Escrow-Fraud.com Forums

I have been asked to deal through a company called Direct Escrow Transfer, 560 Kiris Blvd. Ste 100, Troy Michican, 48084. I cannot get any info on this company through the internet and wondered if this is a scam.

wradco wrote:I have been asked to deal through a company called Direct Escrow Transfer, 560 Kiris Blvd. Ste 100, Troy Michican, 48084. I cannot get any info on this company through the internet and wondered if this is a scam.

Is there a Website?

Chances are that if you cannot get any info.... You should avoid it. In this case NO info is BAD info. Any legitimate business of any length would have some feedback (even bad feedback). Showing nothing, indicates that they are probably either a Scam or very very new....

In either case, caution (and even avoidance) is suggested.

We are just starting to work through Direct Escrow Transfers and so far they look okay. We will not send any money unless we have an escrow contract and will pay the $922 fee up front only by credit card which we can refuse to pay if the services are not provided. You will find their website under their name but make sure to make it transfers (plural).

I must say that this is a bit outside my usual field; however I would like to point out a few things:

Domain Name: DIRECTESCROWTRANSFERS.COM
Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.wildwestdomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com
Name Server: NS25.HOSTING24.COM
Name Server: NS26.HOSTING24.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 11-dec-2009
Creation Date: 08-dec-2009
Expiration Date: 08-dec-2010

We see that the domain itself was registered just last December and only for a single year. The rest of the WHOIS entry isn't exactly trust-inspiring, either:

The registrant is (allegedly) from Mexico, not from the US; however the phone number looks strange to me (I thought 052 is the country code for Mexico, not 044).

And lastly, http://directescrowtransfers.com/about.php is remarkably close to http://internationalpropertytransfer.com/aboutus.htm (though I cannot say who copied from whom

There may be an explanation for all those things; but I suggest using extreme caution at the moment.

I have been working with Direct Escrow Transfers since April 29th. My timeshare supposedly sold through Elite Resort Services. It has been over 2 weeks since I have heard anything from anyone and no one returns my calls or e-mails for a week now. Trying to remain positive, but not looking good at this time. I have sales agreements and contracts for services, but what good are they if it is all a scam? Will keep you posted on outcome, but I could not recommend this company. They went out of their way to explain the process and promise me I would be kept up to date every step of the way. Hasn't happened at all and very difficult to get in touch with anyone at this point!

This site was registered to Curtis R Grant in Puerto Vallarta. He is associated with 2 other websites per another site for a different timeshare community april of this year.

texasgirl wrote:This site was registered to Curtis R Grant in Puerto Vallarta. He is associated with 2 other websites per another site for a different timeshare community april of this year.

A quick search shows that this is a web designer. While it is not completely uncommon for a web designer to register a domain for a client I don't consider it good practice (in fact in some cases it might even be against regulations). The registration info for the website and the information he gives on his own website match; and it also solves the "wrong" country code in the phone number. I found another timeshare escrow site registered by him: http://tsadvancedescrow.com/ (registered June 8th).

Once again, I know very little about this whole segment (we usually deal with a very different kind of "escrow company") and I would like to learn more about it.

Digging around a bit shows that a large number of timeshare escrow companies (or at least websites) have been created in the last few months. Many of them are registered in Mexico but give addresses in the US. Here's what makes me suspicious:

When all this came up in early May I found 9 websites with very similar content (some of them even used the same testimonials). Out of those 9 sites meanwhile 3 are defunct or suspended.

And then there's this:

http://www.cambridgeday.com/2010/06/12/ ... -business/

Hello
Started dealing with elite and this escrow company as well now but getting a bad feeling from it.
Has anyone actually been payed out by this escrow transfers company?

Since your last post, has your dealings with that "company" been good, or is it a fraud?

carolyn

Elite Resort Services contacted me to see if I would rent or sell the two timeshares I have in Mexico. I said I would sell them. They said I would not be charged a fee by them until I got my money from the sale. They said I would then pay 5% commission. They said they would be using Direct Escrow to do the transfer and if Direct Escrow charged me a fee they would reimburse it once the sale was final. Of course Direct escrow is charging $1200 USD. I have not paid the fee as yet. I am very leary. Has anyone ever gotten good results?
The address for Direct Escrow is 560 Kirts Blvd. Suite 100, Troy MI., 48084 and Elite Resort Services is 2233 1st Ave. S, Seattle, WA., 98134