BRUNT Workwear: A Fast-Growing Brand Facing a New Threat
Founded in 2019 by Eric Girouard, BRUNT Workwear was built on a mission to provide high-quality, affordable workwear for blue-collar professionals. With rapid growth and an eagerness to embrace technological advancements, BRUNT integrated automated return refunds to streamline operations, improving efficiency for both the company and its customers.
For years, BRUNT operated without issues—until April 2024, when the company encountered Fake Tracking ID (FTID) fraud for the first time. A surge of high-value orders appeared, followed shortly by return requests. However, instead of legitimate returned items, BRUNT’s operations team was alerted to a disturbing pattern: dozens of empty packages labeled with BRUNT’s return address were being delivered to a local bank instead of the company’s warehouse.
The Challenge
The Challenge: An Escalating Fraud Wave
As fraudsters took aim at BRUNT, fraud forums saw mentions of the company skyrocket by 1,720% in just one month. Shortly after, cashout groups—organized networks that purchase bulk goods for resale—began offering BRUNT’s work boots at 40% below retail price, a clear indication that refund fraud networks had identified BRUNT as a vulnerable target.
Faced with this growing issue, BRUNT had two options:
Revert to manual return processing, a resource-intensive move that would slow operations and burden the warehouse team.
Find a fraud prevention solution that could work alongside automated refunds without disrupting efficiency.
The Solution
Recognizing the warning signs, an AI fraud prevention provider reached out to BRUNT’s operations team, offering a solution that could detect and block fraudulent returns in real time. The BRUNT team, already aware of the suspicious patterns, quickly agreed to integrate the system.
Within a week, the AI-powered fraud detection tool was fully operational, scanning return data and identifying potential FTID fraud before refunds were processed. The results were immediate: in just seven days, the system successfully prevented over $21,000 in fraudulent returns. Had this trend continued unchecked, BRUNT was on track to lose over $1 million in merchandise to FTID fraud in a single year.
The AI fraud prevention system seamlessly integrated with return platforms like Loop and Narvar, identifying fraudulent return requests and blocking them from being automatically processed. Beyond just detecting fraud, the system created a deterrent effect—as fraudsters share information on brand vulnerabilities, they also warn each other when a retailer becomes too difficult to exploit.
By the third week of AI fraud detection, BRUNT’s fraud rate had already dropped significantly. By August, fraudulent return attempts had been completely eliminated, with all returns properly delivered to the warehouse.
