Earlier this year, our colleague Liz Young heard about a big problem for online

retailers. Fake Returns on a massive scale.

They try to put in systems into place.

They try to use software, they try to use technology

to try to sift through a lot of this, but it's not perfect.

And people are trying to exploit that.

All over social media, there are videos of people talking about it. In some cases people say they're

posting these videos to alert the public. There were these online groups and just

people online who are systematically taking advantage of the returns policies

intentionally to get refunded while keeping the item.

Tell them, hey rep, I have a problem with this order. I didn't receive it. The rep will most likely refund it right away or send a replacement.

So let's say I received this pink one right here looks really, really nice, but I'm going to claim that I did not get it and I'm going to get a refund directly to my original payment method.

It's like a real life Robin Hood story happened right in front of you.

There is this underbelly of people who are not just like every now and then saying they send something back and they

didn't and they want ten dollars back but instead ordering hundreds of items worth tens of thousands or more of dollars

and getting that money back.

M.

How easy is it to do fraudulent returns like this?

I think it's shockingly easy.

What is so shocking about this fraud is that it's really quite simple at its core.

In some cases, people are just just saying I never got the package and it's really

hard for the retailer to prove that you did. And so they send a second one and then maybe you say that one didn't come either.

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