Please be aware that there are criminals at large claiming to offer escrow services owned/endorsed by either e-gold Ltd or G&SR. Neither e-gold Ltd nor G&SR offer escrow services nor endorse any existing escrow service. Please perform your own due diligence before using any escrow service.

How escrow fraud works:

1. The victim finds the deal of a lifetime at an online auction site. Laptop computers and luxury cars seem to the most popular items.
2. After the victim has won the auction the seller suggests using an escrow service to act as an intermediary for the sale of the item. The seller knows that suggesting an escrow service in most cases will instill a sense of trust by the buyer.
3. The seller and the person operating the fraudulent escrow site are the same criminal.
4. The victim visits the fraudulent escrow site and signs up for their services.
5. The criminal emails the victim phony escrow transaction information and gives the victim detailed instructions on how to open and fund an e-gold account.
6. The criminal instructs the victim to send an email as soon as the e-gold account is funded.
7. The victim emails the criminal to let them know their new e-gold account has been funded. The criminal then creates an e-gold account and emails the account number back to the victim with instructions on how to make an e-gold spend.
8. The victim makes the e-gold spend and never hears from the escrow service again.

Below are some escrow services you should be especially wary of:

www.energy-escrow.com
www.premier-escrow.com
www.radical-escrow.net
www.escrowbay.com
www.gold-escrow.org

Always check out the seller before you bid. Some auction sites have feedback forums with comments about the sellers based on other people's experiences. Be aware that positive reports may have been "planted" by the seller and negative comments could be from a competitor. Negative information is a good warning sign, but a clean complaint record doesn't guarantee that your transaction will go smoothly.

Beware of "shills." The seller may try to raise the price artificially by making bids under fictitious names or recruiting other people to make bids. Using bogus bidders is illegal and a violation of online auction policies.

Get the name and contact information of the seller. Don't do business with anyone who refuses to provide that information! You should get the name, physical street address, email address, and phone number from the seller and you should verify the information.

There are many varieties of auction fraud. Here is an example:

1. Criminal claims to be selling a highly desirable object (laptop computers, motorcycles, and cars seem to be popular) for a price that seems too good to be true.
2. Criminal obtains sufficient information about victim to place an InExchange order (National Currency to e-gold) in victim's name using a legitimate exchange service.
3. Victim unwittingly remits payment believing the exchange service to be the entity selling the [laptop, car, motorcycle, whatever].
4. Exchange service unwittingly accepts remittance and fulfills exchange, not knowing that the individual who remitted payment is not the person who placed the exchange order.
5. Since e-gold Spends are non-repudiable, the exchange can't be reversed once fulfilled. This ultimately means that:

• If Remittance was also non-repudiable (like a wire transfer), the victim loses his entire Remittance.
• If Remittance was repudiable (like credit card, check, and ACH payments), the victim typically attempts to evade taking responsibility for his own actions, meaning that the legitimate exchange service is at risk of taking the loss instead.

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NEVER ACCESS YOUR E-GOLD ACCOUNT BY CLICKING A HYPERTEXT LINK IN E‑MAIL.

NEVER VIEW, OPEN, SAVE, OR RUN ANY ATTACHMENT IN E-MAIL PURPORTING TO BE FROM E‑GOLD.

There are numerous fraudulent emails in circulation spoofing e-mail addresses in the e-gold.com domain. These emails always rely on your ignorance (and inclination to trust) and frequently also appeal to fear or greed to induce or entice victims to either click a hypertext link and/or open/view/install/run an e-mail attachment.

These emails may say your account has a value limit, you have received fraudulent funds, your account will be closed for inactivity, or that e-gold is paying monthly interest payments. Alternatively, the fraudulent e-mail may instruct you to install a "Security Patch" or some other software either by opening an included e-mail attachment or by clicking a hypertext link.

Regardless of the subject matter of the fraudulent emails, they always have one thing in common: their intent is to gather pieces of information needed for a criminal to gain access to the victim's e-gold account and divert the value either via a phishing attack, a Trojan horse attack, or both.

Phishing Attacks...

The hypertext link in fraudulent email will appear to be to the e-gold website, but if clicked, it directs the victim to a fraudulent website, designed to ensnare the careless by mimicking the appearance of the real e-gold website. Phony login forms are used on these "phishing" websites to collect victim's e-gold account number and passphrase. If victim has disabled e-gold's AccSent protection, e-gold account number and passphrase are all the criminal needs to log in to the victim's e-gold account on the real e-gold website and divert the value.

Trojan Horse Attacks...

Counterfeit websites may also attempt to trick User into downloading a Trojan horse with the objective of gaining control of victim's computer.

The email attachment in fraudulent e-mails usually is a Trojan horse. Again, the objective of Trojan horse may be to gain control of victim's computer.

We urge Users to:

1. Never click hypertext links in HTML formatted e-mail to access your account.
2. Confirm that you are on the e-gold website before entering your e-gold passphrase into either a logon form or a payment authorization form (see note below about e-gold shopping cart interface):
   • Verify the address/location/URL starts with: https://www.e-gold.com/
   • Verify the site is secure (look at the SSL Lock icon at the bottom of your browser window)
   • Verify that the site certificate is issued by VeriSign to www.e-gold.com
3. Never open/view/run/install an attachment in e-mail purporting to be from e-gold
4. Follow the e-gold Security Recommendations listed here.

e-gold Shopping Cart Interface (SCI)
Merchant sites using the e-gold SCI will pass you to the e-gold website at checkout to authorize payment. The e-gold SCI will pass you back to the Merchant's site after you have received confirmation of your e-gold Spend. All of the above criteria for verifying you are on the e-gold website also apply to Spends made via the e-gold SCI.

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Numerous websites use the registered trademark "e-gold" (or egold) somewhere in their domain name without the permission of e-gold Ltd (i.e. they may be illegally infringing on e-gold Ltd's trademark). Do not assume that a website is owned by or in any way affiliated with e-gold Ltd (or its Operator, Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc) merely because it contains e-gold (or egold) somewhere in its domain name. Trademark infringement can be used as a tool to gain the trust of the gullible by indicating (or implying) a non-existent connection with a legitimate business. Of particular concern are fraudulent trademark infringing sites which ask you to divulge your e-gold passphrase information for the purpose of looting your account.

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