Warning - Another way for thieves to steal from you..

[JeRkY]

swapping cash and bike on a street corner is much safer .

Hey, I take precautions, it was cash in a paper envelope. Obviously the most secure form of transaction known (amongst serving MP's, estate agents and certain sections of the criminal underground)

 

[ratbane]

.

We all give our addresses when having bits n bobs sent to us on RB/ebay etc don't we? It wouldn't take a scrote much grey matter to work out that we probably have a treasure trove of expensive bike kit at that address.

 

[unkleGsif]

Re: .

We all give our addresses when having bits n bobs sent to us on RB/ebay etc don't we? It wouldn't take a scrote much grey matter to work out that we probably have a treasure trove of expensive bike kit at that address.

Nope... addressed to work
That way, I dont have to wait in or faff about collecting from the sorting office, AND most importantly....... items purchased slip under the watchful radar like, all seeing eye of SWMBO

G

 

[t-stoff]

A friend of mine got is third bike stolen a couple of weeks a go. First time they broke into his garage, second time he left the bike for a few mins on the apartment floor hall (wrong choice) and the last time he went to show up is DH bike to a guy who just ran away with it. Bad choice again, as near his home are some pretty steep hills. The guy who stole it phoned from a "private" number too.

 

[KDM]

Another reason why I never have my current bike list in my signature, it must be like a thieves want shopping list

 

[highlandsflyer]

Another reason why I never have my current bike list in my signature, it must be like a thieves want shopping list

Did that occur to you before or after you removed your name and address from your signature?

 

[Neil G]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Kinetic-UK]

-Arrange a meeting time somewhere away from your home address (or anyone else's)


If you have any tips, fell free to mention them too.

Hope you all take note of this!!

Great, get your mates burgled instead :roll:

Thanks for reading it well...

Arrange a meeting time somewhere away from your home address (or anyone else's)

Meaning; (if you go to the next line) meet away from anybodies address, i.e town.

 

[Kinetic-UK]

I have to say that I disagree with Kinetic's advice for sellers. If I met a seller who refused to tell me his address and wanted to meet in a town centre I would assume the bike was stolen and walk away from the deal.

There is no easy solution, other than decent theft protection on your bike storage.

No worries. We're all entitled to our own ways of doing things.

I'm on another forum (Canadian owned but world wide used) and see things like this all the time.

There's a scams and stolen bikes section on there which I read quite a lot. I also report scammers as the site has scammers joining daily, also see stolen bike reports on that forum everyday.

This, however, was something I haven't seen before, so thought I'd spread the word on the other forums I go on.
Guess I should've kept my advice tips out of the thread and just posted the warning as I have got grief for trying to advise people how to avoid being victims to burglary.

 

[Kinetic-UK]

I have to say that I disagree with Kinetic's advice for sellers. If I met a seller who refused to tell me his address and wanted to meet in a town centre I would assume the bike was stolen and walk away from the deal.

I agree with that, to a point. From a buyer's point of view it just sounds as if the seller isn't 100% genuine. But then if I'm buying a bike and meeting the seller, then I always ring to speak to them first - quite often it's a dead giveaway as to whether they're legitimate or not.

A lot of people say/assume that a deal is not legitimate because of the person wanting to meet in the middle of town. They think it;s going to be a chav with his shellsuit.
If you're buying a bike in the first place, the seller should/is supposed to, keep their receipt and so on for the bike (and parts if it's custom) I know I'm going to sell my bike in a couple of years of ownership so keep my receipt for parts and the frame/bike for when I sell it on, i.e to prove that I own the bike and legitimately bought it.

To say that you know the person is legit on the phone is preposterous!! They don;t have to talk like a junkie/chav. In fact, most thieves who steal high end bikes are FAR from chavs or junlies and mix in with the general public.

Thieves are more professional than you think. Yes, a certain amount are chavs/junkies looking for a fix or w/e, but not ALL of them.
Also, hardly any bike thief is a rider themselves, so it's obvious/most likely the thief did a bit of research to make himself sound legit, i.e 'asking all the right questions' that he fooled the victim (on the original post)

It's totally up to people what they do to sell a bike. Just thought I'd mainly share the news.