The Environmental and Social Impact of Online Theft and Fraud

The vast majority of our customers are absolutely lovely; it is a pleasure to serve you. Thank you. Yet there are always a few bad apples that make fake orders and then try to steal products by making false claims to defraud, not only us, but you, as our valued customers. I dislike the term shoplifting. It sounds like a twee activity; this is fraud and theft, plain and simple, vile criminal practices, we must call it for what it really is. Like it or not, theft and fraud cost us all money we can ill afford.

I’m sure you can guess why I have been driven to write this article; it’s that time of year when it gets worse. Fraudulent claims are always with us, but they have exploded since 2020. Research suggests it is not the cost-of-living crisis driving these criminal activities, but those who knowingly commit a criminal act. From organised gangs to individual repeat offenders who just get away with the majority of their nasty activities. Sadly, they often get away with it because big retail businesses don’t like to admit it’s an issue. It is not just a social issue, though; it affects the environment and wildlife as well, and that is just as unacceptable.

In an era where e-commerce has become woven into everyday life, this form of retail crime has quietly emerged: online fraud and theft. Unlike traditional fraud and theft, this practice often involves exploiting return systems and manipulating delivery claims, among other fraudulent practices. While some view it as a victimless or low-risk act, the consequences reach far beyond lost revenue. Online fraud and theft carry significant environmental and social impacts that affect businesses, workers, and the planet.

What Is Online Fraud and Theft?

Online theft (also called return fraud, tag switching, empty box scams, or false “item not received” claims) includes behaviours such as:

• Claiming an order didn’t arrive when it did
• Returning used or damaged items for a refund
• Sending back counterfeit or worthless items in place of legitimate products
• Taking advantage of generous return policies
• Exploiting system glitches
• Taking advantage of sales loopholes so they claim the full price back, not the sales price

Retailers, and especially small businesses like ourselves, often absorb the costs to maintain good customer relations. But the ripple effects are wide.

Environmental Impact

Increased Carbon Emissions

Fraudulent returns increase the number of shipments and transport miles, producing unnecessary carbon emissions. Reverse logistics can have up to four times the environmental impact of an outgoing delivery.

More Waste

Many returned items can’t be resold and end up in landfill or incineration. Fraud adds to this waste by creating more unnecessary returns and damaged goods.

Strain on Resources Across the Supply Chain

Whether we replace an item from a fraudulent claim or process a refund, it takes up resources. Fraudulent claims drive extra production, packaging, and raw material use. They create a false demand on the supply chain that puts additional strain on the environment.

Social Impact

Higher Costs for Genuine Customers

Retailers raise prices or reduce discounts to recover losses from fraud and increased business insurance costs. This means honest customers like you end up paying more.

Stress on Customer Service Staff

Investigating fraudulent claims adds pressure and emotional strain on staff who must balance customer satisfaction with identifying deceit. Despite being online, we still receive verbal and written abuse as well as personal and reputational threats.

Damage to Small Businesses

Independent retailers like us feel fraud and theft most strongly. Even a few false claims can affect cash flow, profitability, and long-term stability. It can also affect staff turnover and employee well-being.

Erosion of Trust

As fraud increases, retailers tighten return policies and verification processes. These affect your experience as a customer and can cause distrust on both sides.

A Growing Cultural Issue

Social media hacks often glamorise online theft and fraud, making it seem harmless and even fun to get one over on a business. In reality, it harms workers, businesses, consumers, and the planet. Due to this, online fraud and theft must be discussed more widely and taken seriously by the entire retail industry and our society. It’s easier for large corporations to swallow these criminal acts, but their inaction affects everyone. This cannot continue in its current form. You, I and our environment deserve much better than this.

Online shoplifting is not victimless. It drives waste, emissions, higher prices, and stricter policies. Reducing it requires responsible consumer behaviour and smarter retailer safeguards to ensure a fair and sustainable online marketplace.

What The Wildlife Gift Shop Does to Mitigate the Problems

We want to be proactive and responsible in our actions, so we do what we can to try and improve the situation for our customers.

• We have internal processes for order disputes.
• We use Royal Mail tracked postage for every order, so we know if the item was delivered. We check with Google Street View that the image matches the Royal Mail image, where possible. This is not 100% of course, but it’s close to it.
• We carefully check every return for damage and ensure it’s in resaleable condition. Most genuine returns are sent back in the same condition it was sent. We have absolutely no issue with genuine returns.
• Receiving back the wrong items, bricks for example, is a problem we try to reduce our waste impact everywhere we can by using recycling centres.
• If the return items are damaged but saleable, we resell them where we can with an appropriate description of the damage. We also donate products we can’t resell where donation is appropriate.
• We keep our return policies legal and close to the recommendations; overly generous return policies can backfire on small businesses.
• We ensure our website and the tech we use is as up to date as possible.
• We try and close loopholes like sales prices where we can.
• We do not tolerate abuse, we do report abuse and threats we receive to the Police and any other organisation, like 3rd Party Venues, without exception

Genuine Customer Order Return and Cancellations

At no point do we want to put off genuine customers. We will continue to honour our policies. We do want to give you the best service experience we can. We would hate for the above to affect you. If you are worried about anything in this post or any returns or cancellations, please do contact us. We would love to hear from you. We guarantee you will get to discuss your concern with a real, live human being!