We all love another bike! What is better than getting another bike for another occasion – but sometimes, you need to sell the old so you can enjoy the new. This can comes with a risk of theft, and not always the obvious of giving your address away to some dubious people you never met on the more commonly used sites such as Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree or Ebay; nor is it exclusive to these, ALL sales platforms are targeted by thieves and scammers. We ran this story years ago, only with the increase in thefts, this is rearing it’s head once more – and moreso with the use of AI to find a location of an image.
We are all aware of the tips on researching those that enquire about your bike. Checking profiles, age of profiles, are they real or fake? Do they have family or are they all associates? Are they genuine or do they appear dodgy? We can arrange to meet at a dealer of local cafe to keep them away from home and accept that this may seem dodgy to the honest buyer wondering if you are selling a dodgy bike! It goes both ways, but with theft as it is, many will be happy to meet away from home, or at another address from where your bikes are kept.
You may never meet your BikeThief!
The likelihood of your bike thief turning up to view y our bike is slim, but not unheard off. Many are not the sharpest and will view a bike and then come back later to steal it, reliant on the lack of proof that they – or their associates – took the bike.
The more modern way is to use the information you gave them – and that isn’t always someone you even had any contact with. Your bike location is given away by your own photos. Each photo you take records intricate data. What camera took it, the setting used, the date, time….and location. It is all included in the Metadata in the form of GPS co-ordinates. This data is accessed by the sales platforms such as Ebay and Facebook marketplace to put a pin in your location to make buyers aware of where you are. Only thieves get access to this as well.
This enables them to locate your home from this data using similar tools to a meta file viewer, or even using local knowledge they may have to know where that house is. You may notice when we put up appeals, we remove faces, hide items with the logo and most importantly trim out the surrounding image as much as possible to cleanse the image of data.
Preventing Sales Sites from giving my Location away.
In order to ‘cleanse’ your own location, you must first be aware of it, and how it works. You now know that this data is added at the point you take the image on your phone, or camera. IF it is GPS enabled – turn OFF GPS. Turn OFF location data – then take the image. This will then avoid adding any location information into the GPS or EXIF files.
When adding your sale to Facebook Marketplace, Ebay etc – ensure your location is NOT in the settings, or added during the advert submission. To do this, make sure any location on the computer or phone is OFF, and manually add a ‘rough area’ within 6-10 miles of your actual location. Your local council area would do: For example, you could add your location as Bordesley Green, instead of Smethwick. Don’t pin someones’ house, make sure you pin a random area of road, junction, hotel or a local fuel station where it is obviously not an address a bike would be stored. Also, make sure you refrain from adding phrases such as ‘too many projects’ or ‘new bike forces sale’ as this alerts potential thieves that there are other or newer bikes at the property.
Do you due diligence when approached with enquiries. Make sure you research the prospective buyer, and arrange to meet somewhere away from the house if that is where your machine is stored. Nobody will mind meeting at a bike night event, local dealer or similar. If meeting somewhere, take a friend along with you. Do not allow test rides, and do not rely on ‘cash in hand’ before a test ride as it is common for fake notes to be used and the rider to disappear on your machine. If the rider insists on a test ride, you insist on a bank transfer – at least you have a trail! You can even allow a deal on a post-sale test ride with a return option after the bike is paid for, and before forms are signed. If there is any doubt, walk away!
So LOCK your bikes securely – even in the garage. Up and Over, as well as Roller Shutter doors are easily overcome. Use other methods to secure them. Keep chains away from the the ground, and tight. Once again, when adding images of your bike online in social media posts, sale add or anywhere – TURN OFF GPS!
