Potentially bogus escrow site

Got an e-mail (via eBay) from someone who wanted to by the NuVista M3 I'm selling on eBay (see the Buy/Sell forum). Suspicions were raised as he talked about a "watch" and not an amplifier. Secondly, on checking his (many) eBay transactions he seems to have bought a hell of a lot of dodgy looking clothes and not much else. Also, his name is Greek and he said he lives in Sweden...odd, but could be genuine.

I replied, wondering if he had made a mistake and letting him know the reserve price. He then said he had made a mistake, the price was OK and could I do a deal right now? He said he wanted to use an escrow service and he suggested http://www.triple-trader.com/ as he was already registered there (with a userid totally different to his eBay ID).

On first inspection the triple-trader.com looks genuine but dig a little deeper and there are issues:
- not listed as one of eBay's recommended escrow services
- says is based in "London, UK" but DNS registration is a PO Box in West Virginia.
- doesn't give out a physical address beyond "London, UK"
- and the killer: it's Verisign seal is faked Mouse over the seal and it looks like you're about to hit the Verisign site but that's just Javascript. Click on the link and it brings up what looks like a genuine Verisign seal but it's actually been generated by their own site. Use the actual URL that the mouse-over makes it look like you're going to and you get an empty/unknown certificate.

VeriSign will be informed (they have a seal abuse reporting page).

So, steer clear of http://www.Triple-Trader.com/ and anyone suggesting you use it for a transaction.

Do you reckon I should inform eBay about this? For all I know the eBay user the e-mail claims to have come from isn't involved and someone has "hijacked" his ID.

Michael.

 

Mike, 'Sly little prick' seems to be apt here, devious shits try it all, maybe a cattle pod in Prince Charles will change his mind

 

Michael,
I put the address into google, gigablast, webcrawler, teoma, wisenut, altavista, allthweb and guess what? Nothing at all. even putting the contact phone number from whois 013255732343 into PhoneFind gives BELGIUM RONSERENAIX .

They don't look all that real to me.

Auric

 

I too couldn't find a single reference to them on any search engine. About your fonefinder search - I put in my parents number in Cambridge and it came up with Mali 01325 573 2343 looks like it could be a genuine UK number - 01325 is the STD code for Darlington

I told the "buyer" he could bid in my auction and I would only (reluctantly coz it's such a pain) accept escrow using one of the eBay recommended services. He hasn't replied

Michael.

 

I think a visit to the frequently asked questions page would sum it up for most people. His use of english is worse than mine!

Isn't it amazing though, people must be being suckered in,there are so many scams going on now its un-belivable, as much as I hate microsoft the passport idea seems a good one. Sign up to websites via one you know is genuine.

 

eBay have replied with their preliminary results and say that they suspect the account has been hijacked - no shit sherlock!

Michael.

 

It seems the sites ISP have pulled the plug on it. It no longer works it just says "you do not permision to view this site".

 

There's Michael's good deed for the day. The site worked this morning and now, "the page cannot be displayed".:MILD:

 

More info on those fake escrow sites

Hello folks,

I was searching the internet for references to fake, dodgy and fraudulent escrows and found your message boards.

I see someone mentioned ebay and being sent to a suspicious escrow website.
That escrow site is one of hundreds of fake sites that have been shut down just this year.
At any given time there are at least 3 dozen or more active fake websites.
They are usually run by Romanian and Russian mafia type gangs.
Some target sellers of expensive items.
Some target buyers with prices that are "too good to be true".

Sometimes they just look to see who is bidding on something expensive and then they make you an offer via mail to buy
the same or similar item at a better price.

Some use accounts that they have hijacked to post auctions.
Some just use these accounts to solicit others thru emails.
On the surface they may have good feedback ratings and you may think they must be legitimate, but those ratings don't belong to them. Many times the member has never sold anything.
It's always best to check their feedback and previous sales.

They usually want money wired by Western Union or Moneygram, E-gold accounts or Moneybookers.
Wired cash is untraceable so they use this the most.
Some have you send payment to an address that's really a bank.
They collect the funds and disappear.
Some say they accept credit cards, but then you're told that they
are having some problems and they push for wire transfers instead.

For sellers, you may think if they give you an address, that you can track them down should you not get your money. Not so.
The address they give is usually to a hotel room and they only
stay long enough to collect their stolen items as they get delivered.
Some rent private mail boxes and use those temporarily and then disappear.

There are only a handful of real "auction" escrow services in the whole world !!
99.99% of the ones registered in the last few months are total fakes!

If you want to learn more, check some of the boards on ebay.
The main site has an escrow board with lots of information.
I believe the UK Q & A members also know about these fake sites and you can inquire there as well.
There is also a place on ezboard.com that is specifically used for passing on information about fake escrows.

Sometimes arrests are made and authorites need to return items.
Currently there are items in Austria and Sweden that they would like to return.
Both ebay's board on escrow and the ezboard has information about these confiscated items.

Here's some links should you be interested in finding out more.

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/forum.jsp?forum=7

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jsp?forum=23

If you can read german, ebay.de has a good topic on them also.
http://forums.ebay.de/forum.jsp?forum=40

http://pub135.ezboard.com/bauctionnewsall


For UK members there is one escrow that is legitimate and I heard that Escrow.com may be covering ebay UK in the future.
They are a picture host, ebay certified developer and have offered escrow as part of their services.

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/lancashire-lad/

If you get approached to use an escrow service, recommend a legitmate one and they will usually cease contact.
To check an escrow out, go to google and search for a WHOIS site. Those sites allow you to look up the registrant information
and will give you the dates that the name was registered.

Not all old escrows are legitimate.
One has been shut down numerous times and just re-registers with a new webhosting site.
This one especially likes to rob sellers.

http://www.uk-escrow.co.uk/

He's been at it for over one year, so be careful.
The ezboard is covered with pages and pages of reports for theft of items thru just this one escrow site.

Stay safe and pass the word that these fake escrow sites are out there and they are very dangerous!

 

Thanks for the info silver and welcome to the forum

Michael.

 

Thank you michaelab

Thanks for the welcome!

I hope it's acceptable to post this. I've just finished my list of the current fake escrow sites. We get some shut down and they just pop up new ones almost daily.
Here are the ones that I know of.
Tomorrow there may be more reported or some of these may have been shut down.

http://www.assured-trans.net/

http://atv-escrow.com

http://bestransactions.com Same as http://www.sfy.me.uk/

http://cashbookers.com

http://commerce-hub.biz

http://www.escrow.cx/home.htm

http://www.escrow-yourdeal.com/ One of 5 identical sites

http://g-trader.com

http://Goods-Traders.com Same as these next four
http://spanish-escrow.com
http://www.tripletrade.net
http://www.products-trade.com
http://www.escrow-yourdeal.com

http://internationalescrowtrading.com/

http://www.insured-escrow.com/

http://madenat.com

http://main-trade.com/index.html

http://moto-exchange.com Same as http://smart-exchange.com

http://novaescrow.net

http://ny-trades.com

http://ny-traders.com

http://on-escrow.com

http://registeredescrow.com

http://www.safebuying.net/index.php

http://www.safetripletrade.com/

http://securescrow.com

http://secure.escrowinc.net/

http://www.sfy.me.uk/

http://simple-escrow.com

http://smart-exchange.com Same as http://moto-exchange.com

http://www.stfoundation.com/

http://trading-net.net/

http://tradings-us.com/

http://www.tripletrade.net/

http://trustedcomp.com

http://www.uk-escrow.co.uk/

http://www.verysafe-trader.com/

http://we-escrow.com/Default.php

 

I'm just offering a little help

I hope to educate buyers and sellers all over the internet about these fake sites.
Most people accept escrows as honest companies and that's why so many people get robbed by the fake ones.

These sites are used to target members on all online sites.
Yahoo, ebay, u-bid, classified ads and many others.
Some of these crooks even put up fake electronics store websites.

It's always wise to check a website out very carefully before doing business with them.
Call them, verify their phone number, their address, check with agencies like the BBB or if you see a verisign logo, check directly with them. Some fake these logos to gain your confidence.

It's also wise to never use the same password on more than one site.
Some members have registered with these sites using the same password that they use for other things and they have become victims of account theft and even identity theft because of it.

Again, thanks for the welcome.
I've set my preferences to email me if anyone adds a comment.
If I can be of any help, don't hesitate to ask.

Silver

 

Thanks again. If it's not too indiscrete to ask, what is your connection to all this? Do you work for eBay or similar or are you just a lone warrior against internet fraud?

Michael.

 

I'm just helpful

I have always been a helpful person.

I've been a member of ebay for quite a few years and I learned to get help from the few boards they had in the early years.

Later on, in my free time, I started to offer help on the boards.
The escrow problem was pretty serious, so I decided to focus on helping in that area for a while.

There's a lot of people that work in the background to get all the fake sites shut down. I'm not the only one by any means.
There are members all over ebay on various boards, the main site and international ebay sites, that help out.

I offer help when I can or pass on information related to escrow fraud. Sometimes there is news about arrests or we find
out where things are being sent and we alert the authorities.

I can provide links to law enforcement agencies and other places to report the fraud when somone has become a victim.

It's all about getting the word out.
I hope that some day everyone will know about these scams and they won't fall for them.
Until then, all we can do is try to educate people thru boards like this one and ask that they pass the word to others.