Fake Receipt Generator Plaguing Retailers

By Lucy Mitchell
Dec 10 2010

Yesterday an announcement came from Amazon, the largest online retailer, that a new program designed to generate fake receipts was being used to bilk sellers out of refunds for items never purchased.

Amazon warned their vendors and resellers that the generator was causing many to offer refunds for items that had not been paid for and was causing financial loss for many small retailers. The phony receipts are an exact match to those that are issued by Amazon when a purchase is made.

The company has warned that the fakes are difficult to spot and the only real difference is the fact that the sale number does not match up to the item. They have said that the retailers and vendors need to be diligent in checking out all refund requests before handing over the money.

This is simply a new twist on old scams that were created before the days of online shopping. Shoplifters would pick up receipts that were dropped by other shoppers, steal the items on the receipt and then return them for a full refund.

Online retailers have reported that a rash of such scams have been hitting their stores over the past couple of months. The escalation of such crimes is often common around the holiday season. There are many who use the mass confusion of the holiday shopping season to carry out such crimes because enforcement is lacking in most retailers.

Amazon announced that they are looking at some simple safeguards that will help them protect their vendors.