BRC attends the Home Office Fraud Against Business Summit

This week, the BRC and some of our retail members attended a Fraud Against Business Summit organised by the Home Office. The summit formed part of the government’s recently published fraud strategy and marked an important step forward in the UK’s response to the growing threat of retail fraud, bringing together retail, government, law enforcement, and academia to address the increasing scale and sophistication of fraud affecting the sector. Th BRC has worked closely with the Home Office on including customer fraud in the strategy. 

• Discussions focused on the rise of first-party fraud, refund abuse, chargeback fraud, organised criminal activity and wider supply chain exploitation. A clear theme throughout the event was the need for stronger collaboration between industry and government, with broad agreement that fraud can no longer be tackled by retailers in isolation. It was great to see the government take the lead on this and recognise the impact customer fraud is having on the sector. 
• Cifas provided insight into the changing fraud landscape, highlighting that fraud now accounts for around 45% of all crime in the UK. It also warned of the growing normalisation of customer fraud, with refund fraud and false non-delivery claims becoming increasingly common, particularly among younger demographics. Cifas stressed the importance of intelligence sharing through tools such as the National Fraud Database and the need for retailers to help shape the development of an Events Database which will require greater data sharing from the sector to identify repeat offenders and organised criminal networks earlier.
• The University of Portsmouth presented research into the rise of “fraud as a service” communities operating online, where individuals openly share tactics to exploit retailers’ systems. Its research estimated UK retail losses linked to refund fraud at a median of £2.3 billion, potentially rising to more than £5 billion.
  A major focus of the summit was the proposed Dedicated Retail Fraud Unit, currently in its discovery phase. The unit is expected to focus on intelligence gathering, data sharing and operational disruption, while helping retailers better identify emerging fraud threats. Discussions also covered the development of shared data standards, sustainable funding models and closer collaboration between retailers, financial services, delivery companies, technology firms and law enforcement.
• We also discussed improving fraud data sharing through the development of the Online Crime Centre, with a need for telecoms and technology companies to play a greater role in identifying fraudulent activity and supporting the closure of scam websites.
• Weaknesses in the current chargeback process was also identified, including inconsistent scheme rules and the lack of industry-wide standards, alongside concerns that increasingly frictionless customer journeys are being exploited by fraudsters.
• The summit concluded with a clear commitment from both industry and government to move from discussion to action. While many initiatives remain at an early stage, there was strong consensus around the need for long-term collaboration, better intelligence sharing and more coordinated national action to tackle this growing threat.

Members can get involved in the BRC’s working group focused on tackling customer fraud and Cifas has invited retailers to participate in the proof-of-concept task to help develop the Events Database. Please do email me if you would like to be involved in either of these. We will keep you updated on work in this area.