Not all returns are made in good faith.
The National Retail Federation estimated that Americans returned $351 billion worth of goods in 2017 — or 10% of all sales. Of those returns, it estimated that $22.8 billion worth of goods qualified as fraudulent returns. That's equal to about 6.5% of total returns.
A Home Depot employee told Business Insider about one customer who attempted to return a power tool in its case.
"They re-taped the box, kept the tool, and returned the tool case filled with cans of spaghetti and ravioli to weigh it down," the employee said. "It was neatly packed and re-zipped to make us think it was the original purchase."
A Target team member told Business Insider that the stores have a $200 limit on returns made sans receipts, and that customers who return items without receipts receive a store credit in lieu of money.
The team member told Business Insider about witnessing a shopper attempt to exchange a razor without a receipt.
"She had hit her $200 limit — meaning that she couldn't return it," the team member said. "She left 20 minutes later, a different woman came in with the exact same razor — in the same Walmart bag, even — to return it with her license. Not surprisingly, she had also hit her limit."
But other shoppers successfully exploit return policies.
A different Target team member told Business Insider that one man returned several sets of bedsheets, claiming that his wife had bought too many.
"They were $150 a piece," the Target team member said. "He had a limit on his ID. He didn't have the receipt. We exchanged it for a $450 camera. He bought those sheets from a secondhand store."