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Exchanges outdoors B.C. police stations aren’t monitored, however footage is accessible if issues go awry
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Debra Nielsen has an extended historical past of shopping for and promoting on-line.
Her 20 years of partaking in e-commerce, and former expertise working for eBay/PayPal, have given her perception into how transactions go down. If there’s one piece of recommendation she can provide, it’s that it’s higher to be secure than sorry.
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Particularly, the significance of selecting the best location to do enterprise.
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A municipal worker of the Ridge Meadows RCMP for 15 years, she approached the detachment in early 2023 to see if it may arrange a purchase/promote “secure zone” on the drive’s Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows stations, the place offers might be transacted in brilliant gentle and, whereas not monitored by video, could be caught on closed-circuit TV in case there was any illegality.
“I’ve offered iPhones, and that’s sort of the place this concept for these detachments got here from as a result of I had upgraded my iPhone a few years in the past and I wished to promote my previous one,” Nielsen stated. “I knew it had a big worth to it nonetheless, as a result of I saved it in very clear situation, so I informed folks I wouldn’t meet them except it was in entrance of a police station.”
There are a number of such secure zones within the Decrease Mainland, together with outdoors the Cambie Avenue police detatchment in Vancouver, and in Coquitlam and White Rock outdoors RCMP stations.
Given a rash of latest thefts throughout such exchanges — most just lately two good Samaritans have been stabbed whereas chasing a person who pepper-sprayed a vendor and ran off with the merchandise on Boxing Day in Olympic Village — doing enterprise outdoors the cop store possibly isn’t a foul concept.
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“So that folks have that chance to say, ‘Hey, if one thing does go fallacious,’ or folks really feel unsafe, they know they’ve that attachment proper there the place they’ll get entry to an officer in the event that they really feel they want it,” Nielsen stated.
Based mostly on her lengthy expertise, Nielsen has give you an inventory of dos and don’ts to remain secure whereas finishing a web based transaction, which embrace:
• Don’t give out private data or your telephone quantity till you’ve established a agency dedication to do enterprise. Don’t really feel pressured to obtain a third-party app you might be unfamiliar with. Don’t settle for cost for greater than the quantity of the sale, and provides the distinction again. Don’t settle for cheques or really feel pressured to purchase one thing.
• Do purchase gadgets on identified platforms. Create a particular electronic mail handle for on-line purchases. Ask questions if the worth appears too good to be true. And take a look at who your are conducting enterprise with.
“You simply actually must know your viewers,” Nielsen stated. “You sort of weed folks out simply by partaking with them and, you recognize, messaging with them.
“There’s a little bit of a course of round it, however I can normally inform inside one to 2 conversations backwards and forwards with someone whether or not or not I need to undergo with a transaction with them, and I am going from there.”
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In Vancouver, Sgt. Steve Addison agrees. Go along with your intestine, he says.
“It’s a rising downside. We’ve had circumstances of stabbing and folks being bear-sprayed. Very often it’s a meet-up in a park or a meet-up on a avenue nook, or a meet-up in a parking zone.
“These are good indications that one thing’s not on the up and up.”
In case you can’t make it to a “secure zone,” he steered going to a meals courtroom.
Police stations don’t monitor gross sales out of privateness considerations, however the CCTV footage is accessible if there’s a felony incident.
The placement and cameras must be ample deterrent for felony exercise, he stated.
“Any individual who’s a felony or a scammer or about do one thing nefarious, that’s the final place they’re going to need to come to do their enterprise, and that’s why we encourage folks to make use of it as a result of it’s a great way of removing the official consumers and sellers from individuals who’ve gotten nefarious intent.”
gordmcintyre@postmedia.com
x.com/gordmcintyre
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