Apparently many customers of Escrow.com logged into their accounts and found the following message: “For regulatory and compliance reasons it is important that you verify your account. Verify your Account.”
Many Namepros members are voicing their displeasure and have stated they will find a new escrow provider. With companies getting hacked all the time it’s understandable people do not want this info on Escrow.coms servers.
Brad Mugford summed it up:
Many buyers use Escrow.com for a one off transaction. They are only buying one domain and will likely never use Escrow.com again.
If a buyer needs to verify their account by providing information and documents, that is going to be a major issue going forward.
Brad
Here is a link to a conversation one member posted with Escrow.com.
There is a poll attached to the post
Hi,
For around 6 years we have been doing this to lower possible fraud in our escrow service (now for CAX.com and Catchy.com sales), and this was my experience:
The first years we were asking an ID, passport or license driver copy, and a utility bill no older than 3 months. The main problem and where people was the most reluctant was for the utility bill. After have been removed this second document requirement everybody was happy and more now we all have a smartphone with a camera and it’s so easy and fast to take a shot and upload the photo.
You are right Brad, some buyer may totally refuse to check their identity but according my experience it’s a minority. And it’s strongly possible in this minority is where are located most scammers.
BTW, the popular Chinese escrow service DN.com is also requiring this since the beginning.
For me, it’s a good security step taken by Escrow.com to refrain identity usurpation fraud, congrats for the move!
For sellers it isn’t a problem. But a buyer should be able to buy a domain name quick and easy, otherwise he may change his mind and that would be a problem.
Because of verifications, I have a transaction at Escrow via Uniregistry, a transaction which is pending for around or more than 30 days now. Reason: waiting for approval of buyer’s payment (officially), practically the buyer was supposed to “call and verify themselves”. If it was higher 5-figure sale, I would be really pissed off because a buyer could step back from the deal.
But I need to say that Escrow.com has been always a great service, cheap and easy for buyers and sellers. I closed hundreds of thousands dollars worth deals through escrow.com and if they don’t destroy their service (they or some financial regulations they need to comply), I’ll be happy to use escrow.com
The growth in the price of domains and the regulatory expectations of transmitting money online means all sorts of new risks in the industry.
While this platform to securely receive and verify customer ID documents at Escrow.com/verify is new, the process of identifying the customers that we deal with isn’t.
For better or worse, US Federal law requires all financial institutions (including escrow companies) to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. We take compliance with the requirements of law and our escrow licenses very seriously, and have built what we believe is the easiest way for our customers and their customers to complete that verification process.
Collecting and holding information is securely is vital and absolutely top of mind. Our security safeguards include but are not limited to:
Encryption – Documents submitted via the Account Verification portal are encrypted at all times during both transmission and storage. This is also the reason that we will never request or accept verification documents via email.
Access Control – Access to your documents is tightly restricted to a dedicated customer verification team, who’s access is logged and monitored. Other staff members are able to see that your account has been verified but do not have access to view or access documents that you have submitted.
Network and Physical Security – As you would expect, our systems are defended by firewalls, intrusion detection systems and virus scanning tools to protect against bad actors and viruses accessing our systems. We also protect our physical locations against unauthorised access using alarms, cameras and guards.
Destroying data when no longer required – We keep information only for as long as required, to meet legal requirements and our account verification needs.
Account verification has been completed by hundreds of people in the last couple of days, and the process is only required to be performed once per account, as either an individual or as a company. As always, I’d love to hear some feedback on how we can make this process easier to complete either here or directly via feedback@escrow.com
What information does a new escrow.com user need to provide in order to purchase one of my domains?