CarBuyingTips.com Warns of Fake Escrow Sites Stealing Corporate Logos to Lure Victims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--May 19, 2003--CarBuyingTips.com is warning corporations of fraudulent escrow sites which steal and misappropriate intellectual property of well known brands, in attempts to defraud consumers duped into thinking they are buying used cars.
These sophisticated scammers setup hundreds of fake escrow company web sites. The scammers then post vehicle ads on Internet sites such as eBay, Autotrader.com, and others. The ads usually have prices lower than the norm to lure in their victims. When the consumer agrees to buy the vehicle, the "seller" tells them to use a specific escrow web site, one of their fake escrow sites already setup. Once the victim wires their money to what they think is the escrow company, they never get the car and lose all their money. The site then shuts down days later.
"It's scary, the fake escrow sites look so professional and convincing," said Jeff Ostroff, President & CEO of ConsumerNet, Inc., which runs CarBuyingTips.com. Ostroff said: "Our fraud investigations revealed these phony sites steal logos from established brands, and put them on their sites, in an attempt to trick us into thinking major companies are partners with the escrow site. They look just like a bank's web site. If consumers get taken, they will blame the corporations who had their logos stolen. We saved a visitor $28,000 on a Porsche Boxster listed on Autotrader.com, when the seller insisted he use SafeAutotrader.com, a now defunct escrow site that we determined was fraudulent." According to Ostroff, fake escrow sites have inappropriately used logos from General Electric, Verisign, Softbank, Ariba, VerticalNet, eBay, Autotrader, Yahoo!, Amazon, Western Union, E-Gold, and others. Some sites list phony addresses, with no functioning phone numbers.
Some sites steal content off eBay's legitimate Escrow.com site and post it on their site. Others list fake license numbers and claim they are regulated by the California Division of Corporations, or the New York Division Of Corporations. Ostroff said: "Of course they don't show up in state databases. When we email them, most don't answer our email. One replied with a meaningless answer in broken English. We estimate 90% of escrow web sites are fraudulent." Other sites are illegally using the TRUSTe logo, when they are not licensees of TRUSTe.org. Still other sites have the Verisign "Secure Site" logo, which turns out to be false. Some sites use names like Safe, or Secure in the domain name, even BBB to mimic the Better Business Bureau.
According to Ostroff, once you wire money through Western Union, your money is gone forever. They cannot put a stop payment on the transaction. Ostroff advises consumers to avoid sellers insisting on using an unknown escrow service, and allow cashier's checks 2 weeks to clear before spending. Details of these scams along with screen shots of alleged fraudulent escrow sites, phony cashier's checks, Nigerian scams, and tips for avoiding them can be found at http://www.CarBuyingTips.com.