Siras.com Offers Fraud Prevention Plan

By Staff -- TWICE, 1/8/2007

LAS VEGAS — Siras.com, a supplier of point-of-sale (POS) electronic registration systems, is introducing in meeting room N118 what it describes as a "foolproof" method of preventing fraudulent product returns.

Siras says its Smart Return pilot program allows retailers to verify a product's purchase history and warranty eligibility without any customer information. Using the company's patented technology, retailers can track a product's purchase history by serial number to confirm with absolute certainty that the item and warranty conform to the merchant's and manufacturer's policies.

"Retailers lose millions of dollars in lost sales and fraud simply because they're unable to limit returns to the customers eligible to receive them," said Siras president Peter Junger.

The system can track products from participating manufacturers including Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Philips Consumer Electronics, HP, Panasonic, VTech, Thomson, TTE and other vendors whose packaging and products have been certified to meet Siras' serialization criteria. By scanning a product's serial number at the time of purchase with a POS electronic registration program, the date, time, retailer detail and transaction number is entered into a Siras database, giving retailers better control of the return process and preventing the return of items after the store's allowable period or that were purchased elsewhere.

Siras says the first field test of the system with a national retail chain on a popular MP3 player resulted in savings of over $750,000 in the first three months, and during a slow retail selling period.