Escrow Services of e-Bay

The largest Internet auctioneer, eBay, has introduced several measures in an effort to reduce fraud. As a result, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the transactions at eBay was fraudulent in 2001 (Konrad 2002). Escrow service is one of the fraud prevention method provided by e-Bay.

◗ Escrow services
For items valued at more than $200 or when users feel the need for additional security, eBay recommends escrow services.

An escrow service is a licensed and regulated company that collects, holds, and sends a buyer's money to a seller according to instructions agreed on by both the buyer and seller. Typically, once the buyer receives and approves the item from the seller within an agreed time frame, the escrow service then sends the payment to the seller. Escrow is available for any purchase, but typically is used for purchases of $500 or more.

For e-Bay users, e-Bay recommends using only services provided by Escrow.com (http://www.escrow.com/), the e-Bay’s approved escrow service. If seller or buyer encounters any trading partner that refused to use Escrow.com and insisted using other service provider, they are advised to decline the transaction and report this person to e-Bay. This is because there are many fraudulent escrow services.

To avoid being perceived by fraudulent emails, users also advised to directly sign in to http://www.escrow.com/ to verify any information. Users also advised not to let the browser auto-type the site address as it could auto-type a fraudulent address.

For more information, visit http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/payment-escrow.html.