With the holidays right around the corner festive spirits and feelings of jolliness are on the rise, but in some cases so it crime.
According to Mike Beaudet with the Sylvan Lake RCMP, they usually see a general uptake in credit card fraud or credit card theft.
“Usually people are online shopping a lot more [or] leaving receipts around a lot more,” said Beaudet of the holiday season.
He explained holiday shoppers can avoid credit card fraud or credit card theft by shopping from reputable online people and to always be wary of Kijiji meets or online purchases that seem “too good to be true.”
In terms of offline shopping Beaudet has tips as well.
“[It’s] always a good idea not to keep gifts or valuables in your vehicle at shopping malls or strip malls,” said Beaudet, who added it is also good to double check your car doors, make sure everything’s locked and nothing is visible.
“If you are going out of town for the holidays for a couple of weeks make sure someone’s looking after [your house],” said Beaudet, who added it is important to make it look like someone is home to avoid break in and robbery.
Emptying mailboxes, bringing in parcels, keeping up with the shovelling or putting the house lights on a timer are different ways to make it look like someone hasn’t been gone for a few weeks.
Beaudet also mentioned the increase of impaired driving instances that riddle roads everywhere during the holiday season.
“With the increase of holiday staff parties, social gatherings or time off work it usually does increase, but with those increases there’s always an increase in check-stops and enforcement from us as well,” continued Beaudet.
Holiday party goers can avoid impaired driving by utilizing any designated driving or shuttle services supplied or to use local taxis.
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