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OCAU News |
Sciby just introduced me to a whole new world of internet scams, based around fake escrow sites. Escrow as you probably know is an intermediary between a buyer and a seller, to make sure the deal goes ahead without either side being ripped off. Good stuff and a smart idea if you're spending a lot of money on an online auction or similar. In these scams, the scammer sets up a real-looking website that supposedly offers an escrow service and then tries to sell or buy an expensive product, requiring the other (poor sucker) party to use this fake escrow service. The deal never completes, of course, the scammer runs off with the goods or the money and the poor sucker is left with no recourse.
Anyway, there's some anecdotal info here and here. I don't know if the sites mentioned on those pages are genuinely problematic or not, they just illustrate some of the situations people have found themselves in. Comments by other people in those threads are their own.
Anyway, there are genuine escrow sites out there and using them is a good idea if you're dealing with someone you only know via the net (ebay, our own trading forums, etc). But be aware that, just like you're careful of dodgy people on the internet, some sites are dodgy also. Do your homework. www.samspade.org is a good site for digging up info on a web domain.
Ebay have an Escrow page with some info and a list of escrow providers that they recommend, including an Australian one. If someone has suggested an escrow provider that you're not comfortable using, maybe suggest using one of the ones on Ebay's list. Be paranoid!
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All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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