Dear Friends, I'm broadcasting this message where it may do some good. If someone would do me the service of forwarding the text to the Free-market.net e-gold list, that would be great.
Earlier today, I was contacted by a customer prospect. He has been spending time for the last few days arranging to buy several thousand dollars of GoldMoney. Excellent. So, he calls me up, and we chat. Turns out, he's been offered a super deal on plasma high definition television screens. One seller is in Miami, and insists on using escrow-gold.com. Oh, dear, I said, we've heard bad things about people being scammed by escrow-gold. This seller mentioned an account number 495923 for e-gold, according to my telephone caller. The prospective buyer agreed that his name could be used in following up, and he's Robert Alvarado of North Carolina. I have his phone and e-mail address if some appropriate party (e.g., with e-gold.com) wishes to contact him directly. The other seller with a remarkably good deal is from Romania, but has not as yet mentioned escrow-gold.com. Both of these people offering to sell the same product were contacted by Robert based on his looking at uBid.com. The one in Miami apparently has a 5 star rating from uBid.com, but is not a certified seller, whatever that may mean. Oh, but it keeps getting better. Here's a message we sent out today. I stripped the recipient's message and info, to protect his privacy: "We're always glad to be of service. You sent me two domain names. One is super-escrow.com which I looked up with http://whois.opensrs.net/ and found out it is registered to a guy named Albert Flores in Bronx, New York. "The other domain you mention in your message is superescrow.com which I looked up with http://netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois/ and find that it is registered to a party in Hong Kong. "Other than that, I don't know *anything* about either company. You should visit both sites, and see if one is trying to emulate the other; one might be a copycat scam. Either one could be an escrow scam. "I have to tell you that we have been contacted several times by phone and e-mail by people who have been buying laptops from someone in Spain who insists on using an escrow agent. Each time before now it was escrow-gold.com. We have also received many e-mails from people saying escrow-gold is a scam, and that any gold spent to them disappears and product never appears. "So, I suggest the following course of action to possibly protect yourself. Send an e-mail back to the seller of the laptops. Say that you have not heard of superescrow or super-escrow, but you have heard some good things about metal-escrow.com and about cambist.net. Both of these companies have been in business a long time, and are well regarded in the gold community. "So, you give them a choice. They can agree to use an escrow service you have some reason to trust, or they can tell you no it must be superescrow. And then you have to decide. What has happened in the past is that the seller just stops sending messages at this point, where the buyer suggests an alternative escrow agent. "For my own part, I don't know the proprietor of metal-escrow very well, but others in the community say he's a good guy. So, you may get good results. Cambist.net also offers an escrow service, and I can assure you that we provide great results. "But, I'm afraid that the laptops aren't real. This deal sounds practically identical to one we were discussing which involved escrow-gold. Laptops, low price, to be shipped from Spain, seller wants to use an escrow service. "If you think the deal is too good to be true, maybe it is not true? Something to think about." So, that's my suggestion to people who are approached about using an escrow service. Why take chances? Work with someone you know and have reason to trust. It is a tough world, and the fact is that at some point, you simply have to trust someone. Nothing ventured nothing gained, or, as they say in French "qui ne risque rien, n'a rien," he who risks nothing has nothing. But, you should be careful who you trust: caveat omni. Or, as the wags say, "In God we trust...all others pay gold or silver." In the near future, we hope to announce v2.0 of GoldBarter.com with integrated escrow facilities. Perhaps that will give adequate competition to these fake escrows. Regards, Jim http://Cambist.net/ http://GoldBarter.com/ --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
