Government and industry watchdog and its response to the growing use of the internet for both legitimate and illegitimate transactions Tony Neate, Managing Director GetSafeOnline.org 15:45 – 16:15 An International and Intellectual Approach to Fraud via eBay Retailers and world famous brands have faced a technological and intellectual battle with online marketplaces such as eBay over frauds that no one seems to have any international jurisdiction over. Paul Cox and James Ramm explore the issues and provide a legal and technological approach to tackling the growing threat of eBay.