Hello,
About a month ago someone using the name Paul Strate tried to trick me in paying for a Citroen Berlingo (from 2006) which apparently he never intended to deliver. The story was similar to the rest too-good-to-be-true-price stories I've seen on this website...
I found the car on autoscout.be. The car was advertised to be in Belgium but when I contacted the seller it turned out to be in Valencia, Spain. The seller offered to deliver the car and use escrow europa for the payment. After I had agreed on the payment method and had sent him my contact details I got an email from (allegedly) Escrow Europa. This mail, which looked legitimate, was sent, however, from someone called Marin Cordosi. This fellow presented himself as an "Escrow Europa Manager" and instructed me to transfer the money for the car to the following bank account:
Bank Name: CAJAESPANA
Bank Address: CAJAESPANA
City/Post Code:MADRID / 28500
Account Number:2096 0629 5638 5209 2100
IBAN: ES07 2096 0629 5638 5209 2100
Swift Code: CSPAES2L
By the time I got this email I had read a lot of the escrow fraud postings in this site and was about 90% sure this was a con. After I saw the style and the timing (it took about half a day for the escrow company to "check" whether all documents and the car was ok) of the fake escrow mail, the percentage became 99.99%. In order to be 100% sure, however, I mailed Escrow Europa's customer service and they informed me that they don't know this "escrow manager", Marin Cordosi and that they accept payments only on the bank accounts available on their website...
It's really sad that people like that crook abuse the internet and reduce the trust in international trade...
I hope this text helps other people just like the previously posted texts helped me.
Best regards,
Alex Hadzhidiev
The Netherlands