Industry reports consistently state that around 80% of all retail staff fraud is conducted at the point of sales by till manipulation. Till manipulation fraud is the alteration of transactions on the till for the purpose of liberating cash or goods.

There are many classic methods that are used. Full details can be found here.

Sweethearting / collusion

Collusion or ‘Sweethearting’ as it is commonly known in retail is the unauthorised giving away of merchandise without charge to a “sweetheart” (friend, family or fellow employee) by the fake scan or ring up of items of merchandise by the cashier.

Typical methods are product substitution (low value for high value – often barcodes for low value items are kept by the till and scanned instead or low value PLUs are used instead) and sliding (high value items bypassing). Sweethearting always requires collusion with a ‘customer’ and can be an indication of organised theft on a larger scale.