According to his account, the man had agreed with a person posing as a woman to sell an iPhone 16 for $900. The exchange was to take place around 10 p.m., near his home, in the area of rue Louis-Pinard.
“A lady wrote to me late in the evening. My partner and I found it a little strange given the time, but the profile seemed credible,” he says. The Facebook profile in question, he said, contained several photos and a few hundred friends, which convinced him to move despite the darkness.
Once arrived at the address indicated, an apartment building, Amine Talbi explains that he asked for the apartment number of the buyer, who replied that she was going to go out to meet him instead. However, it was rather two men who presented themselves.
“I told them I was talking to a woman on Facebook, not them. One of them told me that it was his mother and that he was buying the phone for his little brother who was next to him.”
— Amine Talbi
Still according to his version of the facts, one of the two men asked him to hand over the phone in order to examine it, while the other seemed to prepare the money. “He pretended to count the money, put it back in his pockets, then count it again. It seemed like a distraction,” he said.
Amine Talbi now believes that the plan could have been to give him fake tickets. He also claims that after the police intervention, he noticed that the sum of $800, given in $100 bills, was counterfeit. According to him, the police subsequently confirmed that they were counterfeit notes.
At the time of writing, however, it was not possible to obtain official confirmation of these elements from the police. The situation then deteriorated quickly. Still according to the thirty-year-old, one of the suspects fled with the phone, while he tried to detain the other on the spot.
“I understood that they were trying to rob me. Instead of chasing the one with my phone, I grabbed the other one and told him he wasn’t going anywhere until his brother brought me my cell.”
— Amine Talbi
His car also hit
His partner, who was waiting for him in the vehicle, then called 911. Amine Talbi says that the two suspects then hit him several times before fleeing on foot towards Louis-Pinard Park, located opposite the building.
“They put me on the ground and started hitting me in the face,” he said, adding that he suffered bruises, an injured thumb and significant shock.
After the altercation, he got back into his car with his partner and tried to go around the park in order to find the suspects. He said he then saw a third man waiting for them in a vehicle on the other side. Still according to his testimony, this driver hit his car before fleeing. Amine Talbi said he chased the vehicle for a few blocks until police intervened.
“We saw the police arriving. The others continued to flee, then they ended up stopping them a little further away,” he says. As for the alleged driver, he said he believed he would have been released later.
Amine Talbi also maintains that the police found several stolen items inside the two men’s home, including other cell phones, possible weapons as well as suspected counterfeit money. The Trois-Rivières Police Department had not yet returned the calls from News writer Saturday to confirm the exact nature of the items seized, nor the number of people arrested, nor the charges that could be filed.
Vigilance is required
As of March 26, the Sureté du Québec integrated the “short guide to actions that harm fraudsters” onto its website. Faced with the increase in fraud, the authorities remind us of the importance of remaining vigilant in the face of unsolicited calls, text messages, emails or visits that rely on urgency, fear or pressure.
Protecting your personal and banking information, verifying the identity of your interlocutor and monitoring your transactions are some of the reflexes to adopt. On the police side, investigations are only part of the job: reporting, deactivation of fraudulent numbers, removal of fake websites and collaboration with financial institutions also help to curb fraudsters.
This story comes in a context where peer-to-peer transactions on resale platforms continue to gain popularity. Police forces regularly remind us of the importance of carrying out this type of exchange in public places, well lit, ideally supervised, and of avoiding meetings late in the evening.