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It doesn’t work much if you’re selling individual stolen items but if you steal a truckload of something the FTC or whoever would be reasonable in requesting th

It doesn’t work much if you’re selling individual stolen items but if you steal a truckload of something the FTC or whoever would be reasonable in requesting that lot codes/serial numbers/whatever identifying information be checked against a list of stolen items.

londons_explore 4y ago
Some countries (eg. Thailand) have a centralised government system for managing this. On every receipt, by law, is a unique barcode encoding the shop and purchase value. That barcode, when scanned, leads to a government webpage (and doing your taxes involves scanning each barcode for anything deductible, so many of the receipts get scanned). On that webpage, occasionally they ask for a photo of the best before label of the goods. The best before date usually includes the lot number. Now, the government has a list of lots of serial numbers and associated retailers. They can now easily punish those who regularly sell stolen goods.
- antihipocrat 4y ago
  Is cash still the dominant means of exchange in Thailand? If the discounted price of the good covered the potential deductible amount then no receipt would be needed.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    Lots of people still want the receipt. I suspect there are both undercover sellers and buyers to find buyers willing to buy without a receipt, or sellers willing to sell without a receipt.
- KirillPanov 4y ago
  > doing your taxes involves scanning each barcode for anything So a dystopian police surveillance-state? Thanks but no thanks. The socially optimal amount of theft is not zero.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    I think you already live in that... Credit card networks already know everything you buy, and will happily hand that info over to government. At least this way you get the benefits of it.
    - propogandist 4y ago
      Not quite, card networks only know transaction level information if the merchant processing the card transaction passes back level 3 data. Merchants only pass level 3 data to secure a processing % discount on network fees. This data can be used to mine user behavior by the card companies, and unless you opt-out of Visa/Mastercard's data mining program at the card level, they do this.
      - londons_explore 4y ago
        I was under the impression that the vast majority of merchants do this though... And any that don't still need to keep records for tax purposes, and the authorities could still request that anytime and without your knowledge. It is frequent that news reports say "attacked with a hammer purchased by the defendants credit card earlier the same day". So it appears the facility to search card payments is fairly widely used.
        kasey_junk 4y ago
        Most merchants do _not_ send level 3 data. For the most part it’s only sent on travel related transactions or for government vendors.
        gruez 4y ago
        >It is frequent that news reports say "attacked with a hammer purchased by the defendants credit card earlier the same day". So it appears the facility to search card payments is fairly widely used. Not really, because the search could have happened in the opposite direction (eg. they ask the store for a list of transactions that were made with the suspect's card). I doubt they're asking visa/mastercard to give them a list of all hammers sold in the past month.
- NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
  We don't really have receipts anymore here in the USA. I mean, we're supposed to, but it's on thermal paper, but everyone's printer is broken, and they'll try to send it in email, but oh the images are broken too, and the link expired after 29.25 days anyway. Proof of purchase is necessary for refunds. No refunds.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    We don’t have national business registration either.
costco 4y ago
This already happens and its called LeadsOnline. When someone reports something stolen the serial number gets added to it. Pawn shops in most states are required to use it or something similar before they buy an item. eCommerce marketplaces do not have that requirement in most places. LeadsOnline does partner with eBay however.

londons_explore 4y ago

Some countries (eg. Thailand) have a centralised government system for managing this. On every receipt, by law, is a unique barcode encoding the shop and purchase value. That barcode, when scanned, leads to a government webpage (and doing your taxes involves scanning each barcode for anything deductible, so many of the receipts get scanned). On that webpage, occasionally they ask for a photo of the best before label of the goods. The best before date usually includes the lot number. Now, the government has a list of lots of serial numbers and associated retailers. They can now easily punish those who regularly sell stolen goods.

antihipocrat 4y ago
Is cash still the dominant means of exchange in Thailand? If the discounted price of the good covered the potential deductible amount then no receipt would be needed.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  Lots of people still want the receipt. I suspect there are both undercover sellers and buyers to find buyers willing to buy without a receipt, or sellers willing to sell without a receipt.
KirillPanov 4y ago
> doing your taxes involves scanning each barcode for anything So a dystopian police surveillance-state? Thanks but no thanks. The socially optimal amount of theft is not zero.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  I think you already live in that... Credit card networks already know everything you buy, and will happily hand that info over to government. At least this way you get the benefits of it.
  - propogandist 4y ago
    Not quite, card networks only know transaction level information if the merchant processing the card transaction passes back level 3 data. Merchants only pass level 3 data to secure a processing % discount on network fees. This data can be used to mine user behavior by the card companies, and unless you opt-out of Visa/Mastercard's data mining program at the card level, they do this.
    - londons_explore 4y ago
      I was under the impression that the vast majority of merchants do this though... And any that don't still need to keep records for tax purposes, and the authorities could still request that anytime and without your knowledge. It is frequent that news reports say "attacked with a hammer purchased by the defendants credit card earlier the same day". So it appears the facility to search card payments is fairly widely used.
      - kasey_junk 4y ago
        Most merchants do _not_ send level 3 data. For the most part it’s only sent on travel related transactions or for government vendors.
      - gruez 4y ago
        >It is frequent that news reports say "attacked with a hammer purchased by the defendants credit card earlier the same day". So it appears the facility to search card payments is fairly widely used. Not really, because the search could have happened in the opposite direction (eg. they ask the store for a list of transactions that were made with the suspect's card). I doubt they're asking visa/mastercard to give them a list of all hammers sold in the past month.
NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
We don't really have receipts anymore here in the USA. I mean, we're supposed to, but it's on thermal paper, but everyone's printer is broken, and they'll try to send it in email, but oh the images are broken too, and the link expired after 29.25 days anyway. Proof of purchase is necessary for refunds. No refunds.
- kube-system 4y ago
  We don’t have national business registration either.

costco 4y ago

This already happens and its called LeadsOnline. When someone reports something stolen the serial number gets added to it. Pawn shops in most states are required to use it or something similar before they buy an item. eCommerce marketplaces do not have that requirement in most places. LeadsOnline does partner with eBay however.