The Weyburn Police Service was called to a local business last week after staff noticed something off when a customer came to the customer service desk for a return.  

Sergeant Shane St. John explained the store, thanks to how things are tracked, was able to realize there was a problem, and was able to check surveillance footage. 

"Fortunately, with those types of fraud with business is that the businesses have gotten so good at detecting them, and they keep track of their inventory and they can check to see if that has even been sold,” Sgt. St. John said.  

In this instance, after reviewing the footage, staff determined the suspect didn’t come into the store with the item, which would imply they had taken it off of the shelf and gone to customer service to process a return for a refund.  

“They were able to decide that, you know what, this is a fraud; they did steal this,” Sgt. St. John continued. “Fraud and a theft, and we did identify the female and charges are pending.” 

The incident at the local business wasn’t the only scam police are keeping an ear to the ground regarding.  

In recent weeks in Weyburn, there have been instances reported of rental scams. In these situations, the scammer posts an online ad for a rental property or answers ads from people who are looking for a property. The scammer will ask for a deposit to be sent to them electronically before the potential tenant has even seen the house. The catch is, the scammer isn’t the person who is looking to rent out the house. Often, images of the house used in the scam are often taken from real estate listings and aren’t even available for rent.  

“The biggest thing is never giving out your personal information or money without confirming with the realtor or with the homeowner themselves that it actually is for rent,” Sgt. St. John pointed out. “Just really do your due diligence to make sure you are renting from the person that they say they are – meet with them, talk with them, don’t give out any money online.”