How to Pick an Escrow or Shipping Scam

Some of the most common scams involve forcing a transaction through a fake escrow or shipping website. Don’t feel bad if you’ve had difficulty picking these out from the legit sites – quite often the fake sites are built to look exactly like those of real companies.

Here are some tips on identifying scam shipping or escrow sites:

1. NEVER USE A SITE THAT RECOMMENDS USING WIRE TRANSFER.

2. Check to see if the address in the address bar matches the name of the website. If it doesn’t, that’s a danger sign.

3. Look for Errors -- grammatical errors, typos, etc. If they’re present, the site is likely the work of a hasty scammer rather than an actual company.

4. Find a number listed for the site and call it. Fake sites often list either a non-working phone number or no number at all.

5. Do a Google search on the name of the company. Legitimate, established companies will return many results that reference the actual company. Phony sites won’t.

6. Check references; fake sites often link to legitimate sites, claiming that they’re partnered with real companies. Go to the legitimate site and see if the other site is mentioned there.

- For example, Cars.com and eBay only recommend Escrow.com for escrow services. Any other escrow site claiming to partner with Cars.com or eBay is a scam.

- For shipping, Cars.com only partners with Dependable Auto Shippers. To see eBay’s approved shippers, click here and scroll to “Shipping Services.”

7. Make sure you see the car in person prior to completing a purchase or sending money. If that isn’t feasible, utilize a third-party inspection service to verify that the car is as described in the ad. Cars.com partners with SGS Inspections to provide this service.

- If nothing else, ask the seller to let you see the vehicle.

If a seller refuses to allow you to see the vehicle, it is likely a scam.

Following these steps should help you identify scam escrow or shipping sites when you see them. For more on this topic, click here and scroll to “Fraudulent Escrow Service Scams.”

Most importantly, do not send money if you are not 100 percent comfortable with the proposed transaction.

As always, you can also email reportascam@cars.com with any concerns or questions.

Comments

[LAgirl]

omg..thank you for this site I just about to send money NOW to this company http://www.beta-trans-ltd.co.uk.tp/ to purchase Iphone from craiglist but just realized that might be a scam so I googled it before I click okay button via Western Union. I don't know if this is a legit or fake co. but either way I'm going to cancel my transaction. I should've read the warning message from craiglist. I even gave that person my ph# to make it easier for them to contact me...hopefully they don't do anything with it.:(