How Often Do Mass Shootings Occur? On Average, Every Day, Records Show
That is how often, on average, shootings that left four or more people wounded or dead occurred in the United States this year, according to compilations of episodes derived from news reports. A total of 462 people have died and 1,314 have been wounded in such attacks this year, many of which occurred on streets or in public settings, the databases indicate.

It is impossible to know whether the number of such shootings has risen in recent years because the databases go back only a couple of years. More data is available for mass shootings calculated by a different standard, one used by congressional researchers and other experts who study mass killings: four or more dead. But experts fiercely debate whether mass shootings by that more deadly standard have remained level or ticked up slightly in recent years.

Two databases that track mass shootings that leave four or more dead or wounded - shootingtracker.com and gunviolencearchive.org - depend on news accounts and are not official. Nonetheless, they give an indication of the widespread nature of such episodes. Since January, there have been at least 354 such cases in about 220 cities in 47 states, according to shootingtracker.com. nytimes.com

The Shoplifting ROI of Facial Recognition - the Marketing Value - the Future - Straight from the CEO of FaceFirst
In an interview with Find Biometrics Joe Rosenkantz, CEO, FaceFirst answered the question: Can you describe how that ROI is achieved? FaceFirst: Yes. So, generally for x number of shoplifters entered into a FaceFirst system, a large percentage of them show up back at the brand who entered them into the system, typically within 30 days. We have statistics that show that a high number of those people continue to come back into that store indefinitely and each time that they come back into the store that is armed with a FaceFirst system, they end up being approached after a few seconds by somebody, and subsequently asked to leave. So we are actually preventing the next crime.

FB: On the retail side, there seems to be another growing segment: marketing apps using facial recognition in order to deliver messages to potential customers. Is your company involved in this area? FaceFirst: We are seeing growing interest on the marketing side. Our latest software release now includes demographic analysis and people counting so we can now offer value on the marketing side of the business.  Our customers can understand trends in the demographic makeup of people that are entering the stores. For instance: after placing an ad for a certain product, you may have increase in female traffic that comes in and turns to the right subsequent to running a particular ad campaign. That kind of information is definitely valuable although we have yet to see mass adoption on the marketing side.

FB: When you look down the road, how will facial recognition be used in five years' time? FaceFirst: Well, I'm going to start with where it is being used today. Today it is being used in loss prevention, in asset protection, theft prevention and demographic analysis. It is also being used for access control and general watch list identification. What we see evolving now are analytics of people and traffic, demographics, and post event forensic analysis. Geofencing is also going to be very common in the future. The ability to understand where somebody is and alerting on their location is important. Whether it is alerting that somebody has stepped out of bounds of a secure facility or alerting that somebody has stepped into a particular area where we can market to them because they have arrived at a mall for instance. We believe that is a future growth area. findbiometrics.com

Macy's Imprisons Minority Customers and Extorts Them for Bogus Fines: Suit
The class-action lawsuit estimates that thousands of customers have been targeted using a similar "money collection scheme" that lawyers say preys upon black, Hispanic and other minority customers using a "shopkeeper's privilege" rule in New York's General Business Law that allows retailers to detain customers they believe tried to shoplift and ask them to pay a civil penalty without proving them guilty.

The Palmer, Reifler and Associates website touts its background as a "leading civil recovery law firm in the loss prevention/asset protection industry" and adds that it helps large retailers craft a plan to crack down on would-be shoplifters. Orellana is not the first accused shoplifter to take on a major retailer's use of the "shopkeeper's privilege" law. dnainfo.com

December is National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month
And for millions of consumers, this time of year serves as a bitter reminder of the massive data breaches that swept the American retail space in recent memory, especially during the holidays.

Since then, Corporate America and the government alike have taken more aggressive measures to improve our cybersecurity. But the fight remains far from over. A total of 690 breaches with access to more than 176 million records have taken place thus far in 2015, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center's most recent Data Breach Report.

Among this year's biggest hacks involved Anthem, CVS and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, proving that even the federal government - with presumably some of the most sophisticated security systems in place - isn't completely immune to hackers and thieves.

To identify the states in which residents are most likely to be exposed to such crimes, WalletHub's analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across nine key metrics, ranging from the total number of identity theft complaints per 100,000 residents to total cybercrime-related dollar losses per capita. Our findings, a detailed methodology and additional expert commentary can be found below. wallethub.com
 

November Same Store Sales
L Brands up 7%
Fred's up 1.7% with sales up 8%
Cato up 1%
Rite Aid up 0.9%, front-end up 1.2%, pharmacy up 0.7%
Costco flat
Stein Mart down 4.8%
The Buckle down 7.9% with net sales down 6.8%

Quarterly Same Store Sales Results
American Eagle Outfitters Q3 comp's up 9% with net revenue up 8%
Express, Inc. Q3 comp's up 6% with sales up 10%
Kroger Q3 comp's without fuel up 5.4% with total sales up 5.5% excluding fuel
New York & Company Q3 comp's up 4.9% with net sales 4.5%
Tilly's Q3 comp's up 3.9% with net sales up 7.9%
Dollar General Q3 comp's up 2.3% with net sales up 7.3%
Sears Canada Q3 comp's up 0.4% with revenue down 5.1%
Destination Maternity Q3 comp's down 3.6% with net sales down 4.7%
Sears Holdings Corp. Q3 comp's down 8.6%, Kmart down 7.5%, Sears domestic down 9.6% with revenue down 20%
Aeropostale Q3 comp's down 10% with net sales down 20%

All the News - One Place - One Source - One Time
The D&D Daily respects your time
& doesn't filter retail's reality
 

LPRC Research in Action Report - November 2015

The Loss Prevention Research Council is aware of how critical research is to help guide you and your team to sell more and lose less. Each month the D&D Daily publishes brief summaries of loss prevention research from the LPRC and other researchers across the globe. This research covers a wide range of topics and includes basic types of research, such as benchmarking, as well as more applied research. Both types are beneficial: basic research helps us understand complex loss prevention issues and the environmental context in which you work, while applied research builds on this to provide us with more concrete deliverables.

This month's Research In Action report focuses on retail credit card fraud. Aims are to better prevent, detect, and apprehend credit card fraud cases.


Distributed Data Mining in Credit Card Fraud Detection
Large scale data mining is used in an attempt to improve upon the state of the art in commercial credit card transaction safety practices. Efficient fraud detectors can be garnered from massive data sets, but timely and efficient data mining techniques must be utilized. The current research evaluates several proposed data mining and cleaning techniques. Read the report summary here. Read the full report here.

Credit Card Fraud Detection Implications
The following brief analyzes multiple meta-analyses experiments whose goal aims to detect the best credit card fraud classifier in meta-learning. These experiments analyze current implications and issues with meta-learning strategies given real-world data sets on credit card fraud transactions. Click here to access the report. (LPRC membership required)

A Case Study in Credit Card Fraud Detection
Very large databases with skewed class distributions and non-uniform cost per error are not uncommon in real-world data mining tasks. This research devised a multi-classifier meta-learning approach to address these issues. The empirical results from a credit card fraud detection task indicate that the approach can significantly reduce loss due to illegitimate transactions. Click here to access the report. (LPRC membership required)
 

Miami Cuban skimming gang of ten indicted for 'skimming' credit cards at Michigan gas pumps
The government alleges that separate out-of-state crews hid skimming devices inside gas pumps in West Michigan that read credit-card account information. The scams ran from early July to September, the FBI says. Prosecutors say she and others in her alleged organization are Cuban citizens who were living in the Miami area when arrested.

Police arrested them in September after they allegedly encoded stolen-credit card information onto other cards to buy thousands in pre-paid debit cards at the Meijer store on East 16th Street in Holland. They were staying at Comfort Inn Suites at 4520 Kenowa Ave. SW in Grandville.

Police recovered "a cache" of gift cards, packaging and re-encoded cards. Police also found multiple keys to gas pumps. In one of the rooms, police found a skimming device, a laptop computer and credit cards. Ledesma, who consented to a search of his room, which turned up the property, is also wanted in Colorado for fraud and identify theft, the FBI said. Hotel workers also found another 30 credit cards that had been hidden in a mattress.

Members of the other group, believed to be from Texas, are facing the same charges as the others.  mlive.com

Long Island, NY: Smash-and-Grab Burglar Stole Over $200K From Nassau County Businesses; 10 commercial robberies in a 6 month span
A Queens man was arraigned in Nassau County Court on Wednesday for stealing more than $200,000 in jewelry, cash and lottery tickets from approximately 10 Nassau County businesses between January and June of this year. Joseph Borelli, 42, of Howard Beach, was arraigned on a 21-count indictment and was charged with 10 counts of third degree burglary, ten counts of second degree criminal mischief and possession of burglar's tools. Borelli's "smash-and-grab" burglary spree ended when members of the Nassau Co. Police arrested him in June following a 6-month-long investigation. Authorities obtained warrants, and used video surveillance and court-authorized GPS tracking to put Borelli and his co-conspirators, Edan Balila and Rotem Balila, both from Great Neck, into custody. patch.com

Salem, NH: 5 charged with running organized retail crime enterprise, arrested outside Macy's
Five people have been charged with operating an organized retail crime enterprise after police say they stole merchandise from the Macy's at the Mall at Rockingham Park for a virtual store they were running. Police say they responded Wednesday to a report of three shoplifters found concealing thousands of dollars of merchandise inside the store. Police nabbed the two adults and one juvenile as they left the store with the items. Two other suspects were arrested as they were waiting in the parking lot for the trio. Further investigation revealed the groups was taking orders for items they sold online. All five were charged with running an organized retail crime enterprise and some face additional charges. nh1.com

Beaverton, OR: California couple arrested with $31K in counterfeit cash
A man and woman from California who have passed counterfeit money in at least three states were arrested in Beaverton with $31,000 in counterfeit cash, a stolen gun and methamphetamine. Beaverton Police detectives began an investigation on Nov. 17 after taking a report of counterfeit money. The suspect's car was spotted Tuesday back in Beaverton and officers conducted a traffic stop. The two people in the car, identified as Clinton Cury Jr., 31, and Sabrina Acedo, 26, both of California, were taken into custody. A search of the vehicle led to the discovery of counterfeit $100, $20 and $10 bills, as well as a loaded handgun that was stolen in California, gift cards and new merchandise, including clothing. Investigators said Cury and Acedo would purchase expensive items with the counterfeit money and then return the items at a different store in exchange for real cash. Police believe they have been using counterfeit money in Oregon, California and Arizona. kptv.com

Auburn, ME: New York woman admits to $7,500
of purchases on counterfeit credit cards
A New York woman on Wednesday admitted to using counterfeit credit cards to make purchases at stores in several area cities and towns, including Auburn. Xiu Fang Zhang, 21, of New York City pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to commit credit card fraud. Prosecutors said between Jan. 3 and Jan. 6, Zhang and others used counterfeit credit cards to make purchases at retail stores and pharmacies at various Maine locations. According to court records, Zhang used the bogus cards to purchase over $7,500 worth of items from Lowe's, Home Depot, Bon-Ton, Rite Aid and Sears. She was paid by a co-conspirator for each fraudulent purchase, investigators said. 4-traders.com

Orlando, FL: Over $25,000 in Drones stolen during Smash & Grab
Surveillance video shows three masked people robbing an Orlando drone store. The robbers kicked their way through the front door and grabbed everything they could get their hands on. Seminaro was inside the CineDrones store on Sand Lake Road across from the Florida Mall early Wednesday morning when it was robbed. Surveillance video shows three masked people dressed in all black, breaking in through the front door and then clearing the counters. "They took all of that, and they took a big airplane. Yeah, they took a lot of stuff." The thieves took 15 to 17 drones. Each drone is worth $1,000 to $3,000. wesh.com

Naperville, IL: Woman recruited youths to help her steal
from Dick's Sporting Goods
A woman with a history of shoplifting is back in jail, after she recruited two youths to help her and an associate steal merchandise from a sporting goods store in Naperville. Ashley M. Robinson is being held in DuPage County Jail on bail of $56,000, stemming from the incident in Naperville and four other criminal matters in DuPage and Kane counties. Robinson, 25, was arrested by Naperville police with a friend, Tina J. Perry. The women were arrested at 6:39 p.m. Nov. 25, after police were called to investigate a report of shoplifting at Dick's Sporting Goods. Further investigation revealed Robinson "possessed wire cutters suitable for cutting off security devices and price tags on clothing" in the store. She also "directed two youths under the age of 18 in the commission of the (crime)," according to records. Records showed. Robinson has a list of prior theft charges from incidents at Macy's Kohl's, JC Penney, and Walmart dating back as far as 2010. chicagotribune.com

Cambridge, OH: Marietta man accused of shoplifting nearly $2K in merchandise from Walmart
A Marietta man accused of trying to steal more than $1,700 worth of merchandise from the Cambridge Walmart Sunday night. Brian T. Long, 21, is facing one count of theft, a fifth-degree felony, for the alleged incident just after 8:30 p.m. Officers were dispatched to Walmart after an employee reported a man tried to shoplift merchandise fled in a Ford van when confronted by an assistant manager. The suspect, later identified as Long, reportedly abandoned the merchandise totaling $1,703.15 at the store when confronted by the manager. daily-jeff.com

To apply to today's Featured Jobs, Click Here

Paul Trickett was named National Manager of Distribution Services and Supply Chain Loss Prevention for TJX Canada/Winners Merchants International LP.

Leigh Kohlhaas was named Regional Loss Prevention Manager for J. Crew.

Brian Farrar was promoted to Regional Loss Prevention Manager - Midwest for National Stores, Inc.

Joseph Rapacz was named Regional Loss Prevention Manager for Spencer Gifts.

What Makes a Leader?
This simple question seems to always keep us thinking of the perfect answer. Is it based on personality, experience, skills, values? It may seem almost impossible to come up with one definition for the word, but by understanding what it is not, you can come up with a solid groundwork for what a leader should be. Mindset in action

5 Behaviors of the Most Successful Leaders  As the year comes to a close, it's a good idea to review your leadership techniques. Finding some new ways to get employees inspired and achieve company goals benefits everyone. Here are some behaviors you may want to incorporate in your own leadership style. Give feedback consistently