Retailers track your returns — Many of us have had to return an item to a store for any number of reasons. Tech company Optoro estimates $380 billion in items are returned every year. And retailers are tracking every single penny of that.
A firm called Retail Equation helps them keep track of it all. The firm says there's an estimated $17 billion dollars of fraudulent returns every year. Items are stolen and then returned to a store for cash or in-store credit.
While the practice is meant to catch scammers, you could get caught in the mix if you're not careful. A man says he was banned from making returns at Best Buy for a year after he returned an item three times.
Avoid making several returns at the same location to try to avoid getting banned. And keep in mind that you're being tracked the next time you get ready to return something.