Online buyers who think they have bagged themselves electronics at prices too good to be true, could be right.
The team at TradeMe have led police to a Hamilton man they claim used fake identities to sell electronics at a bargain.
The 29-year-old is also accused of hijacking people's wireless internet connections to sell the goods. He is facing 46 charges.
TradeMe had been following the cyber-criminal's bargain goods for several months.
"These people have gone out there, tried to fake their identity, tried to steal an internet connection but the fact is you're still going to get caught because you can't erase every track that you leave on the internet" says Dean Winter, TradeMe.
With fake IDs, he was logging into TradeMe and selling stolen laptops, iPods and digital cameras at cheap prices.
He would travel round the city with a stolen computer, searching for wireless internet connections.
He would enter and conduct his criminal business, and the bill payer of the wireless connection would have no idea until police came knocking on their door.
Sergeant Carl Moon says buyers who don't use common sense could end up involved in something unlawful. If they buy something that's been stolen, they could end up culpable.
He says one way to prevent that happening is to ask for serial numbers and the history of an item before purchase.
NetSafe says that while hijacking a wireless connection is common, this is the first time they've heard of criminal activity conducted using someone else's internet.
"The criminal activity is associated with their internet connection so it really has added another layer of concern to people who have wireless networks," says Martin Cocker, NetSafe.
Police arrested the man after carrying out 22 search warrants at properties between Auckland and Timaru.
