The National Retail Federation (NRF) trade group and the eBay online auction site operator Monday announced their collaboration for combating organized retail crime. The NRF-eBay effort will be backed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The team up between NRF and eBay will result in the sharing of the information on organized crime probe, as well as a regular the coming together of a group of retailers and eBay representatives, on a regular basis, to work out ways to purge such criminal activity.

With an NRF survey revealing that nearly 92 percent of retailers reportedly became victim of organized crime in 2009, the NRF-eBay team up will essentially help law enforcement in criminal investigations, along with preventing crimes wherein stolen goods from brick-and-mortar stores are resold online.

Going by a last-November-released report by the UK-based Center for Retail Research and Checkpoint Systems, worldwide figures of retail theft – which the industry calls “shrink: - touched almost $115 billion in 2009.

Even though shoplifting by the public and theft by employees form a part of the retail theft, the large chunk of organized retail crime is comprised of goods stolen in bulk.

With brands often complaining that stolen goods find the Internet route with ease, thereby making it difficult to track the origins of the crime, representatives of the NRF and eBAy will work together to use new technology for identifying and tracing crime gangs.