❓ Before you trade

How to tell a real escrow service from a fake one

Fake escrow sites are built for one deal and look professional. The tells are in how you got there and what they ask you to do, not in the design.

A fake escrow service is a website built to look like a real one, usually for a single deal: the other party sends you the link, the site shows your "funds" as held, and then asks you to pay somewhere. Good design is not a signal; fraudulent platforms are described by the FBI precisely as professional-looking. What gives them away is the sequence of events.

Five checks before you send anything

  1. 1How did you get there? If the counterparty sent the link, close it and type the domain yourself. A real service is the same site whether or not you were sent there.
  2. 2Who are you paying? A real escrow never asks you to pay a person, a "manager" or an "agent". Your crypto goes to an address the platform shows inside your own account.
  3. 3Does the crypto lock before the payment? If the site says the escrow is funded after you pay, it is the scam order.
  4. 4Is there a release, insurance, tax or gas fee to get your money out? No real escrow asks you to pay to receive your own funds. See Does a real escrow ever ask you to pay a fee to release your money?
  5. 5Can you find the service outside the deal? Help center, official accounts, pages in several languages, a dispute process written down, a way to contact support that is not the chat where the deal is happening.

How to check iEscrow specifically

  • The only domain is iescrow.io. Anything else with the name is not us.
  • The real accounts are listed in Official channels. Support never contacts you first and never gives you an address.
  • The mechanism is written down: 30-minute windows, automatic escalation to dispute, no cancellation after acceptance, an arbiter with the reason in writing. A fake site does not publish rules it would have to follow.
  • iEscrow is custodial and says so. A service that claims nobody controls the funds and also asks you to send them somewhere is contradicting itself.
If the other party refuses to use a service you can verify and insists on "their" escrow, the deal is the escrow site. Walk away.
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