Police make recommendations to the public to prevent people from being victimized.
ESTEVAN – The Estevan Police Service is advising the public of a couple of recent scams in the area.
The first involves the HelloGoodBuy website. Residents seeking rental properties have been deceived by unknown persons who claim to be property owners. Money is sent for a security deposit and a rental agreement is sent by email.
Police note that most people who have used HelloGoodBuy have had a good experience.
The EPS offers the following recommendations:
•Keep transactions local and in-person;
•When buying or selling an item, meet in person in a public place. If picking up an item at a seller’s house, bring a friend with you;
•Never send money to a seller before seeing the item. Scammers will often ask for money to be sent to a separate mailing address or email address before meeting in person;
•Never use a personal, certified, or cashier’s cheque, never wire money to another user, and don’t send an advanced Interac e-transfers, which can’t be reversed; and
•Beware of any seller who is conducting a transaction from another country or province, or is unwilling to meet face-to-face to complete a transaction.
The EPS asks people to be suspicious of items that are priced unrealistically low or seem too good to be true.
Also, the EPS advises the public not to trust users who make unusual requests, such as advance payment or sending more than the…
