he Escrow agent (neutral third party) holds on documents, money, or property till the deal is finalized by the two parties. Like any other fraud, escrow fraud is also on the rise. You need to be very careful whenever you use escrow service for buying an expensive item; otherwise, you may get caught in escrow service fraud. Most commonly the escrow fraud is happening on the internet. Hence, you need to be very careful while doing any online transaction and ensure that you don’t get yourself stuck in online escrow fraud.
Tips for identifying internet escrow fraud
- Check for the language on the escrow site. It might have grammatical errors.
- The site may be copied from the existing site.
- Call at the customer service number mentioned on the site. If nobody answers at that number or if was wrong person’s number, then it is an escrow fraud.
- Before using the escrow site, ensure to verify the site before using the same for escrow services.
- In case escrow sites ask you to pay to an individual rather than a corporate entity, then it might be a fraud.
- Search for escrow sites on Google search. In case it is not shown on the search engine then it might be a fraud sight.
eBay Escrow Fraud
Many cases of eBay escrow fraud have been reported. Many times you either want to buy or sell an item on eBay. Suppose you want to sell a camera. You try to find a potential buyer from escrow site. Escrow site notifies you that they have found the potential buyer for the camera and have also received the money for the same. Further, they ask you to send the camera at an address. You send the same. And later you might found that escrow involved in your transaction was a fraud.
- How to avoid such escrow fraud on eBay
- Always use the legal escrow sites recommended by eBay.
- Once you get to know of such site, verify a few things such as:
- Legal aspects of the site
- Domain name
- When was the site was registered
- Check for the personal details mentioned on the site.
Apart from verifying the above-mentioned points also follow the tips mentioned above. Double Escrow fraud is also rising. The Double escrow involves buying and selling of a property at the same point of time. Hence, both transactions occur simultaneously.