BRUNT Workwear Fends Off FTID Fraud Wave With Tailed
In April 2024, BRUNT Workwear faced a surge of sophisticated return fraud that threatened to cost them millions. Here’s how they turned the tide.
Meet BRUNT Workwear
BRUNT Workwear was founded in 2019 by Eric Girouard. Eric grew up in a blue-collar household and realized a need for high-quality yet affordable workwear for the next generation of blue collar workers. They have seen incredible growth, fueled in-part by their willingness to adopt new technologies. Naturally, the BRUNT team was quick to adopt automated return refunds to streamline their operations.
Until April, BRUNT had not experienced FTID fraud. That month, however, BRUNT noticed a sudden spike in large orders being placed and "returned." Shortly after, BRUNT's operations team received a call from a local bank about dozens of empty packages being delivered to them—all marked with "BRUNT Workwear" as the recipient. Realizing an oncoming fraud wave, BRUNT faced a dilemma: switching back to manual return processing would require substantial time, resources, and retraining of their warehouse team.
"No vendor we've spoken with can do anything remotely close to what Tailed has done when it comes to solving returns fraud."
The Challenge
At Tailed HQ, signals indicated that BRUNT was entering the early stages of a major fraud wave. Mentions of "BRUNT" across fraud forums skyrocketed by 1,720% compared to the previous month. The next day, cashout groups—networks that buy products in bulk for resale—began offering to purchase BRUNT's work boots at 40% of their retail value. These groups closely monitor refunding services, buying goods sold by heavily defrauded brands and then undercutting their prices on marketplaces like Amazon.
Tailed reached out via cold email and BRUNT's operations team, having caught on to the suspicious return patterns, were quick to respond. Within a week, Tailed's system was fully integrated with BRUNT's operations, analyzing returns in real time.
"The team at Tailed was able to stop $20K in fraud the first week we worked with them. Without implementing them, we would have been looking at up to $500K in losses from FTID fraud alone."
"The team at Tailed was able to stop $20K in fraud the first week we worked with them. Without implementing them, we would have been looking at up to $500K in losses from FTID fraud alone."
The Solution
Tailed's software integrates with return platforms like Loop and Narvar, identifying potential FTID fraud and blocking the automation of fraudulent refunds. Within the first week of integration with BRUNT, Tailed identified and stopped $21,081.82 worth of fraudulent returns, meaning BRUNT was on track to lose over $1 million in merchandise to FTID fraud that year! The fraud rate sharply declined by the third week, indicating a deterrent effect—just as fraudsters vouch for a brand's vulnerability, they also spread the word when a brand becomes difficult to defraud. By August, BRUNT's fraud rate had dropped to zero, with all returns securely delivered to their warehouse.
Thanks to Tailed, BRUNT has effectively eliminated return fraud while maintaining the efficiency of automated refunds. By flagging all known fraudsters in their database, Tailed ensures that these individuals are blocked from placing future orders with BRUNT or any other Tailed client.
Fraudulent returns blocked in one month
Bad actors identified and blacklisted