Escrow Impersonation

Escrow services hold funds safely during transactions until both parties have met their obligations — widely used in real estate, domain name sales, vehicle purchases, and high-value online deals. Fraudsters exploit the trust that escrow implies by creating convincing fake escrow websites with professional branding, or by directing victims to compromised versions of legitimate service names.

A typical attack in online trading: the seller (or buyer) is directed to use a specific escrow provider by the counterparty, who controls the fake site. Funds are deposited but never held safely — they are immediately withdrawn by the fraudster. When the transaction fails to complete, neither side recovers the deposited amount.

Escrow impersonation also targets real estate transactions: email threads are hijacked to convince a buyer or solicitor that funds should be sent to a 'new escrow account'. The defence is to verify the escrow provider independently — search for the company name plus 'scam' or 'review', use only providers recommended by your solicitor or real-estate agent through official channels, and confirm account details via the provider's official phone number before transferring any funds.