Recipero News & Comment

CheckMEND the world’s leading due diligence service for used consumer electronics today announced it has secured an agreement with GameStop to deploy its software in all GameStop’s US stores to identify devices that are not eligible for trade.

Developed by UK-based Recipero, CheckMEND is a unique, cutting edge system that allows retailers and recyclers to proactively identify unacceptable devices and stop them from entering the supply chain.

Using data that is aggregated from over 20,000 data sources (including the FBI) CheckMEND provides access to its service to both enterprise and consumers. GameStop is the first major retailer in the US to integrate its application at point of sale. With a data warehouse containing over 150 billion records of information that is relevant to any buyer of used consumer electronics, CheckMEND is fast becoming the “go-to” data provider for this type of information.

Consumers are becoming more aware of the value that exists in their old electronics. That precipitates a need for reliable data and methods to ensure that retailers are protecting consumers. GameStop is leading the way for other retailers to follow suit.

“We are delighted that GameStop has stepped up to the forefront of consumer protection” said Adrian Portlock Founder of CheckMEND. “Our product allows GameStop to protect their customers, their associates in store and their reputable brand by deterring unwanted activity. GameStop has set the bar for other responsible retailers.” “GameStop will continue to invest in technology solutions that offer our customers the best and safest choice to buy, sell or trade video games, consoles and electronics” said Joe Gorman Vice President of Mobile at GameStop. “Working with CheckMEND, we have further enhanced our process, and we are already reaping the benefits of the service in our stores and our state of the art refurbishment center.”

About CheckMEND
CheckMEND is a service provided by Recipero Limited, a privately owned U.K. company, which has specialized since 2001 in the collection of data relating to the history of used consumer electronics (www.checkmend.com). It has grown into the biggest online provider of this type of information to both the trade and the consumer and is currently focused on expanding its operations in the USA. General information on Recipero can be found on the company’s corporate website at www.recipero.com.

About GameStop Corp.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, is the world’s largest multichannel video game retailer. GameStop’s retail network and family of brands include 6,602 company-operated stores in 15 countries worldwide and online at www.GameStop.com. The network also includes: www.Kongregate.com, a leading browser-based game site; Game Informer® magazine, the leading multi-platform video game publication; Spawn Labs, a streaming technology company; a digital PC game distribution platform available at www.GameStop.com/PC; and an online consumer electronics marketplace available at www.BuyMyTronics.com. General information on GameStop Corp. can be obtained at the company’s corporate website. Follow GameStop on Twitter @www.twitter.com/GameStop and find GameStop on Facebook @www.facebook.com/GameStop.

Gazelle, one of the USA’s leading high-end consumer trade-in sites, today announced it has deployed CheckMEND, a cutting-edge tool, designed to more accurately detect potentially stolen goods, including smart phones, tablets and computers.

Developed by Recipero, CheckMEND is the largest World’s largest consumer electronics background report service, the system compiles data from all major wireless carriers and law enforcement entities across the USA, providing the most complete database of devices available. Gazelle is the first consumer electronics trade-in site to deploy CheckMEND and collaborated with Recipero to tailor the product to help address the growing incidences of consumer electronics theft.

For Gazelle the introduction of CheckMEND comes at a good time with the proliferation of high-end consumer electronics theft. In fact, New York City’s police commissioner recently reported that Apple products now represent more than 40 percent of stolen property in the city and San Francisco police report that nearly half of all robberies in the city in the past year have been cell phone related.

We are dedicated to providing the best customer experience possible, and part of that promise is to protect each customer’s personal data

said Israel Ganot, CEO, Gazelle.

We always take security very seriously. With the CheckMEND deployment, we’re taking this to a new level, committing not only to the protection of a customer’s personal data when we receive the device, but also going the extra mile to ensure that any devices we accept are being sold by the rightful owner and to discourage and prevent theft of consumer electronics.

Recipero’s CheckMEND service makes it possible to do a more thorough screening by checking a vast set of carrier and law enforcement sources for a much broader set of consumer electronics. CheckMEND is capable of comparing each inquiry against more than 150 billion records of information, including more than 50 billion items.

For more information please visit the following websites.

Visit Gazelle: www.gazelle.com

Visit CheckMEND: www.checkmend.com

Visit Recipero: www.recipero.com

Recipero is pleased to announce that the CJIS sub- committee that controls access to the FBI Stolen Articles file on the NCIC database has unanimously agreed that the arrangement to supply the information to the Trace service operated by Recipero should be made permanent and will recommend this to the full committee at its next meeting.

Les Gray, Recipero IT Director who attended the meeting in St Louis Missouri along with Ken Bouche, Recipero’s USA law enforcement liaison said:

“We are delighted that the FBI can see the value of providing this data to allow the public to check if an item they are buying is recorded as stolen with them. It helps enormously to cut down the markets for the disposal of stolen goods including online auction and classified sites. The moral here is if you are buying used goods check them with us first and if you are selling stolen goods beware as you may well be caught out”

Notes for readers: The NCIC file is a file of stolen property that is contributed to by all the USA law enforcement agencies. Recipero receives a copy of the entries that have the make model and serial number of the stolen item along with the name of the originating agency. This allows Recipero to operate the FREE USA Trace system at www.tracechecker.com and also to search the information in their CheckMEND life history report service.

For more information please go to: www.tracechecker.com

Recipero the UK based data company has today announced it has reached agreement with a major US recycler.

The agreement will see Recipero’s retail compliance software in thousands of US retail outlets by the end of 2011. Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero said:

“This is only the preliminary announcement of the deal full details will be released over the coming weeks after the integration of the service is complete. What I can say is that this is a really exciting development for us as we see huge potential in the US for our services”

For details of Recipero’s services please go to: Products & Services

Boston Police have today (30th June 2010) agreed to a 30 day trial of the new CheckMEND service in the USA prior to it going live with all pawn and second-hand dealers in their jurisdiction. If the trial is successful Recipero see this as a very exciting opportunity to extend the service to every US law enforcement agency to create a national free transaction submission and Police checking service.

Unlike Europe second hand dealers and pawnbrokers in the US have to supply details of transactions to their local law enforcement agencies so CheckMEND has widened its remit to include this in the process of running a due diligence check. At the same time Recipero, the owner of CheckMEND, has rewritten its US NMPR platform so free of charge US law enforcement will be able to view CheckMEND transaction data via the US NMPR as well as being able to match the data with crime reports provided to the NMPR (via the Trace Checker system) from over 18,000 US law enforcement agencies.

Ken Bouche who leads business development for CheckMEND and Trace Checker in the US said:

This is the culmination of over 2 years work to allow traders and pawn brokers to supply for free transaction data to an online database that can be checked also free of charge by the Police. Bolting on the stolen data from Trace Checker which Recipero took over late in 2009 is inspired and provides a whole new service for the trade to ensure they are not buying stolen or dubious goods that have been reported as stolen to their local law enforcement agency. If the service grows to be as popular in the US as it is in Europe this will be a very significant step for forward for everyone involved

For more information please contact us: www.recipero.com/contact

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: PLEASE NOTE THAT AS DATA FROM TRACE IS CURRENTLY BEING INTEGRATED WITH OUR SYSTEMS WE RECOMMEND USERS ALSO RUN A FREE SEARCH ON TRACE (www.trace.com) WHILST THE WORK IS COMPLETED.

CheckMEND the world’s largest due diligence service which is owned by Recipero is delighted to announce the recent acquisitions of two US centric businesses, the Trace due diligence system and PhoneHistoryReport the stolen phone checking service. The data from both businesses will be incorporated into the CheckMEND service over the next few weeks.

Both services will complement the existing CheckMEND service providing millions of new records to the CheckMEND website. Of particular note is that the acquisition of Trace will allow CheckMEND to access stolen property data from over 18,000 US law enforcement agencies vastly expanding their reach in the US market. Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero commented:

These two acquisitions are strategically very important to us as we look to replicate the huge success of CheckMEND in the UK and Europe in the USA. We are already talking to a range of organisations who wish to use the new enhanced CheckMEND service in the US and we are very excited about the potential opportunities this provides to the US consumer buying and selling on sites such as EBay and Craig’s List.

This interesting report on techdigest discusses why you are more likely to get your phone stolen in London than Newyork:

A Carphone Warehouse “Mobile Life” report reckons that 25% of adults in London have had their phone nicked, compared to 15% in the rest of the country. 14% of British teenagers have had their phone stolen, compared to 9% of teens in the USA, and 7% of adults. In London in 2007, there were three robberies per 1000 people, whereas in New York, there were only 1.61

For the full article go to: http://www.techdigest.tv/2008/10/stattack_youre.html

I have just been watching BBC News and one of their features was ‘Why shopping online could reward’.

The feature really focused on the fact that shoppers who like to spend their money online could also be earning at the same time and used an example from a woman who would only purchase items once she had sold a few on eBay and made a small profit.  Great example of how online shopping can really work well with the current credit crunch. However, I do wish the BBC had highlighted some of the risks involved in online shopping, like CNBC have done.

Yesterday we launched in the US and have already seen some coverage including from the Denver Post and it states we aim to curb the cybercrime of selling suspect second-hand goods. Hopefully there will be more to follow.

Anyway, hopefully the USA launch will be just as successful as the UK. According to the US Census Bureau the population of USA currently stands at 304,381,960 with:
• One birth every  7 seconds
• One death every 13 seconds
• One international migrant (net) every 29 seconds
• Net gain of one person every… 10 seconds

From the global population of internet users 27% are in the US and having read a lot of online articles and blogs e-fencing is proving to be a problem which the US are struggling to control. E-fencing laws have been discussed as being essential to combat organised retail crime. However, CheckMEND should now be an answer to their prayers, so let’s see how it goes.

This is what we do best and we have had plenty of stories from people who didn’t discover CheckMEND in time…

For example; Andrew Gudelajtis, from Mansfield, bought a Vodafone Nokia mobile phone from eBay for his wife. The phone arrived in a sealed box and was sold as being brand new, but after using it for six weeks the mobile phone stopped working.

He decided that he should use CheckMEND to check the IMEI number on its database. The search came back and identified the phone as being stolen or blocked. Unfortunately Andrew was then unable to re-trace the eBay seller and is left with a phone that doesn’t work and at the moment he is pursuing Vodafone to see if they can help – either by unblocking the phone or chasing the seller.

Hopefully he will have some luck at some point, but it is a great example of why you should use ‘CheckMEND before you buy’ or insist on sellers having a CheckMEND report. Or as I mentioned within my last post we should push for eBay to insist all sellers conduct a CheckMEND report!

Any questions – please fire them this way!

E-fencing – it’s an easy way to make fast cash and there are no regulations to stop you. BUT we can change this.

E-fencing is increasing everyday, according to CNBC , with the help of faceless online auction sites such as eBay and we need to really start looking into ways to overcome these issues. Well CheckMEND already have.

CNBC news in the USA have been really pushing the dangers consumers are facing in order to make e-fencing a more recognized problem.

The US-based National Retail Federation even went as far as to predict health problems caused by e-fencers re-selling stolen beauty products online, listing Cover Girl, Olay and RoC as the most common targets of e-fencing.
New York based Tiffany & Co has previously filed a lawsuit against eBay, and a host of other major retailers have all tried to persuade eBay and other online auction companies to combat e-fencing, but little has moved forward.

I have noticed a few online discussions by a number of cyber-crime bloggers  about who is to blame and who’s responsibility it is. One I would like to highlight is, Investor Trip’s They point out the fact that eBay seem to be passing the buck. Quoting eBay’s Vice President of Trust & Safety Rob Chesnut: ‘increase theft protection at the retail level. It’s the job of these major retailers to prevent criminals from lifting their products.’

Although eBay is right, I still believe it is also the responsibility of eBay, and other online action sites, to protect their users. One simple way of doing this is to CHECKMEND IT. From our perspectives, asking all sellers to carry out a compulsory CheckMEND check would solve a lot of e-fencing problems.
Currently, there is an option to carry out a checkMEND report on eBay but it’s not compulsory. If we can persuade eBay to enforce then at least consumers will know they are shopping safely with eBay! Reassurance is all they need.

Anyway, here are some interesting snapshots of the top 10 eBay selling markets last year by rank, published on 14.05.2008 by Harris Interactive:
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
- 196,089 Los Angeles residents sold 24,051,645 items for a total of $1,396,037,518.
- Best-selling categories for Los Angeles sellers were cell phones and their accessories as well as clothing and accessories.
- Los Angeles sellers were also the most charitable eBay sellers last year, donating the most of any city via eBay Giving Works, eBay’s program that helps people buy and sell for a cause, turning e-commerce into a force for good.
New York

- 158,859 New York City residents sold 12,621,651 items for a total of $1,045,503,913.
- Best-selling categories for New York sellers were jewelry, gems, watches and clothing and accessories.

Chicago
172,972 Chicago residents sold 10,229,844 items for a total of $908,708,440.
Best-selling categories for Chicago sellers included toys and sports memorabilia.

Philadelphia
120,900 Philadelphia residents sold 7,069,212 items for a total of $584,383,915. Best-selling categories for Philadelphia sellers included collectibles and toys.

Dallas
85,484 Dallas residents sold 5,003,292 items for a total of $754,493,210. Best-selling categories for Dallas sellers included jewelry, gems and watches, and clothing and accessories. Dallas sellers also made more money on sales of cars and trucks than did sellers in any other top-10 U.S. seller market.
Orange County, California
75,486 Orange County residents sold 6,945,490 items for a total of $636,654,084.
Best-selling categories for Orange County sellers were auto parts and cell phones and accessories.
Washington, D.C.
112,462 D.C. residents sold 5,024,888 items for a total of $393,720,726. Best-selling categories for D.C. sellers included books and toys.
Houston
76,450 Houston residents sold 4,297,389 items for a total of $528,872,858. Best-selling categories for Houston sellers included health and beauty and collectibles.

Nassau-Suffolk, New York -
70,714 Nassau-Suffolk residents sold 5,396,880 for a total of $400,253,200. Sports memorabilia and health and beauty were best-selling categories here.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida -
39,623 Fort Lauderdale residents sold 2,838,954 items for a total of $631,845,063.
Best-selling categories for Fort Lauderdale sellers included home furnishings and auto parts.

The survey

was carried out by Harris Interactive. They also revealed that one in 10 US adults (that’s 11percent) is currently selling personal household items to generate extra cash, with the majority (59 percent) doing so via online sales

or auction sites like eBay. Additionally, 30 percent of all adults say they are likely to sell their personal or household items over the next three months to earn extra cash. Great, but are you sure they are not stolen!!!

So, lets all jump o

n the band wagon and make sure a CheckMEND check is enforced with all sales on eBay.