Escrow Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

The word unscrupulous does not go far enough to describe those who seek to gain by others’ misfortune or bad luck; we have to add words like devious, deceitful, cunning, and not least of all merciless and cruel.

Predators

For this is the world of praying on the innocent and unsuspecting; and worse even, perpetrating fraud in the guise of help. What, indeed, could be more contemptible?

This is the world where the weary online buyer—well read by now about online auction frauds and false promises—to safeguard his money turns to an online escrow service to make sure that he receives and approves the merchandise before his funds are released to the seller.

He Googles "Online Escrow" and is met with a host of sites, one seeming more legitimate than the next. He reads the "about us" carefully, and as much of the fine print as he has time or mind to absorb. Finally settles on one: Integrity Escrow.

He establishes an account, and his email is verified by the site, over a secure https link. So far so good. Seeing the https and the little security symbol in his browser makes him feel warm and fuzzy.

He then provides the details of the transaction, and, as a final step, deposits the purchase amount—in this case $3,500—in his newly established escrow account.

And that, as the saying goes, was the last he saw of that money.

Impersonating the Solution

Turns out Integrity Escrow was nothing but a slick impersonation of a bona fide escrow company, established—normally in China, Russia, or the former Eastern EU—for the sole purpose of stealing your money while pretending to do the exact opposite, i.e., preventing theft.

Did I say unscrupulous? Yes, it is a step down from out and out theft; it is stealing in the guise of helping.

Unfortunately, online escrow fraud is escalating, due to factors such as:

• Online identity/credit-card theft
• The Anonymity of the Internet
• A lamentable lack of public awareness about fraudulent escrow sites
• Web hosting companies that allow fraudulent escrow sites to be created with stolen credit cards, and then allow them to remain on their service even after they have been reported.

To this I would add an increasing number of tech savvy criminals with zero concern for their fellow man.

How Do They Do It?

Luckily—for the Fake Escrow Detective—those who set up fraudulent escrow sites are, as a rule, lazy people, who wouldn’t (probably couldn’t) create original copy if their lives depended on it. No, too much work.

Lazy people normally resort to templates, made to order scam sites (which abound as well) where they go to download a respectable site. As for trust-inducing copy, few sites are better than bona fide online escrows, such as Escrow.com, which is where they go for the words.

Voila: A new online escrow site.

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