The Citizen Council offers #SafetyTips for the Buen Fin sales

• They urge people to make the best of this season through civic culture and prevention

With the purpose of enjoying a good “Buen Fin”, the Citizen Council for Safety and Justice in Mexico City introduced a series of recommendations to promote a civic culture and prevent fraud derived from shopping and sales of articles both online and in stores.

Since January, the Safety Line (55) 5533-5533 has received over 300 reports related with fraud derived from shopping and selling articles through the Internet. Out of these, 35 percent derived from transactions made to buy vehicles, 10 percent from electrical appliances, 15 percent from unrecognized payments, 8 percent from properties, 5 percent from furniture, 1 percent from pets and 17 percent from other articles.

Most of these cases began with a sales pitch such as “bargain”, “urgent” or “50% off its regular price”.

Before this, the President of the Citizen Council, Salvador Guerrero Chipres insisted that “extremely low prices or promos with doubtful information may be the hook swindlers use, so citizens must beware and check the validity of this offer.”

Apart from this type of prevention, it’s necessary to promote a civic culture during shopping season, so the Council invites everyone to respect queues and waiting times, and not to damage any merchandise they’ll purchase.

Also, for online shopping it’s important to verify the website domains that begin with https:// (the “s” represents security) and to avoid opening links sent by strangers via e-mail or social networks.

Don’t offer personal information to anonymous people or strangers and check shopping alerts as another good option for prevention. In case of detecting any unauthorized charge, report it immediately to the bank.

Finally, use apps such as: No+Extortions, My Police and, in this case, the Buen Fin app where you can find participating establishments.

People who have been victims of robbery or fraud will receive free attention on the Safety Line and Trustworthy Chat: (55) 5533 5533, 24/7.