Escrow exists because two strangers have a trust problem.
The buyer does not want to send money before receiving the goods. The seller does not want to release the goods before payment is secure. A genuine intermediary can hold funds until agreed conditions are met.
That sounds safe enough that scammers sometimes imitate the intermediary itself.
The FBI has warned people selling items online to be suspicious when a supposed buyer pushes an unfamiliar online escrow service. In those scams, the service that appears to protect both sides is actually controlled by the fraudster or exists only to receive the victim’s money.
See the FBI’s guidance on online-sale fraud.
A neutral middleman is valuable only if it is actually neutral
A polished escrow site can manufacture confidence quickly.
It may display transaction numbers, status screens, customer-service contacts, legal-looking terms, or logos suggesting professional payment handling. None of those things independently establish that the company exists or is holding funds as claimed.
The scam works because the victim thinks verification has already been outsourced to the intermediary.
But the intermediary is the part that still needs verification.
Check the safety mechanism itself
Do not accept an escrow service simply because the other party supplied the link.
Research the company independently. Type the address yourself rather than following a seller or buyer’s link. Check whether the business has a real history, contact information, and regulatory or licensing information appropriate to the service it claims to provide.
For ordinary marketplace transactions, the FTC recommends staying inside the marketplace’s own payment system because moving outside it can eliminate protections the platform offers.
See the FTC’s online marketplace buying guidance.
A safety layer is useful when it separates the buyer and seller from unilateral control of the money.
A fake escrow service does the opposite.
It adds a reassuring third party to the transaction while quietly making that third party the scammer.