Category Archives: Technology

According to the Independent website, a recent report shows that the UK retail sector lost £11.3 billion to payments fraud in 2023.

Retail businesses lost an average of £1,394,518 each to fraudulent activity, with luxury fashion retailers losing an average of £2.8 million.

The Mail Online reports that ten of Britain’s top retailers have agreed to fund a police crackdown on shoplifting gangs.

John Lewis, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next are among those reportedly investing £600,000 into the operation, dubbed Project Pegasus.

According to the Fashion United website, recent research conducted by Watchfinder & Co., identified 1,010,572 fake watches circulating within the UK market.

An estimated 40 million counterfeit watches are sold worldwide annually, resulting in profits exceeding 1 billion dollars.

From across The Pond, the New York Times website reports on how facial recognition technology is being used in the UK to combat the rising numbers of shoplifting offences.

When one such piece of software, Facewatch, spots a flagged face, an alert is sent to a smartphone at the shop.

According to the Exmouth Journal a high-tech shoplifting gang stole almost £50,000 worth of expensive bottles of spirits from supermarkets in Devon and Cornwall over a five-month period.

Romanians Marian Stoica and Robert Matei – both jailed for two years – targeted stores in towns across the two counties, using special tools to remove security tags.

The Gloucestershire Live website reports that Aldi has added security tags to packets of sweets worth as little as 85p in at least one of its UK stores.

Yellow stickers, which activate security systems if stolen, have been pictured on Kinder snack bars priced at 85p and Maltesers, Minstrels and Revels costing £1.35.