Hampshire Police are urging those selling off-road motorcycles, quad-bikes and ATVs online, particularly on Facebook and Gumtree, to be vigilant following a number of thefts and attempted thefts.
Numerous sellers have received a call or message from people pretending to be buyers and requesting an image or a video of the vehicle engine running.
Those pretending to be buyers have then extracted the image metadata – which allows users to see when and where the image or video was taken – allowing the bike location to be pinpointed. The vehicles are then targeted by criminals and are often stolen.
The police advise people to ensure that ‘location’ settings are switched off on mobile devices if you are then sending images to prospective buyers, and not to send pictures directly but to upload them to your online listing.