Using websites such as Kijiji or Facebook buy and sell pages to purchase second hand items is common practice these days, but how can you be sure the items you are buying aren't actually stolen property?

Members of the Edmonton Police Force Cyber Crimes unit were in Red Deer Thursday to host their second annual Alberta Retail Crime Prevention Summit.

Detective Michael Walkom with the Edmonton Cyber Crimes Unit says back in the day of pawn shops being the main place to sell stolen goods, a paper trail was created, and it was easier to track down a suspect.

In these days of social media, and item could stole and sold within the hour, but it does give victims an opportunity to do some online detective work of their own.

“It does give the common person that’s had their property broken into and had things stolen from them, it does give them some recourse because they can be on their searching. They are going to be the most motivated person to find the property and the person most likely to recognize the property.

He goes on to say to never meet anyone in person you suspect of having stolen items, simply phone the police and hand the case over to them, as Edmonton police alone has over a hundred members dedicated to cybercrime.

Walkom says criminals can take advantage of the trusting and anonymous nature of sites like Kijiji or buy and sell groups to sell their stolen good, and to also potentially further victimize people.

“They are either luring you there with some valuable property in your possession that they could take from you, or they’re getting you to come there to buy property from them that could be worth thousands of dollars knowing you have that cash on your person… so if they are getting you to come to some dark back alley, they’ve brought you to a perfect place, basically lured you there, and now they can rob you.”

He says an easy way to protect yourself from buying an illegal item online, is to ask for a bill of sale, regardless of what the item is, and always set the meet up point for a public place during the day.