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ANNOUNCEMENTS! HAPPY
HOLIDAYS!
Mark your calendars!
Airing December 3rd: Mr. Shulman will be a featured guest
expert on compulsive
shoplifting and stealing on the
Canadian Broadcast Corporation's "Doc-Zone" series. Check
listings
for times/channels.
New Years group
telephone therapy sessions for persons struggling with
compulsive theft and/or spending
starts in
January! Relapses frequently occur just before, during,
or after the holiday season! Get a jump on
creating a
solid foundation for the new year. Individual phone counseling
tune-ups are available as well.
Contact Terrence Shulman
248-358-8508 or by e-mail at:terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com for
more
information.
Therapist Telephone Training on
compulsive theft and spending begins in
January! Please contact Terrence
Shulman at
terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com or 248-358-8508 for more information.
Be on the
cutting edge of these newer and exciting fields
of treatment. Led by Mr. Shulman, learn how to assess and
treat clients who suffer from compulsive theft and/or
spending.
Check out our newly update blog
at http://blog.theshulmancenter.com/
________________________________________________________________________________________
LAWSUIT
UPDATE:
For those of you who have been
following the lawsuit we've been embroiled in over the last
year, well, we
have agreed to settle the case. The details
are technically "confidential" but as of February 1, 2010
we will
no longer be using the domain name www.shopliftersanonymous.com
but, instead, will be using the websites www.kleptomaniacsanonymous.com &
www.shopliftingaddictions.com.
After February 1, 2010, anyone who goes to www.shopliftersanonymous.com will go
to a redirect page with links to several websites.
We would
suggest that anyone using the group name Shoplifters Anonymous
or SA consider changing those names to Cleptomaniacs And
Shoplifters Anonymous or CASA as we fought for and won
the right to continue using that name and acronym which we've
used since 1992.
We wish to thank all of
you for your support.
Please
note: A press release also will soon be made available with
the following wording:
The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention
("NASP") and Terrence Daryl Shulman are pleased to
announce the amicable resolution of their trademark and
copyright infringement dispute. The terms and
conditions of the settlement are confidential. As
part of the settlement, the parties agreed to respect the
copyrights and trademarks of NASP going forward and to
work separately toward the common goal of
heightening
public awareness about shoplifting and help anyone struggling
with a shoplifting issue find the
help, support and
counseling they need to successfully address their shoplifting
problem or addiction. This amicable resolution will help
focus attention and resources on this serious issue and
alleviate any confusion
that might have existed regarding
the parties.
Mr. Shulman is a therapist, author,
lawyer and addiction counselor and will continue his work as
the founder
and director of The Shulman Center for
Compulsive Theft and Spending through his website at
www.theshulmancenter.com. Under the auspices of
a new Michigan-based company called Cleptomaniacs
and
Shoplifters Anonymous LLC ("CASA LLC"), the CASA self-help
groups that Mr. Shulman started in 1992 as part of his own
recovery will continue at the website
www.kleptomaniacsanonymous.com.
The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention
(NASP), founded in 1977 as Shoplifters Anonymous, Inc. and
operating since 1989 as a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization,
will continue its mission to raise public
awareness about
the harmful effects of shoplifting on youth, families and
communities, unite public opinion
toward constructive
solutions, deliver needed programs and services and engage
community action in
prevention efforts under its
Shoplifters Anonymous, Shoplifters Alternative, Y.E.S.
Program, and NASP
trademarks.
www.shopliftingprevention.org.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Black Friday Report!
The retail federation said 195 million
shoppers visited stores and websites over the weekend, up from
172
million last year, based on a survey of almost 5,000
consumers by BIGresearch. On average, consumers
spent
$343.31 per person vs. $372.57 a year ago, the survey
said.
Although the weekend proved that shoppers
were willing to spend on bargains, it might not reveal much
about the rest of the holiday shopping season. Last year,
the weekend after Thanksgiving — the
traditional start of
the holiday shopping season — was strong and then momentum
took a dive. This year,
analysts expect retailers to offer
continued and varied deals. "Consumers are focused on the most
discounted items, and we expect that to continue," says
Sapna Shah, of consulting firm Retail Eye
Partners.
Retailers will "add more promotions and mix it up," she
says.
Department stores have hit a winning
combination of low prices and good quality, NRF CEO Tracy
Mullin
says. "Last year, people were turned around by the
economy and (crowds) died down quickly," says Tom
Aiello,
Sears spokesman. "This year, people
are spending more time in the stores and fanning out to other
departments."
Leandra Norris, 24, a receptionist from
Phoenix, cashed in. She spent $350 on nine bags of goods,
mostly filled with toys and clothing for her children,
ages 2 and 4. But she also made unplanned purchases
for
herself because clothes were "dirt cheap."
Retailers got another look at the holiday
season today with Cyber Monday, the official start of the
online holiday season. Almost 97 million people are
expected to shop online today vs. 85 million last year,
according to a survey for Shop.org by BIGresearch. Almost
$10.6 billion was spent online in November
through Friday,
a 3% increase vs. the same time last year, says researcher ComScore.
Despite a solid weekend, the NRF still
predicts that holiday sales will be down 1% from last
year.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Recession fuels UK
Shoplifting
Shoplifting has surged to
record levels in the UK, fueled by the recession, according to
a new study.
The value of goods
stolen this year rose 20% to June, the Centre for Retail
Research said.
The UK had the
highest amount of goods shoplifting in Europe, ranking third
overall behind the U.S. and
Japan.
Checkpoint systems, which commissioned the report, said
there had been a rise in "middle-class"
shoplifters. It
said more people were now stealing goods to maintain their
standard of living rather than
to sell them.
The
survey also noted that organized shoplifting rings were
increasing as well as employee
theft.
_____________________________________________________________________
Nicolas Cage's Decades-Long Outrageous Spending
Spree
by Lindsay
Robertson ·
November 4, 2009
An article in The Daily
Beast says that Nicolas Cage's
recent financial problems are, at least in part, due to
outrageous,
eccentric spending that puts even his most
flamboyant fellow celebrities to shame.
If you can dream it, Nic Cage bought it: yachts, a jet,
a castle, over 50 cars, over a million dollars' worth of
comic books, multiple (supposedly haunted) mansions in New
Orleans, two Bahamanian islands, shrunken
heads that may
or may not have been human, and, famously, a $500k Lamborghini
once owned by the Shah
of Iran. Most amusingly, Cage spent
$276,000 on a dinosaur skull in a "heated auction with
Leonardo DiCaprio."
And though the article has details
about Cage's many pets -- claiming that he kept antidote serum
on his wall
for the poison of his two King Cobras -- it
neglects to mention at least one: Cage's pet octopus.
Cage's lawyer, Martin Singer, told The Daily Beast
"Half the stuff you say is false. I'm not going to get into
detail," so we may never know which half is true.
Cage made headlines last month when he filed a $20 million lawsuit against his former
business manager.
The suit claims the manager, Samuel
Levin, failed to pay taxes and lost money in unsound
investments,
putting him "down a path toward financial
ruin." This summer, the IRS placed a tax lien of over $6
million on
Cage's New Orleans properties for unpaid income
taxes.
Still, it's hard not to look at Cage's
extreme-by-any-standards spending habits and not draw
conclusions
about his current money woes. For example, did
he really need to customize a Bentley so elaborately that,
when he got it back from the shop, he could no longer fit
in it?
However lavishly Cage spent on himself, he's also been
a very generous guy. The article reports that the
actor
gave $1 million to the Red Cross to aid victims of Hurricane
Katrina, and $2 million to the human-rights
group Amnesty
International.
Comment: Mr. Cage
may be the Winona Ryder poster child for overshopping instead
of shoplifting.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
As economy falters, employee theft on
the rise
By Abigail
Goldman
Friday,
Nov. 6, 2009
Robert Frimet is a
self-proclaimed fraud expert, a businessman who audits other
companies' books,
gives lectures on recognizing employee
theft, and sits as a civilian member on the
Nevada Fight Fraud Task
Force.
Yet without a shred of
embarrassment, Frimet admits he's caught his own employees
embezzling,
sometimes long after the thieving began. It
just goes to show, Frimet figures, how prevalent the problem
is — particularly now.
As the economy has fallen,
embezzlement and employee theft have increased, according to
some
experts, who suggest the rise is a reflection of
fiscal strain and low morale. People not getting raises,
Frimet said, are starting to take them.
" 'Tis the season to
steal," he said.
In the past 18 months
Frimet has seen a 25 percent increase in clients asking
him to investigate
employee embezzlement. Metro Police
detectives in the department's fraud detail are also seeing an
uptick in cases, but don't necessarily see it as an
indication the crime is on the rise.
"When times are good,
people tend to overlook things," he said. "Now that everything
is coming down
to the penny, employers are starting to
notice."
Tough to
quantify
It's hard to know which
theory is correct. There's no single national organization
that tracks employee
embezzlement and fraud specifically,
or in much detail. There are, however, regular surveys of
business
owners and corporations, statistics on related
crimes and anecdotal evidence from business owners
across
the board.
Nationally, the Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners estimates that American businesses lose
7 percent of their annual revenue to internal fraud,
a percentage that pencils out to hundreds of billions
of
dollars a year. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, as
fewer employees mean fewer eyes
on the books tracking how
money comes in and goes out. And business owners have
indicated in
recent national surveys that they expect
fraud will increase.
Still, employers are often
hesitant to press charges, said David Hannuksela, an
accountant and Las
Vegas chapter president of the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
"For one thing, they're
embarrassed they just got zapped, and they don't want to
advertise the fact,"
he said. For another, the most
successful fraudsters are often considered star employees,
until they
get caught.
Seniority a
factor
This is because the worst
perpetrators are generally the most trusted employees — people
with
access to pre-signed checks, credit cards and
internal fiscal information. Employees who do the
most
monetary damage, it turns out, aren't cashiers manning tills
or store managers with nightly
deposits, but educated men
in senior positions with spotless records — criminal corporate
Americans,
hiding in a sea of suits.
And because they're under
pressure to keep their fraud under wraps, the most successful
perpetrators
seldom take sick days or vacation days. They
don't ask for help, they work after hours and don't mind
taking work home — stellar employees or scam
artists.
Studies show direct
correlations between employees' seniority, their education and
their age —
the greater any of those factors, the more
money they steal, on average.
"The little old
grandmother whose been there for 20 years, never takes a day
off, works all the time,"
Hannuksela said. "That's the one
that rips you off."
Any increase in employer
fraud is probably a combination of both economic factors:
desperate
employees and more critical employers, said
Hannuksela, who also teaches fraud examination to
accounting students at UNLV. Across the country, he said,
forensic accountants are growing in
numbers, a supply of
specialists some observers note exists because of growing
demand.
At the banks, grocery
stores, pawn shops, casinos and check cashing companies that
Frimet works
with, check fraud is the most common scheme.
This usually means stealing, forging or counterfeiting
checks. Sometimes people will get relatives to pose as
checks' intended recipients, and then send
them into
casinos or check cashing companies — like the one Frimet runs
where he's caught
employees stealing — to attempt to trade
the bogus paper for cash. It's a crime that generally tends
to be seasonal, peaking when "people need to go Christmas
shopping and don't have the cash flow."
"But the economy has
changed the landscape, and employee embezzlement is on the
rise," he said.
Personal
reasons
Resentment can fuel the
theft, some studies suggest. Employees who don't feel
recognized or
appreciated are more inclined, rationalizing
that they're owed the money or deserve a reward. At the
same time, there's depersonalization, employees who
believe they're stealing from the company, not
the people
who run it.
These justifications get a
lot easier, Frimet said, when raises are reduced or denied,
and bank
accounts dwindle.
Things also get easier
when companies, looking to reduce costs, eliminate positions
and therefore,
oversight. It's exactly when businesses are
spread most thin, he said, that they need to hire someone
to put a second set of eyes on the operation.
"It comes down to never
trusting anyone," he said, "including trusted
employees."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Compulsive
Theft & Spending in The News! November/December
2009:
November 3,10, and 24--Mr. Shulman was
as a guest expert on Women's Entertainment TV's "Secret
Lives of Women" episode about compulsive
shopping/spending.
November 12--Mr. Shulman was
as a guest expert on compulsive shopping on HLN's "The Joy
Behar
Show."
November--Mr. Shulman wrote an article on
compulsive shopping and spending in Paradigm Magazine
published in association with Proctor Hospital and The
Illinois Institute for Addiction and Recovery. See http://www.addictionrecov.org/paradigm/P_PR_F09/Paradigm%20F09.pdf
November--Mr.
Shulman was interviewed for an article about shoplifting in
The Kansas City Star.
November--Mr. Shulman was
interviewed in San Francisco's (X)Press Magazine about
compulsive
shopping and spending to appear in
December.
November--Mr. Shulman appeared in The
University of Michigan School of Social Work's Ongoing
Magazine Summer/Fall 2009
issue.
November--Mr.Shulman was contacted by The
Rachel Ray Show and Good Morning America for
possiblesegments in December on shoplifting
addiction.
December 3--Mr.
Shulman will be featured on Canadian Broadcast Corporation's
"Doc-Zone" series
about compulsive shoplifting and
stealing.
December--Mr. Shulman will have an
article in the Jack Hayes, International Loss Prevention
quarterly
newsletter. See http://www.hayesinternational.com/srvcs_prdcts.html
Beyond
December...
January 19--Mr. Shulman will be interviewed on an
Internet radio station devoted to parenting issues.
See
www.askparentcoachsusan.com
Mr. Shulman submitted a chapter on employee theft
for a U.K. book entitled "Risky Business" to be
released
in early 2010.
Mr. Shulman
created an online continuing education course on compulsive
shopping and spending
called "Bought Out and $pent!" based
on his book and Power Point presentation. The course is
offered through The American Psychotherapy Association
and is available for purchase by APA
members and
non-members and CEs are available. See http://www.americanpsychotherapy.com/
Mr.
Shulman created an online education course called "Creating an
Honest and Theft-Free
Workplace" based on his book and
Power Point presentation through 360 Training Services. CEs
are available. See www.360training.com
Mr. Shulman is assisting with a CNN TV news
story about compulsive shopping/spending in today's
economy.
Mr. Shulman will be featured in a
segment on shoplifting addiction in the MSNBC series "Theft in
America" to air in late 2009/early 2010.
Mr.
Shulman is consulting on the development of a major motion
picture tentatively called "The Rush"
in which the lead
character is addicted to shoplifting and stealing.
Mr. Shulman continues to assist the
Kingman, Arizona court system with his court-ordered homestudy
program for retail fraud offenders. The program is based
on material from his book "Something for
Nothing:
Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery" (2003).
Mr.
Shulman is consulting with an author who is writing a novel
about two kleptomaniacs who fall
in love with each
other.
Contact The Shulman Center
Terrence Shulman
P.O. Box
250008
Franklin, Michigan 48025
E-mail:
terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com
Call (248) 358-8508 for free
consulation!
Related sites by Terrence
Shulman:
www.theshulmancenter.com
www.kleptomaniacsanonymous.com
www.cleptomaniacsandshoplifters.com
www.kleptomaniacsandshoplifters.com
www.shoppingaddictions.org
www.shopliftingaddictions.com
www.terrenceshulman.com
www.shopaholicsanonymous.org
www.employeetheftsolutions.com
www.somethingfornothingbook.com
www.bitingthehandthatfeeds.com
www.boughtoutandspent.com
Books:
Something For
Nothing
Biting The Hand That Feeds
Bought Out and
$pent
Products for Purchase--ON SALE through
2009!
Mr. Shulman's three books
"Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction & Recovery"
and "Biting The Hand That Feeds: The Employee Theft
Epidemic... New Perspectives, New Solutions," and "Bought Out
and $pent! Recovery from Compulsive $hopping and $pending" are
availabe for $25.00 each (includes
shipping/handling).
Second International Conference on
Compulsive Theft & Spending 2 DVD set (6 Hours). Recorded
9/08. $100.00.
Click here to purchase
E-mail Mr. Shulman:
terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com
or
Call (248) 358-8508
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