A woman says she’ll likely never use the online ad platform Kijiji ever again after a horrific experience almost ended up with her losing her grandmother’s diamond ring.

Kimberly Dunbar first went to Kijiji to try and sell the family ring for some much needed cash.

“I don’t wear jewelry so I wanted to sell it for education purposes.”

She posted an ad for the custom-made, 18k white gold diamond ring with a price of $11,250, the amount she had it appraised at.

Dunbar soon came into contact with a buyer who offered her $11,000 for the ring plus $100 to get it shipped.

“He said that he was from Nova Scotia and he was in Florida doing a business deal. It was really weird because the number was really sketchy.”

She did notice that he didn’t want to come to Calgary to see the ring in person and wanted to give her the money through Paypal.

“I said ‘I don’t do Paypal, but an e-transfer can work.’ Then things started to go really weird like the e-transfer didn’t match to the original e-transfer that I’m used to.”

Despite the issues with the e-transfer, Dunbar was pressured into sending the ring anyway. She called a shipping company to handle the delivery.

“After the driver scanned it, I didn’t hear from the person for an hour.”

Eventually, Dunbar discovered the e-transfer was a fake and the buyer stopped returning her calls.

Luckily, she managed to get in contact with the courier, stopped the delivery and immediately contacted the police.

Sergeant Matt Fredriksen with the Calgary Police Service says online money scams are becoming increasingly common, but victims can detect them if they watch for red flags.

“Often it’s if the other party is outside your jurisdiction and is looking to do something immediately; getting you to sell it without having to provide you with the money right away,” he says. “Or putting it in the mail without having received the funds for it.

“If they don’t care about the details of the item, like if you say it’s a different car than what you said and they are still willing to go through with it.”

He says people can also use CPS parking lots to meet with potential buyers to help them stay safe around people they may not know.

Fredriksen says it also helps to share the details about the transaction with someone you trust so they can give their opinion on whether or not it could be a scam.

“Talking with someone else, before you conclude the transaction, lets someone who’s not emotional attached to it give you some thoughts and inputs about it.”

Dunbar is relieved that she managed to intercept the ring before it left the city.

“I would have never seen the package again and the $11,000 would have just, disappeared.”

She says she wants other victims to learn from her mistake.

“I’ve been bullied through my life and I know that being scammed was like a form of being bullied because they are trying to get into you. But I want people to just come forward to police and report scams.”

In an email to CTV News, Kijiji says it commits significant resources towards the detection and prevention of scammers who attempt to violate its policies and advises victims to contact their local police.

(With files from Kathy Le)