Personal Escrow Service Scam

Personal Escrow Service Fraud

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

Personal Escrow Service home page screenshot: 18-Jan-2009

Personal Escrow Service is part of a huge Russian money laundering criminal network that has dozens of aliases, among them being Promo Invest, Transfer Invest Inc., E-Investment Projects, E-Investments Provider Inc., K-Investment Group, EU Investment Solutions, etc etc etc. It's the usual glossy website set up deliberately to lure the unwary into the world of money laundering fraud. The website is made up from stolen content - most if not all of the above is stolen from Western Union. The template is similar to the EU Investment Solutions, EURO Investment Solutions, AFC Financial Services and Investment Assistance scams with the usual money mule job advertised under the 'Careers' tab and the usual recently registered domain perescrow.com (MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) - 30-Dec-2008), and the usual fake location details. The fake location details are the same as for the FastWire fraud.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) On the above home page screenshot of their website the criminals claim to have been founded in 2003, but their domain perescrow.com was only registered with MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) on 30-Dec-2008. A clear indication of fraud.

ii) Fake Verisign seal - a genuine displayed Verisign seal should link to the secure Verisign server for verification, this fake one is simply a .gif image on the criminals own server, as are the other fake 'seals' - irrefutable evidence of fraud.

iii) The payload of the site is a clear part-time, work from home, illegal money laundering mule job under the 'Careers' tab, under the title 'PayPal processing manager':

PayPal processing manager

United States of America ONLY
AVAILABLE

Location: USA
Status: Opened
Employee Type: Part-Time Employee, Freelance
Hiring Company Industry: PayPal processing
Number of Employees: 7 Employees
Total Compensation: $20k - $40k+
Payment basis: commissions in the amount of 7% from each transaction

PersonalEscrow is looking for energetic and committed individuals to fill the part-time receivables clerk position in the United States. No relocation is required from a successful candidate.

The position is commission-based, and it will typically take up to 6 hours per week to fulfill your duties. You
should be able to perform your duties during regular business hours. Your core responsibility will be to receive the funds from our clients into your designated PayPal account and create account activity reports to be provided to your supervisor, as well as handling daily communications. You will be receiving a 7% commission from the gross amount of each transfer that is made into your designated account (for instance, if $10,000 is credited into your account, you will be retaining a commission of $700). Your commission is included in amount, so there is no need to wait for the payroll check in the end of the month.

Rest amount you need to transfer by WesternUnion or MoneyGram to our manager or client. As stated in condition.

In order to qualify for the position, you must be a permanent US resident aged 21+ and have Verified Premier or Business PayPal account.
Since most communication with your supervisor will be via email or phone, you should have full-time access to these facilities.

Requirements:
freelance time work (1-4 hours per day)
Ability to schedule working hours effectively (Possibility to combine the job with primary employment)
Advanced user ability to operate computer and to use Internet and e-mail
VERIFIED PREMIER or BUSINESS PayPal account

To apply for this position please signup our form and on-line contract
Then we will verify your information and contact with you for further information.

iv) You do not get a clearer definition of the illegal 'part time' money mule function which on its own defines the company without doubt as criminal and bogus and is clear evidence of criminal fraud.

v) No legitimate company would advertise for private citizens to operate as unlicensed and illegal money transfer agents. To do so clearly defines the firm Personal Escrow Service as both criminal and fraudulent. There is also a 'phishing' for identity theft aspect due to the nature of identity proof usually requested, i.e. 'Passport, National ID Card or a Driver's license.' Clear evidence of criminal fraud.

vi) A Google search for "Personal Escrow Service" shows that they have no internet presence whatsoever, ignoring the 'fog' caused by the common phrase 'Personal Escrow Service' and any other companies.

vii) Fake Contact Details from the website:

Our head office:

117393, Moscow,
Profsoyuznaya str.56

Former senior director: Aleksandr N. Klemen
Sales manager: Viktor R. Titov

Support department: +7 095 363-1818
(Moscow, Russia)

Baltic officeWestern Baltic office:

Lenin str. 17, office 5
197337 , Saint Petersburg, Russia

Senior director: Viktor K. Ashmanov
Sales manager: Anna A. Potapova

Sales department: +7 812 473-8493
(Saint Petersburg, Russia)

If you have any questions, use form below:

• - They've scrambled the Moscow address a bit, but a Google search for "56 Profsoyuznaya str. Moscow" shows it to be an address of the Russian Wholesale Power Generating Company, JSC OGK-2 with no evidence of these crooks being there.
• - A Google search for "Lenin str, St. Petersburg" returns zero results - it does not appear to exist.
• - A Google search for the telephone number "+7 095 363-1818" links these crooks to other frauds such as the identical FastWire fraud - note all the fraud site listings.
• - Google for the telephone number "+7 812 473-8493" to see other scams this number has also been used for, and more fraud site listings for this criminal - further evidence of fraud.

viiii) The Spam

From: yvonnetay@xxxxxxx.com
Subject: Part-time job offer
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 08:44:49 -0300
Hello
I am a HR manager of Personal Escrow Company. Personal Escrow provide international money transfers with convenient way.

We would like you offer extra part-time job.
Employee Type: Part-Time Employee, Freelance
Total Compensation: $20k - $40k+ annual
Payment basis: commissions in the amount of 7% from each transaction
Requirements:
freelance time work (1-4 hours per day)
Ability to schedule working hours effectively (Possibility to combine the job with primary employment)
Ability to use Internet and e-mail
VERIFIED PREMIER or BUSINESS PayPal account
PersonalEscrow is looking for PayPal processing manager in the United States. No relocation is required.

The position is commission-based, and it will typically take up to 6 hours per week to fulfill your duties. You
should be able to perform your duties during regular business hours. Your core responsibility will be to receive the funds from our clients into your designated PayPal account. Create account activity reports to your supervisor, as well as handling daily communications. You will be receiving a 7% commission from the gross amount of each transfer that is made into your designated account (for instance, if $10,000 is credited into your account, you will be retaining a salary of $700). Your commission is included in amount, so there is no need to wait for the payroll check in the end of the month.

Rest amount you need to transfer by WesternUnion or MoneyGram to our manager or client. As stated in condition.

Service target: Most customers prefer to pay within their own country and it's much faster than sending an international Money Order. Small companies can't transfer interational transactions. And have restricion to do international transfers. But our personal clients have business in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries, and they can't receive international payments. Your task is receiving and transferring payments to our clients.

You can contact and ask any questions only by our email: IvanKrasikov@hotmail.com

Best regards, Ivan Krasikov
IvanKrasikov@hotmail.com
117393, Moscow,
Profsoyuznaya str.56
Former senior director: Aleksandr N. Klemen
Sales manager: Viktor R. Titov
Support: +7 095 363-1818

The above evidence is clear proof that the Personal Escrow Service website is a fraudulent website set up with intent to deceive. If you are an abuse team that has received an abuse report regarding these fraudsters, please consider immediate termination of their services in view of the absolutely undeniable evidence of criminal fraud - please don't delay - these criminals will not respond to any communication from you, (all their whois data is invariably false), but will simply take advantage of any attempt at communication as a delaying tactic to allow them time to carry on their criminal activity and prepare their next network.

Known Website Domains

perescrow.com

Registrar

MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) - 30-Dec-2008

Active
Suspended/Disabled

DNS Data: (Valid for perescrow.com)

How I am searching:

Searching for perescrow.com A record at i.root-servers.net [192.36.148.17]: Got referral to A.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. (zone: com.)
Searching for perescrow.com A record at A.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.5.6.30]: Got referral to yns2.yahoo.com. (zone: perescrow.com.)
Searching for perescrow.com A record at yns2.yahoo.com. [66.196.84.168]: Reports perescrow.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
perescrow.com.	A	IN	1200	68.180.151.111
perescrow.com.	A	IN	1200	68.180.151.73
perescrow.com.	A	IN	1200	68.180.151.106
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	yns1.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	yns2.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns8.san.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns9.san.yahoo.com.

Looking up at the 2 perescrow.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
yns2.yahoo.com [66.196.84.168]	68.180.151.106 68.180.151.111 68.180.151.73
yns1.yahoo.com [66.218.71.205]	68.180.151.106 68.180.151.111 68.180.151.73

The host of these criminals is the Yahoo small business network on IP addresses 68.180.151.106, 68.180.151.73 and 68.180.151.111. Unfortunately, Yahoo are currently completely unresponsive to abuse reports regarding criminal activity and are therefore listed as a blackhat provider.

***Latest News*** 18th. January 2009 - Webpage set up.

***Latest News*** 15th. February 2009
The fraud is still active on a new Yahoo network:
How I am searching:

Searching for perescrow.com A record at m.root-servers.net [202.12.27.33]: Got referral to I.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. (zone: com.)
Searching for perescrow.com A record at I.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.43.172.30]: Got referral to yns2.yahoo.com. (zone: perescrow.com.)
Searching for perescrow.com A record at yns2.yahoo.com. [66.196.84.168]: Reports perescrow.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
perescrow.com.	A	IN	1200	68.180.151.74
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	yns1.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns8.san.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	yns2.yahoo.com.
perescrow.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns9.san.yahoo.com.

Looking up at the 2 perescrow.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
yns2.yahoo.com [66.196.84.168]	68.180.151.74
yns1.yahoo.com [98.136.43.32]	68.180.151.74

The fraud is now hosted on the new Yahoo IP address 68.180.151.74

***Latest News*** 12th. March 2009
News from Simon Bear - Yahoo have at long last disabled the criminal's domain perescrow.com. I wonder how many victims they have recruited while Yahoo have been dragging their feet. Please notify me of any active domains for this criminal.