As online trading becomes more popular, figures from one website show the number of stolen goods being listed for sale is actually going down.
But it still happens, so how do you best protect yourself when it comes to buying and selling online?
Having his laptop, camera, iPad and Playstation stolen from his home was bad enough, but when Hamish McKenzie saw it all for sale online the very same night, it was a kick in the guts.
"Definitely a feeling of disgust -- that little sick-to-your-stomach feeling, knowing someone's selling my stuff that I've spent the last five, six, seven, eight years working really hard to get," Mr McKenzie said.
Mr McKenzie spotted the electronics on a local Facebook Buy & Sell page, and reported it to police. Eventually someone was arrested and charged, but none of the stolen property was recovered, with Mr McKenzie assuming they were sold.
Online trading is gaining in popularity, but Trade Me says over the past year, just 15 items have been removed because they're deemed to be stolen -- even with around 250,000 items sold each week.
Over the past four years, police enquiries to Trade Me about stolen items have dropped by 18 percent, despite the total number of listings more than doubling in the same period.
The company says that's partly due to more new goods being listed, rather than second-hand ones, but also because its payment methods are more stringent than social media.
"Social media sites are designed for social media; they're not necessarily designed for e-commerce, although we accept that a lot of e-commerce happens on the site. So there is naturally a lower level of protection," Jon Duffy from Trade Me's trust and safety department said.
Consumer New Zealand says it doesn't matter which site you use. It says if you're buying off a registered trader or company, you're protected under the Consumer Guarantees Act. However, if you're buying from Joe Bloggs off the street, it's always buyer beware.
"Someone's listing half a dozen items and they want $300 or something, take the whole lot away? [It] definitely makes you think twice about what they're selling," Mr McKenzie said.
The message, then, is always do your homework on the seller -- no matter which website.
Newshub.
