Human trafficking is a greed-driven criminal enterprise. Traffickers exploit every opportunity to increase their profits, including by making victims of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation also commit crimes like shoplifting and retail fraud. The U.S. National Retail Federation’s report The Impact of Retail Theft and Violence 2026 found increasing levels of several types of organized crime across retail businesses. As just one example, a recent report from the Washington Retail Alliance explained how gift card fraud evolves into organized retail theft:

“Criminals may remove gift cards from store packaging, copy barcodes, or tamper with PIN covers before returning cards to store displays. Counterfeit barcodes can also redirect funds to accounts controlled by thieves. Another emerging method, known as ‘ghost tapping,’ uses contactless payment technology to purchase gift cards in bulk without taking cards from store shelves. Once stolen card information is obtained, criminals can monitor balances online and quickly drain funds after cards are loaded.” -Washington Retail Association, 10/1/2026

Retail crime harms businesses and customers alike as it drives up costs and therefore consumer prices. It decreases safety and increases stress for store employees. It is a sad fact that retail businesses must invest in loss prevention strategies. It is also sad beyond words that people are forced by traffickers to engage in retail crime, and suffer life-altering consequences if their survival results in criminal records.

While there are no reliable statistics on the prevalence of forced criminality in organized retail crime, there are at least three key indicators. Nearly 2/3 of survivors of human trafficking in the U.S. surveyed in 2021 reported that their traffickers forced them to commit crimes and almost ¼ reported having had their identity used to apply for a credit card while under the control of a trafficker, according to the First National Survivor Study conducted by Polaris. A third indicator is that among victims of human trafficking detected worldwide in 2022, 8% were trafficked specifically to commit crimes for their controllers, up from 6% in 2018 and 1% in 2016, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Report Trafficking in Persons 2024.

In conversations BEST has had with leaders in loss prevention and organized retail crime (ORC) investigators, most have told us they have seen indicators of people being forced into crimes that include gift card fraud, use of a fake ID to try to get a store credit card, and shoplifting. However, the corporate policies of some retail companies direct their ORC leaders to focus solely on recovering assets, regardless of whether people have been forced into retail crime. From what BEST has been able to learn, few retailers equip their staff to recognize signs of human trafficking, and even fewer have a reporting protocol for retail crimes that includes documentation of indicators of forced criminality, much less a trauma-informed response protocol.

BEST aims to help change that. Working together with thought leaders from loss prevention and ORC investigations who care about the people being forced into retail crime as well as about retail staff, customers, and at-risk assets, we are connecting the dots between ORC and human trafficking. BEST supports better reporting, more effective response protocols, and more comprehensive investigations that lead to apprehension of the criminals who mastermind ORC—and justice for their victims.

Organized Retail Crime and Human Trafficking: Connecting the Dots