The banana trick has become a trend in recent months. Firstly, due large shopping centers such as Walmart have had to implement measures against this fraud. Secondly, because of the consequences for users who use this method to steal from supermarkets.
The banana trick, also known as switcheroo, has become one of the most widely used shopping fraud forms in recent decades. The impact it has had on retailers is unknown, but it is undoubtedly high. But are there no consequences for those who use it to defraud Walmart or another shopping mall? The answer is worth knowing.
What is the banana trick that Walmart has suffered?
Although there may be different versions of doing it, the banana trick basically consists of putting a cheap product’s label on top of a more expensive one. That is possible in the self-checkout areas, where you can weigh a cheaper product and, after changing the label, put it on a more expensive one. It is called the banana trick because it was detected that, in many cases, a banana was used to generate the cheap product label.
When acting like this in a shopping mall, the first thing to know is that it is considered shoplifting. That is, it is a crime. However, there is some confusion about what can happen to you for this type of theft. We will try to clarify these confusions.
Is there a jail sentence for using the banana trick in supermarkets like Walmart?
It is essential to know that using the switcheroo trick if it would only be considered theft, would carry a $250 penalty and up to 90 days in jail under state law (although it could be aggravated). This sentence is for anyone who commits theft of less than $500. However, precedents are beginning to appear that are changing from the criminal point of view.
A good example is a Kentucky citizen who exchanged the codes of different products at Walmart. In this case, the charge was not theft, a minor, but Illegal Computer Access. And this crime can accrue up to a 10-year prison sentence depending on the severity. The legal justification is that exchanging tags on a product is not theft but illegal access to a retailer’s computer system. This case, however, was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Kentucky itself, so this citizen will probably be convicted of misdemeanor theft and will not be sent to prison for ten years.
According to the legal aspects, by having the self-payments available within the stores themselves and provided by the company, there would not be the conditions of computer manipulation that Walmart denounced. Will this change in the future? Most likely, yes, as this is an issue of great concern to businesses.