Thieving Employees Do Brisk Business in Gift Cards

Employee fraud, which accounts for a large and growing chunk of the total $36 billion a year the retail industry loses to theft, is increasingly taking the form of gift cards: easy to walk out of a store with, and easy to redeem without showing ID. With overall employee theft on the rise, "gift card fraud is spiking," the New York Times reports.

The typical thief is a young, part-time employee who rings up fake merchandise returns and loads the money onto a gift card, which fetches much better prices online than stolen goods do on the street. Organized crime sometimes plays a role, with criminals pressuring or paying employees for cards. And however fast gift card fraud is rising, employees remain even more prone to "sweethearting"—not ringing up their friends' or relatives' purchases.
(More shoplifting stories.)