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BASINGSTOKE residents are asked to be vigilant after reports of theft of high-quality off-road motorcycles, quads and ATVs.\n<\/p>\n
Hampshire Constabulary warns those who sell the high quality vehicles online, particularly on Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree.\n<\/p>\n
According to police, there have been a number of thefts or attempted theft of high-quality vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
It comes after numerous salespeople receive a phone call or message from people posing as \u201cbuyers\u201d requesting a picture or video of the vehicle’s engine running from the salesperson.\n<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Hampshire Constabulary said, \u201cThose posing as ‘buyers’ then extracted the image metadata – which allows users to see when and where the picture or video was taken – thereby putting the bike on one specific location can be located.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vehicles are then targeted by criminals and are often stolen or attempts to steal the vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
“We know that online buy and sell sites have grown in popularity over the past few months, but we want to remind people to be vigilant when selling items this way.”\n<\/p>\n
The police are now advising to ensure that the location settings on mobile devices \/ cameras are disabled when sending images to potential “buyers”, which would prevent the extraction of the location metadata and the tracking of the vehicle.\n<\/p>\n
Sellers are also encouraged to upload additional photos directly to their online listing instead of sending them directly to potential buyers.\n<\/p>\n
The police also ask that buyers not give their home or work address and instead arrange a meeting in a public place or a neutral place.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n