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Be aware of online buy-and-sell frauds, say Alberta RCMP

LETHBRIDGE, AB – There is a buy-and-sell payment scam ongoing across the province and police are hoping more people don’t fall victim to it.

The Alberta RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit warns this fraud has sellers using platforms like Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace and unknowingly getting money requests, rather than payment transfers.

This is how it works. Police say scammers show interest in a listed item on a buy-and-sell platform and contact the seller. They then ask to send an online money transfer as a deposit to hold the item. A money request is then sent instead of a transfer and it’s usually in another language. The victim, unable to translate the request or figure out the scam, accepts the transaction and the funds are pulled from their account.

Mounties say as a result, sellers are getting cheated out of their money instead of receiving payment for their listed items.

RCMP stress there has been no specific trend in the type of listings or sellers being targeted.

If you are listing things for sale over the internet, police suggest you avoid online interactions with potential buyers that involve money transfers in French or languages you’re not able to translate.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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