Car, Motorbike, Electronics Shoppers at Most Risk of Escrow Fraud<\/p>\n
SYDNEY, May 9, 2013<\/b> \u2013 The number and scale of escrow scams are expected to grow in June, according to Bitdefender\u00ae, the award-winning provider of innovative antivirus<\/a> solutions.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s analysis on the last 10 months \u00a0that fraudsters put more energy into creating fake escrow websites at the beginning of winter. More than 16.8 per cent of the escrow scams registered in almost one year were created in June.<\/p>\n A similar spike was registered in February this year, with over 17 per cent of the total number of analysed escrow scams. After a steady decrease from July to October, the number of fake escrow companies starts to grow before the holidays, especially in December.<\/p>\n Cars, motorbikes and electronics top the list of items that scammers use most to swindle online shoppers in the growing underworld of escrow fraud, a Bitdefender study on over 2,000 fake escrow websites shows.<\/p>\n Scammers generally pose as sellers on authentic auction websites, then direct buyers to the fake escrow service they control. The scammer takes the money and never delivers the goods.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scammers can be quite convincing \u2013 that\u2019s precisely how they can make money,\u201d said Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist Catalin Cosoi. \u201cThey put a great deal of effort into coming across as legitimate, even to the point of warning their targets to protect themselves from credit card and payment fraud. A typical statement seeking to reassure their victims is that they never request banking details \u2013 it actually makes no difference with escrow fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are the Top 5 Items Scammers \u2018Ship\u2019 to Neverland<\/b>:<\/p>\n Other items \u2018transported\u2019 by escrow scammers include bank deposits, medical records and tissue samples.<\/p>\n Before making any payment online and using an escrow service to \u2018secure\u2019 the transaction, check WHOIS information for clues about the domain registration, hosting and online activity. Unlike real sites, more than 90 percent of the fake escrow websites are registered for just a year, and use e-mail addresses such as contact@privacyprotect.org<\/a> to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n Another sign is that real escrow websites use secure server connections (SSLs) to protect customers, so \u201chttps:\/\/\u201d should appear in the address browser. Fraudulent websites may even \u2018borrow\u2019 the logo of SSL verification services such as Verisign, so users should check if the site is listed by the authentication company.<\/p>\n UK global redirecting numbers that start with +4470 may also reveal the presence of a scam. Though the country code may look British, the 70 prefix means the phone call will be redirected to any country but the UK.<\/p>\n Users should also check if the contact address of the website is located in the same country as its phone number.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Car, Motorbike, Electronics Shoppers at Most Risk of Escrow Fraud SYDNEY, May 9, 2013 \u2013 The number and scale of escrow scams are expected to grow in June, according to Bitdefender\u00ae, the award-winning provider of innovative antivirus solutions. The company\u2019s analysis on the last 10 months \u00a0that fraudsters put more energy into creating fake escrow<\/p>\n\n