Need Help.

[stephiee]

Hi,

my mom got in touch with a women who is selling an Embroidery sewing machine for 1000$ CA. Those machines are really expansive normally. The seller said she wanted to use escroweurope for the shipping from Romania to Canada (She received an email from escrow-assistant@europe.com explaining the payment process) My mom is supposed to send the money by Western Union to an Escrow assistant (in this case Markus Ion, Romania, Arad, Str. Mare Nr. 22, Arad/80045) that will pick up the money and hold it until we receive the product.I'm not familiar with Internet sales, I don't know if it how it's suppose to work. When my mom went to Western Union, the lady strongly disapproved the transaction because it could be fraud and recommended that she calls "Phonebusters". Here in canada, it's an organism who is working against fraud and who is receiving complaints.

I want to know if it's safe and if it's the normal process.

Thank you.

[stephiee]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the seller is using besst902@yahoo.com

[lightfair]

I'll break this down in several sections to address various issues.

Hi,

my mom got in touch with a women who is selling an Embroidery sewing machine for 1000$ CA. Those machines are really expansive normally.

Warning sign #1: Something that is normally very expensive is sold for much less money.

The seller said she wanted to use escroweurope for the shipping from Romania to Canada

From Romania? Warning sign #2. Romania has been notorious for internet frauds. I guess roughly 90% of the sites we have in our database trace back to Romanian gangs. Yes, I know that most Romanians are not thieves and crooks.
"Escrow Europe" is actually a real and existing company (I believe they operate from Italy), HOWEVER:

(She received an email from escrow-assistant@europe.com explaining the payment process)

"europe.com" is for mail addresses about the same as hotmail or gmail: free email addresses, nothing more. Warning sign #3.

My mom is supposed to send the money by Western Union to an Escrow assistant (in this case Markus Ion, Romania, Arad, Str. Mare Nr. 22, Arad/80045) that will pick up the money and hold it until we receive the product.I'm not familiar with Internet sales, I don't know if it how it's suppose to work.

I can guarantee you that this is NOT how it's supposed to work. It's a sure sign for a scam.

When my mom went to Western Union, the lady strongly disapproved the transaction because it could be fraud and recommended that she calls "Phonebusters". Here in canada, it's an organism who is working against fraud and who is receiving complaints.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Western Union seems to get more proactive as far as those scams are concerned (in the past they didn't care at all). The Western Union lady is right: It is a fraud.

I want to know if it's safe and if it's the normal process.

It's not the normal process and you would just lose the money. Thanks also for posting the relevant data (including the email address of the scammer).

The scammer has no sewing machine in his posession. Usually those are older (legit) auctions or ads that are re-run by the scammers.

I'm glad for you and your mom that you found this place before sending (and losing) any money.

If you have further questions feel free to ask.

[stephiee]

Is there anything to do to protect any further buyer?

[ulfwolf]

Really, the the best way to guard against being ripped off by online sales or auctions is to use an online escrow company. Although it does add some cost, that will take uncertainty out of the transaction.

For my money, the best bona fide online escrow (and there seems to be ten fraudulent escrow sites for every bona fide one) is probably Escrow.com (http://escrow.com). In fact, it’s the only one that eBay recommends.

Take care,

Ulf Wolf

[peg]

For my money, the best bona fide online escrow (and there seems to be ten fraudulent escrow sites for every bona fide one) is probably Escrow.com (http://escrow.com). In fact, it’s the only one that eBay recommends.

It's the only one eBay recommends in the US.

Any way, we try to maintain a list of KNOWN good (legitimate) escrow sites at http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page=legit-escrow

We also recommend http://escrow.com as they are consistently reliable and will work with you to resolve issues. Don't fall prey, however to the HOSTS files Pharming scam (see http://www.escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page=hosts for more details) that can also scam you into using a "Look-a-like" site.