Glossary

Short, citable definitions of the terms retail loss prevention and asset protection teams use, cross-linked to the articles that apply them.

• Booster · Organized retail crime
  A booster is a person who steals merchandise for resale rather than personal use, usually working a list of specific brands and quantities for a fence or an organized retail crime crew.
• De-escalation · Workplace violence and de-escalation
  De-escalation is the set of verbal and physical moves an associate uses to lower tension with an agitated person: a calm tone, no argument over the complaint, an open exit path, distance, and a manager alerted early. At associate level it stops at recognize and disengage.
• External theft · Organized retail crime
  External theft is loss caused by people who do not work for the retailer. It covers casual shoplifting, organized retail crime, robbery, and customer fraud at the register such as refund fraud and gift card scams.
• Fence (stolen goods) · Organized retail crime
  A fence is a person or business that buys stolen merchandise from boosters and resells it through online marketplaces, flea markets, pawn shops, or back into the retail supply chain. The fence is the reason boosters steal specific brands in quantity.
• Gift card scam · Scams and fraud
  A gift card scam is a fraud in which a scammer, usually by phone, convinces a victim to buy gift cards and read the card numbers back. The store's register becomes the payout point, and the cashier is often the only person positioned to interrupt it.
• Huddle (pre-shift) · Associate training
  A pre-shift huddle is a short standing meeting the store manager runs before the doors open. A loss prevention huddle covers one behavior tied to one trigger, shows it on the floor, has associates answer on the spot, and names what to watch for today.
• Imposter scam · Scams and fraud
  An imposter scam is a fraud in which someone pretends to be a trusted party, such as a government agency, a utility, tech support, a relative, or the retailer's own corporate office, to extract payment or information. In a store it reaches both customers and staff.
• Incident report · Associate training
  An incident report is the same-shift written record of what an associate saw during a theft, scam, or aggression event: date, time, location, a description of each person, the items involved, exit direction, whether the associate was approached, and when the manager was told. Facts only, no guesses.
• Internal theft (employee theft) · Employee theft
  Internal theft is loss caused by a retailer's own employees. It includes merchandise carried out the back door, cash and deposit theft, refunds processed with no sale behind them, and sweethearting at the register. Every control for it sits inside the building.
• Isolated worker · Workplace violence and de-escalation
  An isolated worker is an employee working alone, or in a spot where no coworker or supervisor can respond right away: a late-night clerk, a closing associate, a receiver at the back door. Some state laws define the term narrowly, so a retailer checks its own roles before assuming coverage.
• Observe and report · Organized retail crime
  Observe and report is the associate-level rule for any theft, scam, or aggression: notice what is happening, note who and what, tell the manager on duty, and step away. It never includes confronting, following, blocking an exit, checking a bag, or chasing.
• Organized retail crime (ORC) · Organized retail crime
  Organized retail crime is theft run as a business. Crews steal merchandise in order to resell it, split the work between people, and return to the same stores. The associate's job is to notice and report, never to confront or chase.
• Refund fraud · Scams and fraud
  Refund fraud is obtaining a refund or store credit the store never owed. Customers return stolen or used goods, present fake or altered receipts, or claim items never arrived. Employees process refunds with no sale behind them to a card they control.
• Repeat offender · Organized retail crime
  A repeat offender is a person who returns to the same store or chain to steal again and again, known to staff by face, by saved video, or by a corporate case file. Associates observe and report; corporate asset protection owns identification, trespass, and police contact.
• Shrink · Shrink and total retail loss
  Shrink is the gap between the inventory a retailer should have on its books and the inventory it can actually count. It combines external theft, internal theft, process and paperwork errors, and losses with no known cause.
• Sweethearting · Employee theft
  Sweethearting is a form of employee theft in which a cashier gives merchandise to a friend, relative, or accomplice by not scanning it, scanning a cheaper item in its place, or applying a discount the customer did not earn.
• Total retail loss · Shrink and total retail loss
  Total retail loss is a framework that widens the lens beyond shrink to every cost a loss program can influence: damaged and wasted goods, markdowns, cash losses, fraud, workplace injuries, and the labor and controls spent responding to all of them.
• Workplace violence (retail) · Workplace violence and de-escalation
  Retail workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or threatening behavior at the store. It covers a customer shouting at the service desk, a shove in the aisle, a threat from a repeat offender, and an armed robbery.