BASINGSTOKE residents are being urged to be vigilant following reports of thefts of high value off-road motorcycles, quad-bikes and ATVs.

Hampshire Constabulary is warning those selling the high value vehicles online, particularly on Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree.

Police said there have been a number of reports of thefts or attempted thefts of high value vehicles.

It comes after numerous sellers have received a call or message from people pretending to be ‘buyers’ and requesting an image or a video of the vehicle engine running from the seller.

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said: “Those pretending to be ‘buyers’ have then extracted the image metadata – which allows users to see when and where the image or video was taken – allowing the bike to be pinpointed to a specific location.

“The vehicles are then targeted by criminals and are often stolen or attempts made to steal the vehicles.

“We know online buying and selling sites have grown in popularity in recent months, however we want to remind people to please be vigilant when selling items in this way.”

Police are now advising to ensure that ‘location’ settings are switched off on mobile device/camera if you’re sending images to prospective ‘buyers’, which would mitigate against the location metadata being extracted and the vehicle located.

Sellers are also urged to upload additional photos directly to their online listing, rather than sending it directly to prospective buyers.

Police are also asking to not share home or work address to buyers, and instead arrange to meet them in a public place or neutral location.