To Catch a Thief is a new RFID-based product offering that promises to end scams involving returns of stolen goods for cash refunds. (And if you're financing your way through college -- or your kids' college -- this way, better think of something new.)

"David Cox wasn't thinking about the 1955 Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant when designing his new product, To Catch A Thief, but he was thinking of a college classmate who paid his tuition by returning stolen items to retail stores for full refunds. To Catch A Thief is an RFID-based application created to help retailers eliminate return or exchange fraud by proving where and when a product was purchased."

Items would be outfitted with RFID tags. Key to the system is a software program indicating where an item was purchased. The system is still under development. Read more at the RFID Journal.