Bruno Farinelli
But just as thieves are modifying their strategies to take advantage of emerging technology and e-commerce vulnerabilities, new device management strategies are being developed — and they can reduce theft, recover lost assets and deliver an immediate return on investment. Recipero’s AssetWatch solution purports to do all three, protecting the mobile devices and technology e-commerce retailers sell until they’ve been delivered to the legitimate recipient.
What AssetWatch Does
The concept behind AssetWatch is simple: By preventing fraudsters from engaging in the fraudulent resale of electronics, the program helps merchants like GameStop, Sprint and Amazon reduce their losses from lost or stolen items. Here’s how partnering with AssetWatch works:
- When a merchant sells high-value electronics with unique serial numbers, the merchant adds the serial number to the order’s history.
- If the item isn’t delivered or is reported stolen, the merchant registers the serial number with AssetWatch.
- AssetWatch tracks the serial number by watching data from retailers, police, insurers, pawn shops and secondhand e-commerce marketplaces and flagging any activity related to registered devices.
- If AssetWatch determines an individual is attempting to trade in or sell a flagged device, they immediately notify the retailer who filed the loss report.
- AssetWatch also advises the trader to not accept the device — leaving the criminal unable to profit from their crime.
How AssetWatch Alerts Can Minimize Loss
This device management solution leverages the footprints of thousands of other traders to identify and prevent unauthorized trades and sales and focuses on these business areas:
1. Corporate Asset Management
As devices increase in value, they become increasingly appealing to employees looking to defraud their employers. AssetWatch monitors phones and other electronic devices that have been claimed as “lost” or “stolen” by employees and alerts asset management teams if and when fraudulent behavior is detected on those devices.
2. Goods Lost in Transit
E-commerce retailers selling high-value electronic devices are vulnerable to costly and hard-to-verify “item not received” claims. Some of these lost devices are being opportunistically stolen on their way to their legitimate owners. Others are instances of chargeback fraud, in which scammers claim they never received the product — when they actually did — to benefit financially first from receiving a refund and second by selling the product on the secondary market.
But as soon as customers report items as “lost,” AssetWatch reports the serial numbers to the police, making it harder for fraudsters to sell stolen items on the resale market.
What you need to know - This product has a serial number that uniquely identifies the item. When your order ships, Amazon will scan the serial number and add it to the history of the order. Should the item go missing before it arrives, Amazon may register the serial number with loss and theft databases to prevent fraudulent use or resale of the item. The is no action required from you and the serial number will only be used to prevent fraudulent activity associated with the missing item.
3. Financed Electronics
It’s not uncommon for fraudsters to try to sell rented or leased electronics on the secondary market, even though the retailer still legally owns the device. But AssetWatch maintains a database of subsidized devices, and if they determine a monitored device has entered the second-hand market, they can immediately notify the retailer and help recover the asset.
4. Stock Leakage
Retailers also face internal theft at warehouses and distribution facilities. By adding serial numbers to the AssetWatch program, retailers can better track stock and warn employees of the in-place tracking system, deterring leakage from the supply chain.
When it comes to protecting your high-value inventory, revenue and reputation, it’s important to find providers using cutting-edge technology that can quickly identify and prevent fraud. ClearSale uses a team of highly trained experts and proprietary machine learning technology to cover every transaction and provide a fraud protection solution you can be confident in.
Don’t let your e-commerce business fall victim to savvy fraudsters. Contact a ClearSale analyst today and learn how we can help you fight fraud and increase sales.
