System for Inventory Recovery and Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Investigations

FraudFighter has engineered a system that indelibly marks inventory for the purposes of both discouraging theft and for positively identifying items as belonging to a particular store in the event of theft.

FraudFighter's unique solution is achieved through the marking of products with either visible ("overt") or invisible ("covert") identifiers that can be readily recognized by store investigators.

The visible marking serves the purpose of deterring theft. Visible markings which cannot be removed without damaging the packaging make the resale value of the stolen goods considerably lower. Much of what is stolen from national chain stores such as WalMart, Target or Kroger gets resold at small, independent retail stores. If the packaging is damaged, then these independent store owners are less likely to buy the stolen goods from the criminals. This serves to deter the thefts since the goods cannot be as easily resold, and therefore, it is less easy to convert the stolen goods into cash.

Invisible markings serve two entirely different purposes. First, since law enforcement routinely makes large-scale seizures of stolen goods in the course of their criminal investigations, the invisible markings enable retailers to examine and "identify" goods that are recovered. By marking the goods with marks that can be clearly related to a specific store location, the retailer can both lay claim to the goods and return them to inventory, and use the information about which stores the goods were stolen from to aid in investigating how the goods were stolen in the first place.

Secondarily, the invisible marks can be used to run "sting" operations. By marking specific inventory, it is possible to determine where in the distribution chain goods are being stolen, and by whom.