Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of unchallenged malicious refunds from some of the biggest names on the High Street will be subject to renewed forensic analysis, thanks to a new online tool that allows retailers to share data and profile serial claimants targeting their businesses.
With more than half of British retail businesses selling online, conservative estimates put the cost of GLIT (Goods Lost in Transit) at £400 million per year, with £40 being the average cost of a claim.
But this could be the tip of the iceberg as many retailers put the losses down to the cost of doing business and pay-out. In addition, they don’t report or investigate the claim, or simply classify it differently in their end of year figures.
Claims Detect Online, which has the capability to monitor and analyse the audit trail of thousands of transactions across multiple retail businesses to spot suspicious claims and anomalies, is the new name for Praesidio from National Business Crime Solution (NBCS).
The online tool widens the net by including a greatly reduced cost – £2,000 – to attract smaller retailers and complement the transaction data already provided by NBCS’s larger brands to highlight the true extent of the problem.
Critical time for launch
The launch comes at a critical time as new figures suggest UK spending online will eclipse £255 billion by 2021.
While contributing retailers, who have already identified millions of pounds worth of potentially fraudulent claims through the simple dashboard reporting system, are able to identify persistent refund behaviour, as well as the modus operandi and claim matches from other users, specific confidential data is anonymised to comply with GDPR requirements.
New engagement with the platform will also help identify malicious claims and target more effective customer service to legitimate customers.
Simran Baghara (pictured), fraud and legal services manager for Claims Detect Online, said: “As part of its proof of concept in 2017, Praesidio provided enriched data that identified malicious claims went beyond retail and we were able to provide a full report to the Insurance Fraud Bureau.
“That was achieved with a handful of claims – so imagine what we can achieve by throwing the net wider. We know the offering is strong because it is the only solution out there that can join together all of the information strands to enable businesses to make intelligence-led decisions. By using three key GDPR compliant indicators, it distinguishes between the fraudulent and the legitimate customer claims so that the latter are helped on their customer journey rather than penalised for fraud.
“This collaboration means businesses no longer need to write-off fraudulent claims as the cost of doing business. It will also help contributors with information to assist their negotiations with third party delivery companies where an issue is identified at that point of the customer journey.”
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