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Seller BEWARE! Warning for anyone selling online. Red Deer man bombarded by scam artists

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5 minute read

This article is submitted by Tim Lasiuta of Red Deer

Kijiji, navigating scam buyers

It all started with what seemed to be a good idea.

I needed to sell a few items and other than eBay, Kijiji was the next best option.  After all, I had success on precious occasions selling other items and services to help make ends meet in a tough Alberta economy.

Comic books in hand, my ad seemed pretty simple.

“Collectors comics for sale, $1000 in value. Asking $500.  Contact Tim at….”

Not that I expected people to come running out of the electronic bushes to fight over my well cared for comic books and anthologies, but I did not expect what happened over the next 3 days.

I had included my cell phone number so I could at least talk to people about what they might want.  However, with the advent of the global marketplace sellers are exposed to international buyers.

Shortly after posting my ad, I received a response via text asking what seemed to be a legitimate response.

“I want to buy my son a birthday present.  This is a surprise.  What is your firm price?  Why are you selling?  What is your phone number?  What is your paypal account?  What is your address so we can pick them up?”

That all seemed good once I answered the questions and sent pictures of all 70 comic books and 30 hardcovers.

Within a few minutes, I received the following response:

“Okay, sound good.  I will pay you through PayPal, you can easily get money in your PayPal and transfer it into your bank account.  Let me know if you accept my method of payment and I will also contact the shipping company that will come down to your location for pick up after the payment clears to your account.”

It still sounded okay, but not quite normal.  After all, I had sold much through paypal and people just transfer funds as required.

That did not prepare me for what was next though.

I received what seemed to be a PayPal notice for $850 usd.  However, I wanted $500.  And the note included a shipping agent contact stating I had to send $300 to the agent to release the $850!

By this time, I was very suspicious and knew that was a scam.

I continued with the conversation and was assured this was not a scam and the funds really were on hold.  They did want them.

By this point, I gave up on this particular scammer and waited for a legitimate local buyer.

The end was not near however, as 3 more individuals contacted me over the next 2 days to offer the same thing!  All were out of country phone numbers, Colorado, Nevada and Indiana.

Looking back on the transaction, I researched their methods and discovered that the pay to release funds is not new and was based in Nigeria originally.  Now, it seems to come from the United States.

Their pattern can be summed up in four steps.

  1. Contact you saying they cannot come to see the asset in person and ask you questions.
  2. They agree to the price, no matter how large.
  3. They theoretically send you more than you ask for, demanding an advance payment to release the funds.
  4. You will never receive the rest, your paypal account is zero with no option to recover.

The buyers, as it were, hide beneath foreign cell phone numbers and redirected email addresses.  Once you engage them with the $300, you can no longer fight the battle.  Report these individuals IF you can identify them, but otherwise run!I write this cautionary tale so other sellers can be aware of those who prey on potential sellers, no matter where you live.

By the way, there is no happy ending to this story yet.  My comic books are still for sale and I still need to post items to make rent this month.

May you all find real buyers.

Tim Lasiuta

403-396-1773

 

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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