Ask for a police report on stolen-package claims, and check that it's real

Asking for a police report is one of the simplest things a store can do about "my package was stolen" refund claims. It changes what a false claim costs the person making it.

Why it stops false claims

An email to your support inbox costs the customer nothing. A police report is a statement to the police, with their name, their address and a date on it, and lying in one is a crime. Plenty of people who would tell your support team a made-up story won't tell it to the police. For them, the claim ends there.

A report also leaves a record outside your store. If the same person reports a stolen package every few months, that pattern now sits with the police as well as in your inbox.

Honest customers don't mind

Someone whose package really was stolen has had something taken from their doorstep. Reporting a theft is a normal thing to do, and many police departments let people report a stolen package online in a few minutes. An honest customer usually has no problem filing one, and some will have filed it before you ask.

What puts people off is a request that feels like an accusation. So ask the same way every time, and make it easy:

• Say it's standard for every stolen-package claim, so nobody feels singled out.
• Link to the local police department's online report page if it has one.
• Give them a few days, and tell them what happens once you have it.

Check that the report is real

A report only works as a barrier if someone checks it. An unchecked report is a document anyone can fake, and the people most likely to fake one are doing this for money. Paid refund services know stores ask for reports. Some file them in their clients' names or reuse old case numbers. Amazon has sued a group it says used fake police reports about missing packages to get more than $4 million in refunds.

Checking one takes a few minutes:

1. Get the report number, the name of the department, and the date it was filed.
2. Look up the department's records line yourself. Don't use a phone number or email printed on the report.
3. Ask them to confirm the report number exists and was filed on that date. Some departments will also confirm the name and address. Others won't share details with a store, but confirming the number still catches made-up and reused ones.
4. Compare it with the order. The report should be for the shipping address, filed after the carrier's delivery scan, by a department that covers that address.

Look much harder at a claim when the department has no record of the report number, the report is dated before the delivery scan, the department is in a different city from the shipping address, or the "report" is a screenshot of a confirmation page with no number on it.

What a report doesn't settle

A real police report confirms that the customer told the police their package was stolen. It doesn't overrule the carrier. If the delivery photo shows your box on their porch and the scan was recorded at their address, a verified report doesn't change that. Read it alongside the carrier's records (what to check when tracking says delivered), the customer's history with you, and, on high-value orders, an ID check.

How we handle it

When ValidShip contacts a customer about a claim, we ask for a police report and confirm it with the department that issued it. The result goes in the finding we send you, next to the carrier evidence and the ID check.