RESEARCH THE ESCROW COMPANY…

A suspicious seller on an online auction listed a "big ticket" item for next to nothing and restricted bidding to "pre-approved bidders" only. I inquired about the item and how to get on said list. He waited until after the auction had ended and contacted me personally, outside of the online auction, and offered me the item to be collected via an escrow company of his choosing out of New York (www.Rapid-Courier.com). That company contacted me and requested payment to be wired to their company, rather than an account-to-account transfer through our banks. This made me uneasy, so I looked into the company online and could find, literally, no evidence of their existence or their license within the state of New York. Thanks to your site and a few others, I was able to deduce that this was a fraudulent entity and I did not continue the transaction. I only hope there aren't too many others who responded to his listing and are being scammed at this very moment.

Jed, UT