January 15, 2025 – Now is the time of year you might be making Christmas returns or getting rid of items no longer needed after the holidays. If you are using e-commerce sites like Craigslist or Ebay, the Decatur Police offers a safe location to make local transactions.
The Decatur Police Department encourages all citizens to take advantage of its “Safe Zone” for conducting their exchanges from online transactions. Citizens can use the police department lobby or just outside the police department under the canopy where video surveillance is in place.
The Police Department is manned 24 hours a day, however they encourage you to conduct transactions during normal business hours of 8am – 5pm. There is a phone in the lobby that citizens can utilize in case of emergencies.
The Decatur Police also offer some helpful tips:
• Check seller profiles and reviews -Know that profiles may be fake!
• Don’t Disclose personal information
• Pick up items instead of having them delivered
• Meet the seller in a public place, like the Decatur Police Department
• Have a friend accompany you when picking up an item
• Inspect the item you’re buying before paying
• Use secure payment methods -When paying for an item, avoid paying with cash, especially if you know the item you’re paying for requires you to carry large amounts of it. Instead, choose PayPal as your form of payment or another 3rd party application that investigates fraud claims.
Lastly, the Decatur Police remind you that if the listing sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If the price is significantly lower than similar items of the same nature (especially large purchases like used vehicles), it’s probably not legitimate.
