Meeting an online buyer or seller in the Haliburton area? How about doing it in a police parking lot?
That’s the idea behind Project Safe Trade, a program from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) that creates “community safe zones” at an OPP detachment parking lot to facilitate property transactions arranged on the internet.
Online classified and auction sites are often used as tools to sell stolen property to unknowing victims, and they can also present a safety threat. Only five per cent of internet or telephone scams and frauds are reported, largely due to shame or embarrassment on the part of the victim.
The parking spots, which are identified by signs, provide a public space for people meeting strangers to complete an online sales transaction. The hope is that internet fraud will be reduced by moving online transactions away from secluded parking lots, personal residences, or other areas and bringing them to a public place associated with the police.
Residents of the Haliburton area are invited to use the two designated parking spaces at the Haliburton OPP detachment’s parking lot at 12598 Highway 35 in Minden, which are available at all times with no appointment necessary. However, the OPP does not monitor the spots, mediate transactions, or check serial numbers of items being exchanged.
The OPP also recommends bringing a trusted friend or family member as a witness during the meeting, to keep transactions to daylight hours, and to not erase emails, texts, or voicemails between you and the seller or buyer.
Project Safe Trade was also launched at the Kawartha Lakes OPP detachment in Lindsay in 2019 and at the Bancroft OPP detachment in 2021.
