Identifying fake online car escrow services - How do I know the difference?

Can you tell the difference between these two websites? Unfortunately, con artists on the web create fake auto escrow websites, designed to fool the user into sending them money.

Things to Look for in a Legitimate Auto Escrow Service

• No Western Union—legitimate escrow services do not use Western Union. All payment transfers should be done through a banking institution, not Western Union.
• Phone number and address on website—Most online or auto escrow services will publish their phone number, their address and an email contact on their website. If this information is missing, you are probably looking at an escrow website set up for fraudulent purposes.
• Phone answered by a customer service representative—Call the phone number to make sure it works. But beware, the con artists will go to great lengths to steal your money.

  We uncovered one scam where a US phone number for an "escrow service" was routing to someone in Eastern Europe handling calls. They could not answer our questions about their fake escrow service and quickly hung up!

• Insurance and bonding —Car escrow service companies should have insurance. You should be able to verify this insurance coverage with the insurance carrier.

  Buyer Guardian maintains a $1,000,000 insurance policy and a $200,000 employee dishonesty bond. This means that theft of a customer's funds by a Buyer Guardian employee is covered by a $200,000 bond.

• Secure pages —Legitimate websites asking for personal information will typically use encryption on those pages asking for that information. This is known as SSL or a secure page. The web address (URL) of a secure page will actually change to https://www.abc.com. Note the 's' in the URL. A small lock symbol will also usually appear in the lower right corner of the screen.

  These encryption or SSL certificates cost thousands of dollars. Fake escrow websites will not use secure pages because they don't want to bear the costs of encryption.

• Member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB)—Most legitimate businesses are members of their local Better Business Bureau. Many will include a symbol or BBB logo on their website to indicate this membership. If you click on that BBB logo on a website, it should link you to a report from the BBB on that company. If the BBB logo is not "clickable", it's probably fake.
• Security Guaranteed—With Buyer Guardian car escrow services, your security is guaranteed. We back that guarantee with a $1,000,000 insurance policy and a $200,000 dishonesty bond.