The Po­lice Ser­vice is giv­ing as­sur­ances that its of­fi­cers in the Cy­ber & So­cial Me­dia Unit (CSMU) are work­ing as­sid­u­ous­ly to com­bat on­line scams and en­sure safer trans­ac­tions for all.  It al­so is urg­ing the pub­lic to be vig­i­lant and take pre­cau­tions to avoid be­com­ing scam vic­tims.

In a post on its Face­book page, the Po­lice Ser­vice stat­ed that its CSMU is con­cerned about the ris­ing num­ber of cas­es of “scams tar­get­ing un­sus­pect­ing on­line buy­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly those us­ing Face­book Mar­ket­place.”

“Crim­i­nals are ex­ploit­ing this plat­form to or­ches­trate rob­beries, a trend not unique to Trinidad and To­ba­go, but preva­lent world­wide,” the TTPS says.

The re­lease con­tin­ued: “The CSMU ex­press­es con­cern over nu­mer­ous re­port­ed cas­es where in­di­vid­u­als ad­ver­tis­ing goods on­line fall vic­tim to rob­beries or more se­ri­ous crimes af­ter be­ing de­ceived by crim­i­nals pos­ing as buy­ers as well as sell­ers. These crim­i­nals arrange meet-ups un­der the guise of pur­chas­ing items, such as elec­tron­ics or ve­hi­cles, ad­ver­tised on Face­book Mar­ket­place.  How­ev­er, what ini­tial­ly ap­pears as smooth trans­ac­tions, takes a dan­ger­ous turn when the sus­pects bran­dish firearms and de­mand cash and oth­er valu­ables from the vic­tims,” the TTPS not­ed.

“The modus operan­di of­ten en­tails the sell­er cre­at­ing fraud­u­lent Face­book and In­sta­gram ac­counts. It al­so in­cludes com­mu­ni­ca­tion ini­ti­at­ed by a fe­male via What­sApp, lur­ing vic­tims to a spe­cif­ic lo­ca­tion where two to three male ac­com­plices, armed with firearms, car­ry out the rob­beries,” the TTPS ex­plained.

The Po­lice Ser­vice says its CSMU “is ac­tive­ly as­sist­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tors in the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion of such oc­cur­rences.”

It al­so is urg­ing the pub­lic to ex­er­cise cau­tion when us­ing on­line ad­ver­tis­ing plat­forms to avoid be­com­ing a vic­tim of such scams and at­tacks.

“We strong­ly urge in­di­vid­u­als to uti­lize des­ig­nat­ed "Safe Ex­change Zones" when meet­ing up for trans­ac­tions ini­ti­at­ed through on­line mar­ket plat­forms,” the TTPS said.  These ar­eas, in­clud­ing po­lice sta­tions, well-lit ar­eas, and those equipped with CCTV cam­eras, pro­vide a safer en­vi­ron­ment for ex­changes and re­duce the risk of pre-staged rob­beries.”

“It's es­sen­tial to be par­tic­u­lar­ly cau­tious when deal­ing with in­di­vid­u­als who refuse to meet at such lo­ca­tions,” it added.

The TTPS’ CSMU en­cour­ages the pub­lic to prac­tice these safe­ty tips when con­duct­ing trans­ac­tions on on­line mar­ket­places:

  ●   Re­view the pro­file of the buy­er/sell­er for au­then­tic­i­ty.

  ●   Check for re­views or rat­ings that may in­di­cate sus­pi­cious be­hav­iour.

  ●   Be wary of un­usu­al­ly low prices, as they may sig­nal a scam.

  ●   Arrange meet­ings dur­ing day­light hours in pub­lic places with high foot traf­fic, avoid­ing iso­lat­ed ar­eas at all costs.

  ●   Al­ways in­spect items be­fore mak­ing pay­ment and use se­cure pay­ment op­tions.

  ●   Con­sid­er bring­ing a friend along for ad­di­tion­al safe­ty.

  ●   Re­frain from hand­ing over items un­til pay­ment is re­ceived.

  ●   Avoid car­ry­ing sub­stan­tial amounts of cash on your per­son.