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UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (DC News Now) — Prince George’s County police are warning people to be careful when meeting up in person for sales made online.
Detectives are investigating several robberies, assaults and even people being killed.
Online transactions on sites like Facebook Marketplace can offer buyers cheap items, but they can also come with risks.
“I always try to meet somebody in public, somewhere like visible,” said Tony Castillo.
That’s exactly what Prince George’s County Police Chief George Nader said you should do.
“When you’re the buyer, and you’re the seller, mutually agree upon a place that you both feel safe at before you agree to go meet someone,” Nader said.
Year to date, county police have had 48 different incidents stemming from online marketplace transactions.
“Some have been very serious, some have been minor, some were disagreements, some were robbery setups,” Nader said.
On May 24, Laurel police said two people were shot and injured during a meet-up for an online sale.
Nader said his department is looking into homicides.
“Some of these are open cases that we won’t get into. But I will tell people that, yes, we have had at least one homicide that I know of that’s around at one of these social media marketplace type transactions,” Nader said.
Some communities have designated spots for transactions, including the Greenbelt police station and Upper Marlboro police station.
“There’s a lot of sketchy, like, ads on there, like rent a room for like however much money and it’s fake. You can tell which ones are fake,” said Kennedy Simpkins.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
“When you’re looking to buy an item that you know is worth $2,000 and it’s being sold for $200, maybe be a little bit wary,” Nader said. “Are you getting a counterfeit item? Are you getting set up to be robbed or something worse?”
Nader also said it’s wise to only use online payment platforms like PayPal or Venmo because they’ve also dealt with deals gone south due to counterfeit money.
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