question related to Escrow.

[panju1]

Apparently, escrow fraud is widespread these days.
The Internet Crimes Complaint Center has a section for this.

http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx#item-8

Escrow Services Fraud

In an effort to persuade a wary Internet auction participant, the perpetrator will propose the use of a third-party escrow service to facilitate the exchange of money and merchandise. The victim is unaware the perpetrator has actually compromised a true escrow site and, in actuality, created one that closely resembles a legitimate escrow service. The victim sends payment to the phony escrow and receives nothing in return. Or, the victim sends merchandise to the subject and waits for his/her payment through the escrow site which is never received because it is not a legitimate service.

If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.

[Kluge]

Apparently, escrow fraud is widespread these days.
The Internet Crimes Complaint Center has a section for this.

http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx#item-8

Escrow Services Fraud

In an effort to persuade a wary Internet auction participant, the perpetrator will propose the use of a third-party escrow service to facilitate the exchange of money and merchandise. The victim is unaware the perpetrator has actually compromised a true escrow site and, in actuality, created one that closely resembles a legitimate escrow service. The victim sends payment to the phony escrow and receives nothing in return. Or, the victim sends merchandise to the subject and waits for his/her payment through the escrow site which is never received because it is not a legitimate service.

If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.

One of the things an escrow agent should be aware of if they're newish is the surprisingly high number of instances where sellers try to provide fake escrow addresses. -So they'll actually set up an escrow contract through someone legit, have the agreement made up, and then the seller sends the buyer a PM fake-quoting the escrow agent providing a phony escrow address. Sellers should never trust an escrow address not sent directly by the escrow agent, even n-of-m parts.

Escrow sites may see cases as described by ic3, though I've never heard of one (yet).

[nbgbtc]

Total noob here to this forum but not bitcoin, thinking of selling some gift cards for btc over in the currency exchange section. It seems tomatocage is the go to escrow guy in general. If I wanted to use escrow by him, would I just pm him once I've come to an agreement with a buyer? Also, how much do they usually charge for escrow?

Again, sorry for such noobish questions.

Thanks in advance.

[DannyHamilton]

Total noob here to this forum but not bitcoin, thinking of selling some gift cards for btc over in the currency exchange section. It seems tomatocage is the go to escrow guy in general.

If Tomatocage is unavailable, there is a list of other trusted forum escrow providers here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=276897.0

If I wanted to use escrow by him, would I just pm him once I've come to an agreement with a buyer? Also, how much do they usually charge for escrow?

Yes.  Once an agreement is worked out on the terms of the transaction, you can send a PM to the escrow provider that you both agree to use.  Include all relevant details.  Then the escrow provider should confirm their understanding of the transaction with both parties and provide a bitcoin address where they will hold the bitcoins until authorized to release the bitcoins to you.

Some common details you may want to consider to reduce the risk of disagreement if everything doesn't go perfectly are:

• How many bit coins will be provided to escrow?
• How many bit coins will be released to the bitcoin receiver?
• What product is being supplied to the bitcoin provider?
• What exchange rate will be used to compute the payment?
• Who is paying the costs (shipping fees, customs fees, escrow fees, shipping fees for return, etc)?
• When is the bitcoin payment expected to be sent?
• When is the gift card expected to be provided?
• Is the gift card seller expected to compensate the buyer for late delivery?
• Is the gift card seller expected to compensate the buyer if he becomes unable to deliver?
• Is the gift card buyer expected to compensate the seller if he backs out of the transaction?
• How much time does each party have to fulfill their obligations before the escrow is automatically released to the other party?

As an example...

If the buyer funds escrow, and then you provide the gift card to the buyer, what happens if the buyer then disappears without ever confirming to the escrow provider that he received the gift card?  How long should the escrow provider wait before releasing the funds to you?  If he releases as soon as you request it, then there is a risk to the buyer that you could fail to send the gift card and could request release of escrow while he is offline.  On the other hand, if there is no deadline set ahead of time, then you could be stuck waiting for a few days (or even weeks) before the escrow provider is comfortable releasing escrow to you.

[nbgbtc]

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to respond to my question in such a detailed and helpful way. This is exactly what I needed to know and it is extremely appreciated. I see you are on the list of escrow providers and don't mean to jerk you off but I will definitely try using you first for escrow when I get around to making an actual transaction.

Thanks again

[Soappa]

If I wanted to use escrow by him, would I just pm him once I've come to an agreement with a buyer? Also, how much do they usually charge for escrow?

Yes.  Once an agreement is worked out on the terms of the transaction, you can send a PM to the escrow provider that you both agree to use.  Include all relevant details.  Then the escrow provider should confirm their understanding of the transaction with both parties and provide a bitcoin address where they will hold the bitcoins until authorized to release the bitcoins to you.

A friendly reminder: You need to be very careful with the PM from the escrow provider.
I have heard more than one case that someone received a fake PM from an imposer and they carelessly sent the their bitcoin to the imposer's address.