Nearly half of retailers (47%) never or rarely contact police when they detect fraud despite potential losses in the tens of thousands, according to data released by Statistics Canada.
About 57% of retailers said they experienced some type of fraudulent activity in the past couple years, although in more than half of fraud cases, businesses considered the fraud too minor to involve the police.
The vast majority of businesses experienced losses less than $20,000, although 11% suffered losses greater than $20,000. Five per cent said they lost between $20,000 and $60,000; 4% said they lost between $60,000 and $100,000 and another 2% lost more than $100,000.
Almost a third (32%) of all fraudulent activity involved return fraud, where someone tries to return stolen merchandise or use counterfeit receipts to obtain a monetary refund. About 15% of fraud involved credit card fraud and 15% involved counterfeit money.