In the recent news, people have been stealing things from stores, putting them in bags lined with what you used before grilling the fish: aluminum foil.
This is their modus operandi: They lined up bags with aluminum foil, stuffed them with goods, and then walked out of the store without triggering an alarm. These packages are called “boost packages”, and “boost” is a slang term for “steal”.
“Before, shoplifters made their own bags. But now these bags are made in Vietnam, you can’t see that they are lined with aluminum foil.
We can only detect these shoplifters through their actions. This is what our plainclothes store detective is looking for. “– Kapt (rtd) Adnan Adil Ariffin, Safety Manager at Sunway Pyramid for The Star.
Chen Kaiwen, chief operating officer of Sunway Shopping Mall, revealed that they have already had three such cases this year, and during the peak travel period, international shoplifting groups as far away as South Africa targeted several shopping malls at the same time. They are not just using bags.
“Some people line up their jackets and jeans pockets with aluminum foil so that they can shoplift undetected. So we are more vigilant,” – Kevin Tan Sing, COO of Sunway Mall.
The sophisticated, high-tech anti-theft system used in high-end stores can be defeated by a humble aluminum foil. At first glance it may seem unbelievable, but we live in an era where road tolls are paid by sticking a card on the windshield. . Everything should be credible now.
But before we understand how the things used to wrap ikan bakar deceive alarm systems, it is best to understand how these anti-theft systems work.
When buying new pants, you may have noticed something like this attached to the clothes you bought:
This is an anti-theft tag, and they work in conjunction with some kind of sensor door. In fact, you may have encountered many stores with these doors:
These are actually antennas, and together with anti-theft tags, they form an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system. Generally speaking, stores can choose to use three types of EAS, they are
Although the names of the systems may be different, they all work in the same way in essence. In very simple terms, the antennas in front of the store continuously emit radio signals in the surrounding area when they are active. The transmitted radio signal bounces around people and objects before they are received by another antenna, a bit like a bat “seeing” things by screaming and listening for reflections.
When these radio signals bounce off early anti-theft tags containing metal strips (EMS and AMS) or small circuit boards (RF and RFID), the reflected signals will change and become different. Then the antenna will perceive this strange reflection, which will trigger an alarm. To prevent this from happening after purchase, the cashier will remove or disable these tags. Depending on the system type, the device will saturate the tags with magnetism or burn down the RF circuit.
These systems are not only used in retail, but also in other areas, such as libraries and workshops, to track books and tools. Of course, depending on the system used, the full explanation is more technical, but this should be enough to get us to the next point, namely…
By now, you may have thought, hey, if the tag activates the system when it detects a signal from the antenna, can’t I cover the tag with my hand or something? If the signal does not reach the tag, there will be no alarm, will it?
Although it sounds unbelievably simple, you can stop the alarm from sounding by covering the label with conductive material. The initial aluminum foil bag example was effective because of a concept called “electromagnetic shielding”. In layman’s terms, if you can get something conductive (such as aluminum foil) and wrap it on something, you can shield that thing from electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves and microwaves.
The term “electromagnetic shielding” is sometimes used interchangeably with Faraday cage or Faraday shield, and perhaps the most relevant example can be found inside the door of a microwave oven.
The black film with holes prevents microwaves from leaking and affecting your brain. Source
Although this sounds like a recent development, the entire boost bag business is nothing new. As early as 1995, people (shoplifters are also humans) thought of using this concept to shield radio signals from the EAS system. An article in the “New York Times” proved this point. The article will shoplifters. Described as using “shopping bags lined with metal”.
This is why the “tinfoil hat” is a thing. (So ​​gomen can’t read your thoughts.) Photo from casinogrounds.com
In the past, shoplifters have tried a variety of methods to remove security labels from their stolen goods, or tried to disable them in some way, and the recommendations on the Internet are also mature. Some of these methods include using forks, bringing your own magnets, igniting equipment, and the most interesting is smashing it into pieces with a hammer.
For example, there are now labels filled with special ink. If shoplifters try to remove them, these labels will seriously contaminate the goods, thereby reducing the value of the stolen goods. If tampered with, some tags may issue their own alarms. And some tags, especially radio frequency tags, will be disguised as an innocent clothing tag to avoid being discovered by shoplifters.
The booster bag is by no means invincible. The most obvious way to deal with them is to stop relying entirely on EAS technology and use it in conjunction with less-future methods, such as plainclothes store detectives, surveillance cameras, and anti-theft mirrors. However, in the past few years, just finding people with suspicious bags has become more difficult.
Although it was suspicious in the past to bring large bags into stores, with the recent plastic-free enforcement in Selangor, carrying your own bags when shopping is no longer a warning signal for people looking for potential shoplifters. Even if the store security inspects each customer’s bag before entering the store, some walker bags are made better than others. The aluminum lining or wire cage is embedded in the bag itself, making it almost impossible to detect it by sight alone.
Some companies have seen a solution to this problem in the form of a separate antenna that can detect booster bags. The working principle of these antennas is almost the same as that of EAS, except that it detects the film-like metal alloy on the person when they enter the store. Antennas will not pick up alloys in strollers and other metal items worn or carried by people because the density and shape of the metal in these items are not sufficient to trigger an alarm. When this happens, a silent alarm will be sent to the shopkeeper to warn them that there may be a thief.
Judging from the EAS antennas at the entrances of almost every store and supermarket today, we do know that shoplifting is a major problem in Malaysia. However, there are no exact statistics on this matter. Although there are many studies on employee theft, research on shoplifting in Malaysia is somewhat difficult to obtain. These thefts are usually the two biggest causes of losses for retail companies.
In an interview with The Star, Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin, Director of the Federal Criminal Investigation Bureau, clarified that in their crime statistics, the police did not target specific categories of shoplifting. Shoplifting cases are conflated with other “construction theft” cases, just as they are classified under Article 380 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that shoplifters may face
“… Imprisonment can be up to ten years with a fine, and for the second or subsequent offence, imprisonment with a fine or flogging.”
The lack of research may be due to the fact that employers are better able to prevent employees from stealing goods and money than their ability to prevent random people from entering and shoplifting. However, a 2012 article may hint at the seriousness of shoplifting against retailers.
Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd is the owner of Mydin stores across Malaysia. It is estimated that the loss caused by shoplifting cases accounts for 1-1.5% of its total annual sales. However, the managing director Datuk Amir Ali Madin stated that the amount has increased from 0.5% in 2010, which is a rather steep increase.
“The losses caused by these syndicates can total up to 30 million ringgits a year. Not only does this happen every day, but these people become more aggressive when they are caught,”-Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin, Managing Director of Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, Reporting for The Star.
On the other hand, KK Group, the owner of the KK Supermarket chain, estimates a loss of RM300 per day. Some retailers have no choice but to pass this loss on to customers, perhaps by slightly raising prices. However, some retailers, such as the Giant hypermarket of GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, budget these losses as part of the cost because their prices are part of their brand strategy.