Challenging First-Party Fraud: Real Retail Solutions in a Changing Landscape
This event is exclusive to BRC Retail Members and by invitation only.
Retailers are increasingly facing first-party or 'customer' fraud, where legitimate purchases are falsely disputed through refund or chargeback processes. This growing trend is creating significant financial and operational challenges across the sector.
According to Ravelin's latest research, refund abuse, chargeback fraud and promo, voucher and policy abuse have all increased by over 50% in the last 12 months alone.
The post-pandemic shift towards digital retail has introduced streamlined return and refund mechanisms, which, while customer-friendly, have also created new vulnerabilities. In response, BRC continues to advocate at policy and operational levels and collaborate with stakeholders including the Home Office, City of London Police, and UK banks to tackle this.
This event will bring together BRC members to explore current fraud challenges, share insights, and examine how technology is helping retailers prevent loss while maintaining a smooth customer experience. The event will feature speakers from Ravelin, River Island, and BRC retail members who will share their insights on how fraud is impacting their business and how they tackle it. Recognising that members are at various stages in addressing fraud, the event will underscore the need for open discussions and the sharing of best practices.
Reducing the losses associated with first party fraud will enable merchants to focus on continuing to deliver great service and lower prices to their genuine customer base without needing to introduce wider measures that would damage the continued growth of digital trading and ecommerce.
All discussions will take place under Chatham House rules, ensuring confidentiality and fostering a candid exchange of ideas. Additionally, the event will provide opportunities for members to participate in open discussions where they can share their challenges and best practices.
In Partnership with
Agenda
- 12.00 - Networking Lunch
- 13.00 - Event Opening and Scene Setting
Fraud, the impacts retail and challenges we face
• Chris Owen BRC Finance Policy Advisor
• Nick Lally, Co-founder and CFO, Ravelin - 13.15 - Retailer Experiences Panel
BRC Retail members will share their experiences with fraud, the types of fraud they are encountering and its impact on their industry.
• Chris Owen BRC Finance Policy Advisor
• Grant Shipway, Senior Operational Risk Manager, River Island
• Chris Hubbard, Global Fraud Director, JustEatTakeaway.com - 13.45 - Moderated Discussion
Discussions in small groups under Chatham House Rule. The outputs will be fed into BRC’s wider stakeholder engagement work. - 14.20 - Sharing Insights from Member Discussions and What's Next?
A session to share insights from the moderated discussions.
• Nick Lally, Co-founder and CFO, Ravelin - 14.50 - Closing Comments
- 14.55 - Networking Drinks
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Understanding the Fraud Landscape
Gain insights into the current fraud landscape, including the latest trends, types of fraud such as refund abuse, chargeback abuse, gift card and loyalty card fraud.
Tools and Technologies
Explore the latest tools and technologies that can help retailers prevent fraud while maintaining a smooth customer experience including examples of how retailers currently mitigate and manage customer fraud and tools that enable real time detection and decision making. Also, key considerations when implementing fraud detection and prevention tools.
Policy and Partnerships
Discuss the importance of policy and partnerships in tackling fraud, and how collaboration with stakeholders such as the Home Office, City of London Police, and UK banks can make a difference.
Open Discussions and Best Practices
Participate in open discussions under Chatham House rules, where you can share challenges and best practices with other retailers at various stages of addressing fraud.
Register for the event
This event is exclusive to BRC Retail Members. If the form does not appear, please refresh your page, or get in touch at events@brc.org.uk
Meet the Speakers
Nick Lally
Co-founder and CFO, Ravelin
Nick Lally is a fintech founder and chartered accountant with over two decades of experience in financial strategy and scaling technology businesses. As Founder and CFO of Ravelin, he helped lead the company from startup to successful exit, culminating in its acquisition by Worldpay earlier this year. Nick brings deep expertise in financial operations, risk, and growth strategy within the tech sector.
Grant Shipway
Senior Operational Risk Manager, River Island
Grant is the Senior Operational Risk Manager at River Island one of the UK's leading high street fashion retailers. Grant has a remit encompassing risk and fraud as well as RFID and analytics. He has career expertise across financial services (insurance and banking) and retail with global experience leading international fraud and risk operations from a people and process perspective and merging both elements into a successful fraud and risk prevention strategy whilst always advocating for the genuine customer.
Chris Owen
Policy Adviser - Finance | BRC
Chris manages the BRC’s Finance Community and has recently joined the organisation after working in public policy roles for a range of companies and organisations, including TikTok, Which? and Ofcom. He has extensive knowledge of current digital policy matters and online advertising regulations and has extensive experience in engaging with government and regulators, advocating for better consumer outcomes in markets and in shaping legislation.
Chris Hubbard
Global Fraud Director, Just Eat Takeaway.com
Chris is the Global Fraud Director at Just Eat Takeaway.com. Chris has been working in fraud for nearly 20 years across financial institutions in the UK (Barclays) and Denmark (Danske Bank) while also having experience with payment processors (Visa, Barclaycard, and TSYS) and outsourcers (TSYS).
Chris was living in Copenhagen until last summer when he moved back to the UK for the new role which is his first in retail and marketplaces.
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