While ink tags do normally provide a deterrent against shoplifting, ingenuitive shoplifters have found ways to remove some types of ink tags without damaging the clothing, resulting in a mini arms race between the ink tag manufacturers and the shoplifters. However there is another way to remove the ink tag without any technical knowledge, by asking the sales clerk. While rare, I have had the experience of buying an article of clothing only to realize that the clerk forgot to remove the ink tag. By returning to the nearest store from the same chain (which may not be anywhere near the store from where I bought it) with receipt in hand, it is not difficult to have the customer service representative remove the ink tag.

Thus shoplifting on a small scale can be done by finding a receipt discarded by another customer and shoplifting some of the items on that receipt from one store and returning them to another to have the tags removed (though the shoplifter would need to convince the clerk that the items were a gift since he/she couldn’t prove identity.) Or by purchasing one item and shoplifting several more of the same item, the shoplifter could use the receipt at other stores from the same chain to get the ink tags removed.

Until items can be uniquely correlated with receipts, this method will continue to work. However a shoplifter could only pull this stunt so many times before they would run out of stores that didn’t recognize them.

My sister informed me that stupid shoplifters try a variation of this, but they are usually thwarted by the lack of a receipt or sometimes the fact that her store did not even carry the brand that they claimed to have purchased there.