Police warn residents to be vigilant against online scammers
An Altona man is facing charges of fraud and theft in connection with an online sales scam.
On Aug. 30, Altona Police were contacted by contacted by an employee of a local business who advised police that he had just observed a person load a truck with three lifts of plywood from an offsite storage location. The employee was aware that this plywood had not recently been sold.
Officers tracked down the truck on Hwy. 201 east of Hwy. 75. After a brief conversation with the driver, it was determined that the company owner saw an advertisement online for plywood reportedly leftover from a recent project. He e-transferred the seller $1,500 for it.
The plywood, however, was never the legal property of the seller, and the company name provided by the seller was a fictitious construction company.
The plywood was returned to the Altona business. The purchaser was out $1,500, the victim of a scammer.
Further investigation determined several other parties were attempting to purchase the same materials from the fictitious construction company.
On Sept. 2, a 23-year-old Altona man was arrested and charged with two counts of fraud under $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000.00, as the actual value of the plywood was $6,680.
The man was also charged with possession of goods obtained by crime, as the e-bike he was operating at the time of his arrest had been reported stolen out of Winkler.
“The Altona Police Service would once again like to remind residents and business owners to exercise caution when dealing online for the sale and or purchases of goods and or services,” Chief Dan Defer said in a statement.
Altona Police arrested a local man in connection with an online sales scam that saw a fake construction company sell plywood that didn’t belong to them.
