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The Dangers of Home Title Theft

Let’s talk about the latest scam to hit the masses. Typically when you think about common ways people steal from you, you’re first to think about things such as card fraud, identity theft, and phishing.  A new threat that has been emerging is stealing from people in a new way - their home title and all of their equity that they worked so hard over the years to build up.  From the years 2015 to 2019, real estate and rental fraud was more than 2.6 times the rate of even credit card fraud. 


Here are the steps of a typical home title theft scam: 

The Dangers of Home Title Theft #Infographic

Overview of UK’s stolen and recovered vehicles

The country has been observing an impressive decline in vehicle thefts for about a decade but recently, the number of stolen cars is rising. Fortunately, it has now become super easy to recover the stolen vehicle with the help of a GPS tracker approved by Thatcham.

Overview of UK’s stolen and recovered vehicles #infographic

Package Theft in America in 2020

Ecommerce and online shopping have grown rapidly in the last few years thanks to the convenience it affords many Americans. During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people worldwide have relied on online ordering and package delivery for many household items like cleaning supplies and toilet paper as well as food. With the growing need for online shopping, comes with it the unfortunate rise of package theft and porch pirates. 


A market research firm located in Chicago named C+R Research recently surveyed 2,000 consumers who have shopped online at least once within the last 12 months to learn more about their experiences with package theft and what preventative measures they’ve taken to prevent porch pirates. Let us take a deeper look into what they found. 


Package theft in 2020 


The first part of the survey asked American consumers how often they receive package deliveries to their home in 2020. The data from C+R Research compared numbers from this year to numbers from last year from a separate survey they also did on package theft. In 2020, 10% of Americans said they receive package deliveries daily. In 2019 that number was only 5%, so as you can see the number of Americans receiving daily package deliveries has risen by 100% in just a year. 


In 2019, 44% of Americans said they received a package delivery at least once per week. That number rose to 49% in 2020, showing nearly a 5% increase year over year. In 2019, 45% of Americans said they received a package delivery at least once per month. In 2020, that number actually decreased to 38%. In 2019 5% of Americans said they received a package delivery at least once per year. In 2020 that number decreased to only 2%. In both 2019 and 2019 only 1% of Americans said they receive a package delivery rarely or never. 


So, in summary Americans are receiving more packages either daily or once a week this year. 


Victims of package theft 


In 2019, C+R Research found that 36% of Americans reported having a package stolen that year. In 2020 that number has increased by 7% to 43% of Americans reporting having had a package stolen in 2020. That number is also up from 31% in 2017 from a similar report. In 2019, 56% of Americans said they know someone who had a package stolen. That number jumped to 61% in 2020. In 2019, 31% of Americans said their neighbor had a package stolen. In 2020 that number jumped to 43%. 


As you can see package theft numbers appear to be going up across the board. Both of people who actually had a package stolen from their doorstep, as well as people who know friends or family who have dealt with package theft this year. 64% of Americans also report having had a package stolen on more than on occasion. 


So, what do most people do when a package is stolen? For many Americans (47%) that starts with filing a police report. The average value of a stolen package is $136. Fortunately for many Americans, they are able to receive a refund for their stolen items. 81% of Americans surveyed said they had luck receiving a refund on a stolen package. 


Another common deterrent for porch pirates is a doorbell camera or a surveillance camera. Many Americans are turning to this technology to either catch the thieves or deter them from committing the crime in the first place. Of those surveyed, 50% have purchased a doorbell camera or another type of security device to either catch a porch pirate or to prevent package theft from happening. 32% say they believe delivery companies like Amazon, UPS, USPS, and FedEx are not doing enough to prevent package theft. Because of this, 39% stay at home to meet a delivery driver when they expect a package to be delivered. 


Package Theft during COVID-19 


Most would assume that a majority of Americans have ordered more package delivery as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey proved this assumption to be correct with 84% of Americans say they have ordered more things online during the pandemic. Only 12% said they ordered less items online during the pandemic and only 4% said their online ordering was about the same. 


With those increased online orders has also meant an increased in packages being stolen. 29% of Americans surveyed said they had a package stolen during the pandemic. 22% of those said it was the first time they had been a victim of package theft. 43% also said they knew of someone else who had a package stolen during the COVID-19 pandemic. 


Package theft and the 2020 holiday shopping season 


This holiday shopping season may look different than previous years because many Americans are choosing to do their shopping online and opposed to at a brick and mortar retail location for safety reasons and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 


55% of Americans said they ended up purchasing more items online this holiday season when compared to last year. 31% said their online purchases were about the same and only 14% said they had purchased less items online this year when compared to last year at this time. 55% said they were victims or package theft during the 2019 holiday season and that impacted the way they bought gifts this holiday season. 52% said they were worried or concerned about having a package stolen this holiday season. 48% said they avoided buying expensive gifts online this year due to the thread of package theft. 


Preventing package theft 


The last part of the survey on package theft from C+R Research asked American consumers about the steps they took to prevent package theft this year. 


Listed below are the top responses: 


1. Staying home for package deliveries (64%) 

2. In-store pick up instead of delivery (24%) 

3. Installing a doorbell or other type of surveillance camera (23%) 

4. Shopping at stores instead of online (21%) 

5. Requesting a signature for all deliveries (19%) 

6. Sending packages to a delivery center (13%) 

7. Requesting drivers to hide packages (13%) 

8. Sending deliveries to friends/relatives (11%)


Package Theft in America in 2020

Package Theft in America in 2020

Package Theft in America in 2020

Package Theft in America in 2020

Package Theft in America in 2020

Package Theft in America in 2020

Infographic by: crresearch

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Package Theft in America in 2020 #Infographic

The Rise of Package Theft During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dealing with package theft or porch pirates as they are more commonly known is one of the more unfortune side affects of ordering things online with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping. Normally porch pirates strike during the holiday shopping season when a majority of people have holiday gifts shipped to their home. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the amount of online ordering taking place because many people are scared to leave their homes or don’t want to shop at a busy store during the holiday season. Because of this, many experts expect a spike in package theft this holiday season. 


So, what can you do to protect yourself against package theft? The first thing you can do is to realize where package theft happens the most. The sad reality is that package theft is happening everywhere. Recent data shows that over 36% of Americans have reported dealing with a stolen package in the past year. That’s over one in every three people in this country. These numbers only continue to rise each year and each holiday shopping season. 


Experts predict a rise in package theft to coincide with the holiday season as many consumers shop from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To get a feel for the top cities for package theft during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bid-On-Equipment recently analyzed Google search volume in U.S. cities across the country to determine where package theft has been most prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Rise of Package Theft During the COVID-19 Pandemic #Infographic

Shocking Acts of Theft by Employee

 Your employees can make your company, but they can break it as well. Many companies suffer because of employee theft acts, the severity and type of which can vary. By employee theft, we do not necessarily mean the stealing of an actual tangible object. It is actually defined by the mishandling of the employer's assets. So it does not always have to be cash or say any valuable device.

 According to the National Retail Security Survey (2017), internal employee theft was around 30 %. External retail crime and loss came out to be around 36.5%. The difference between these two isn't much, and while you can try your best to limit external crimes by gangs and shoplifters, it is likely that you'll be able to completely eliminate the risk. Employee theft, however, can be minimized to a pretty good extent and it's possible for you to even get rid of it entirely.

Shocking Acts of Theft by Employees #Infographic

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