Escrow Police

With the advent of the Internet, car shopping has become very easy. Whilst the consumer today has become incredibly powerful, in the sense that people can research cars and competitors extensively on the web before deciding on what car to purchase, cyber crime has become so widespread that thousands of people fall victims to online scams every year.

Over the past few months, there has been a surge in fake escrow sites. The bad economy may be partly to blame because while consumers have drastically cut back on luxury items, some purchases that are a necessity simply … Continue Reading

Online transactions have been on the increase for years. While most online companies are legitimate, cyber crime has become rather widespread nowadays.

Over the past couple of years, there has been an increase in the tendency to buy a car without seeing it. This new trend is proving to be a goldmine for escrow fraudsters, since that is just what these fraudsters want.

What makes things worse, is the fact … Continue Reading

A new Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU) has been recently set up. The newly established PCeU will be closely working together with Industry and Law enforcement agencies worldwide to combat e-crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

E-crime has been on the increase all across the globe including the U.K. It is hoped that with the newly established PCeU, there will be adequate resources and intelligence to … Continue Reading

A new service in the U.K. is set to make car buying safer in the face of rising levels of fraud.

While police forces across the country have reported a rise in fraud offences, including incidents of counterfeit cash, forged bankers drafts and escrow fraud, CarPay.co.uk is Britain’s first secure vehicle money transfer service offering peace of mind to both parties involved in any deal.

Registered with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), CarPay.co.uk guarantees a safe and secure method of transferring payments between buyer and seller.

Buyers will no longer have to risk carrying pockets full of cash or paying by … Continue Reading

The fact that there are hundreds of fake escrow sites cropping up regularly is proof enough that it’s pretty “easy” to scam people of their hard earned cash through fraudulent escrow services.

We have come across lots of cases were people fell victims of illegitimate escrow companies and it is safe to say that in the majority of cases recovering your stolen money is virtually impossible.
This is why we have stressed over and over again on this blog that is crucial to be on constant alert when doing transactions online. It really is not that hard to identify whether an … Continue Reading

If you thought that only buyers can get scammed into using a fake escrow site, then think again.

Over the years, hundreds of sellers have fallen victims to online scams too. If you are a seller, ALWAYS exercise caution before you ship your products because if you’re not careful, escrow fraudsters will steal your product without paying you one cent.

We’ve decided to write this blog since we have noticed that there is the impression that sellers are somewhat “safe” from escrow scammers. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Typical instances where sellers can be “easily” defrauded is on Ebay. … Continue Reading

Identity theft is a huge driving force behind many fraudulent schemes including fake escrow services.  Identity theft typically occurs when someone uses your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud.

If you’ve given your personal information to escrow scammers on eBay and other similar sites, than there’s a good chance that they will setup escrow fraud sites using your name, with a credit card that would also be in your name! Identity Theft is a great ally to escrow fraudsters.  These cyber criminals use their unsuspecting victims’ personal information to help them with their fraudulent activities.

If you suspect that scammers … Continue Reading

Falling victim to escrow fraudsters is a devastating experience and can happen to anyone. This is not about people who are perhaps not well-educated. People with Masters Degrees have been scammed too!

It’s all about AWARENESS. If you don’t even know that fake online escrow sites exist than you have a good chance of being defrauded.

Our main goal is to educate the general public about online escrow fraud and the tactics that online scammers use to scam innocent victims.

We always suggest that before engaging into online transactions both buyers and sellers should do their research on the company/individual they’re … Continue Reading

An escrow transaction is created to ensure that both buyer and seller feel comfortable exchanging money and goods.

Unfortunately, online escrow fraudsters today are becoming more and more sophisticated and whereas once they could easily be exposed by “amateur” websites with poor spelling and highly visible grammar mistakes, this is becoming less and less frequent.

Escrow scammers are now using escrow service fronts to steal money and personal identities.

In 2007, the Internet Crime Complaint Center processed over 200,000 complaints and studies indicate that over $500 million was lost via Internet Fraud.  This figure is just for 2007!

It is evident then that Internet … Continue Reading

The holiday season is here and Christmas is just round the corner. Despite the current economic downturn, the festive shopping frenzy has already started. Major stores have heavily discounted their products in an effort to attract more shoppers.

While most of us look forward to some days off from work, unfortunately online scammers do not take time off – not even during the festive season. In fact, it seems that cyber criminals work overtime during the Christmas holiday season! Year after year, studies indicate that there’s always a surge in cyber crime during December.

As we know, many … Continue Reading