Police & Crime News: Portsmouth News and Information (Portsmouth)

By: AdvWisdom
Title: Police & Crime News: Portsmouth News and Information (Portsmouth)
Sourced From: advwisdom.com/a/police-crime-news-portsmouth-news-and-information-portsmouth/
Published Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2021 08:23:42 +0000

Warning to Hampshire residents to remain vigilant in selling off-road motorcycles online following recent thefts

Published: September 1, 2021 9:16 am

Below is a message sent on behalf of the Hampshire Constabulary

 Hi there,

We would like to urge local residents who sell off-road motorcycles, quads and ATVs online, especially on sales platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree, to be vigilant after a series of thefts or attempted thefts across the county.

This occurs after numerous salespeople have received a phone call or direct message from people posing as “buyers” and requesting a picture or video of the vehicle’s running engine from the salesperson.

Those posing as “buyers” then extracted the image metadata – which allows users to see when and where the picture or video was taken – which allows the bike to be located in a specific location.
The vehicles are then targeted by criminals and are often stolen or attempts are made to steal the vehicles.

We know that online buy and sell sites have grown in popularity in the past few months, but we want to remind people to be vigilant when selling items this way.

Our advice would be:

• Make sure the ‘Location’ settings on your mobile device / camera are turned off when sending pictures to potential ‘buyers’; this would weaken the extraction of the location metadata and the tracking of the vehicle

• If you are asked for additional pictures or videos by potential buyers, upload them directly to your online listing; do not send directly

• Do not give buyers a home or work address; Make an appointment with them in a public place or in a neutral place

• Report criminal or suspicious activity using our online reporting tool on the Hampshire Constabulary website – https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

• If a crime is ongoing, please dial 999 immediately


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