Newest Scam: Fake Escrow Accounts

MImeKillEr writes "MSNBC is running an article warning about the latest auction site scam: Fake escrow accounts. The article claims scam artists are tricking Net users into wiring thousands of dollars to fraudulent bank accounts. The criminals do this by setting up a trap auction and when the winner asks how to make a payment, the criminal tells them to pay into an escrow account. One legit escrow account who had a criminal mimic their site said that as many as 50 users had lost and average of $10,000 with at least one being conned out of $30,000 in such a way. There are reportedly at least 150 fake escrow accounts. The FBI is currently investigating the matter."

Comments

thats the problem with these systems

[krist0]

the problem i see with alot of these online auctions is the level of trust needed. Sure there are checks in place to try make sure everyone and everything is legit...but still, out in the land of the 'net, where anonymity is king, its not to hard to fix these kinds of things (and the impetus to do it is also high, because of this feeling on anonymity) and lets face it, there are lots of people out there that will fall into these traps....i dont feel too sorry for stupid people (at least, until i become one) but still, would this happen in a real life (ie, non online) auction

Re:thats the problem with these systems

[Elwood P Dowd]

That's why I never use eBay, and I use Craigslist _all_ the time. With Craigslist, there's no shipping, and since responses to ads are only socially binding, you get plenty of takers. The best part is... when you're doing a transfer, the buyer examines the goods. In person. Then the buyer hands cash to the seller. If it turns out that the goods were somehow defective... the buyer knows where the seller lives. No one gets fucked. Brilliant.

Of course, it's not the same thing. The most obscure items on eBay need a national auction. When I'm buying a sofa, though...

Those idiots out there.

[trotski]

I'm sorry, if you wire 30,000 dollars to any account after an auction without making absolutly certain that you're actually going to recieve the service you're paying for; then well, you're stupid. Simple as that.

If this person had any good sense they would have mode darn sure they're not being scammed. If a person parts with 30,000 dollars this way than they deserve it. Perhaps they'll be more carful when bidding 30,000 dollars on an online auction.

Then again, I suppose the world is full of idiots... want proof? read Slashdot at -1 :).

A friend of mine got nailed this way too..

[weave]

My friend is a consultant. Bought three laptops on eBay. Sent a tad bit under $10K to an escrow service, never got the laptops, the money and escrow service disappeared.

He can't get anyone to care. Not eBay for sure. Not the police, not FBI. He found out the scammers were working out of Romania and contacted their police, and hasn't gotten too far either. The scammers made it appear they were located in Minnesota. In the meantime he sees more auctions that look similar and contacted them with his same ID and addy, and they sent him details for payment, etc. They didn't even remember it was the same guy they scammed a few weeks earlier. They continue to operate and nail people over and over... (and since it wasn't a Mac laptop, he doesn't have that fanatical base of users to get help him either! :)

Let me take this opportunity to rant about the inequities law enforcement in this (U.S.) country. These are huge losses for individuals and when combined represent large sums of money overall, but law enforcement doesn't care. But you have some theoretical theft of a $18 CD and then we must throw the weight of the FBI after the P2P'ers. If a guy robs a 7-eleven of $20, he must spend 20 years in jail, but if a white collar criminal bilks several million bucks from a company, he gets a mild slap on the wrist, if that... If my house gets broken into and I lose everything, now the police don't even want to bother coming out to "investigate" the crime. They take a report over the phone and send you a police report for insurance purposes, but heaven forbid you don't come to a full stop at a stop sign or creep over the speed limit, because they are out there in full force ready to nail you with tickets.

Ignorance is its own punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

And wiring money to a bank outside the country is always a bad idea, experts say.

As a rule, if you need an expert to tell you wiring money to a bank outside the country is always a bad idea, you're halfway to hopeless anyway.

Face it, anyone who wires $30,000 to an account at a bank they've never heard of, by request of an escrow company they know nothing about, because they want to buy a car over the internet, any one that flat-out, no-other-way-to-put-this, STUPID, deserves to be ripped off. Maybe it'll teach them a lesson.

Re:Actually . . .

[BlueUnderwear]

Refuse to release the payment from escrow to either party until the package has arrived as per the sale agreement.

... and what happens after the item has arrived? A fraudulent seller could just send a box of gravel. A fraudulent buyer could just claim that he got a box of gravel... Who determines who's the liar?

Re:[insert ignorance here]

[lennart78]

It would make scamming even more easy. Receive both the goods AND the money...

Re:[insert ignorance here]

[frostman]

in many cases they're more or less two-way.

take property. i sell you a house, you buy the house, the money is in escrow to protect us both.

it protects you because you get the money back if i'm pulling a scam (if it's not really my house, or something).

it protects me because i know i'll get that money after i sign the house over to you. i know because i have a contract with the escrow company, just like you do. when i deliver proof that you bought the house, and the escrow company double-checks its validity, then i get the money. that's what i pay them for (the seller usually pays for the escrow).

in any case where the seller can prove that the buyer received the thing sold, escrow works for the benefit of both parties. if the escrow company doesn't offer the seller a clear contract specifying what constitutes delivery of the product or service, then you should take your percentage elsewhere.

i made a large purchase in a country where escrow is not usually used, and i was more than a little bit nervous during the time when i had paid a massive down payment and the only thing guaranteeing the sale was a contract. the other side was also nervous, since the only thing guaranteeing that the rest of the money would show up was the same contract.