Identity Resolution Daily

To illustrate how identity resolution works, consider the case of the purloined panties as reported by UPI:

“North Carolina police say hundreds of women’s undergarments and perfumes have been stolen from Victoria’s Secret stores in Raleigh, Cary and Durham.“Police said nearly $20,000 worth of bras, panties and perfume were taken from one Raleigh store, located at Triangle Town Center, in eight separate shoplifting incidents since March, the Raleigh News and Observer said Monday.“Cary, N.C., police said nearly $4,000 in bras and panties have been stolen from a Cary Towne Center store and Durham police said perfume and undergarments valued at $12,917 were taken from stores at Northgate Mall and Streets at Southpoint.“Police said they are unsure whether the shoplifting cases are connected. There are similarities between some incidents, including several where a store clerk was distracted by an accomplice while others shoplifted.”’It certainly could be… part of a larger scheme,’ said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.”

In incidents like these, since these folks are stealing stuff and disappearing, identity resolution doesn’t have enough data points to help prevent it. Physical security such as security cameras could help and then physical descriptions and clothing can be used as corroborating data.However, if these folks come back to this original store or sister store and return these stolen goods without a receipt, here’s where identity resolution can really help. Many times the perpetrators give enough real information - partial addresses, similar names, phone numbers - that identity resolution can match these attributes against the shoplifter and other negative databases. If the retailers (and the sister stores) have information about these folks in their shoplifting database(s) that identity resolution can tap into, then you can call the police and end an organized retail crime (ORC) ring’s reign.

Simply stated, identity resolution means knowing who is who and who knows whom across unique data sources. Without this information, retailers are highly vulnerable to deception, fraud, and theft.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Organized Retail Crime, ORC, Retail Data, Data-Mining, Identity Resolution, Loss Prevention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.