No regulation mandates a carrier for warranty — your claims ledger does · a printed serial is testimony; a cryptographic tap is evidence.
Every warranty program runs on the same weak signal: a serial number the claimant reads to you. Printed serials and QR codes are testimony, not evidence — they prove someone can see a number, not that they hold the unit, not that the unit is genuine, not that it hasn't claimed before under another name. That is Blind Credit: honoring claims on units you cannot verify. Chip identity converts the claim event itself into proof — this unit, this moment, this history — before money moves.
A QR or printed serial is fine for registering a product, opening a manual, or starting a support ticket — interactions where nothing of value hinges on the truth of the identifier.
Returns, replacements, credits, recalls: the moment a claim moves money or product, the identifier must prove presence and authenticity. A tap does; a typed serial never will.
| Criterion | QR / printed 2D code | NFC chip (Aeroz) |
|---|---|---|
| Proves the claimant holds the unit | No — serials are read from photos, receipts, dumpsters | Yes — the tap requires physical presence |
| Proves the unit is genuine | No — counterfeit units carry harvested genuine serials | Yes — cryptographic identity fails on fakes |
| Detects repeat/duplicate claims | Only if your ledger catches the string twice | Unit's own event log shows every prior claim |
| Proves the unit was ever sold | Depends on channel data you may not have | Custody events show activation and sale |
| Claim friction for honest customers | Type a serial, upload a receipt, wait | One tap; the unit vouches for itself |
| Cost | Free, and priced accordingly by fraudsters | Cents per unit vs your annual fraud write-off |
Warranty fraud persists because the cost of a fake claim is near zero and the proof standard is a number anyone can read. Raise the proof standard to physical presence plus cryptographic identity and the fraud economics collapse — while honest claims get faster, not slower.
Credits issued on units never verified: serials harvested from retail shelves, receipts, and photos; units claimed twice through different channels; counterfeits returned as genuine. Most programs cannot say which share of last year's claims were real.
A serial number identifies a unit the way a name identifies a person — enough for conversation, useless for authentication. Anything printed can be read without possession, and anything readable without possession will be claimed without possession.
The claim event binds to the physical unit: presence proven, authenticity checked, prior events visible. Fraud teams stop adjudicating strings and start adjudicating evidence.
The identity that verifies a warranty claim is the identity that executes a recall: which units, where they are, who tapped them since. One deployment, both ledgers.
Industry estimates vary widely by sector, and most programs cannot measure their own exposure — which is itself the problem. The measurable fact is the proof standard: if claims are honored on typed serials, nothing in the process distinguishes a real claim from a harvested one.
It helps, and most fraud teams do — but a harvested serial from a genuinely sold unit passes that check perfectly. Cross-checking data catches sloppy fraud; only verifying the object catches the rest.
The opposite. A tap replaces serial entry, receipt upload and manual review with a verified event — honest customers clear faster because the unit itself testifies.
The audit: we quantify your exposure from your own claims ledger, identify the SKUs where fraud concentrates, and scope a tagged pilot line with cost and timeline. $5,000, 14 days, no commitment.
A fixed-fee Aeroz audit maps your products, line speed and regulation against both carriers and returns a written recommendation with a scoped pilot plan, cost and timeline. $5,000 books it online; no commitment to proceed.