First thing to do is check out the person selling you the bike or auto. Ask them for  their personal information. If they do not want to give  it to you beware...If you have a valid  first, last name, and location you can go to anywho.com and verify their information. If nothing comes up in the search...beware!! Make sure to CALL THE PHONE NUMBER listed to verify the person living  there and ask them about the item you are buying. If they have no clue then beware! If the seller checks out and they send you to an online escrow service then check the escrow service completely before sending  ANY money. IF it is aan escrow site with a dash in the name 99.9% of the time it is fake (ie: motorcycle-escrow.com; secure-escrow.net; onlinemarket-solutions.com) .At least you will have a name to give to the poliece if the escrow service turns out to be fake (some criminals are that dumb). If the escrow site has an e-mail address send them an e-mail BEFORE you register with them and ask the "company" for its personal information including phone number and street address. If they have a phone number CALL IT. You can even ask them about the person "selling" you the item. If they do not have or will not give that information then...beware! Again, you can use sites like anywho.com or white pages.com to verify the information. If it is a company outside the US that is going to "hold" you money while the transaction is taking place...run the other way!! DO NOT give them anything! Once you do...it is gone forever. Check the verisign and/or truste logos at the bottom of the webpage. Verify with verisign and  truste if the site is legit. Many of these "fake" sites will steal the logos to make their sites look more "legit." Hope this is useful to anyone who is in question about online escrow services...to those who have been taken advantage of...my heart goes out to you since I am one who has been scammed. For those who are reading this because they are questioning the "online escrow site" good luck to you and again beware and be aware of who you are dealing with! If you want to read more information on fake sites out there then visit www. carbuyingtips.com/fraud.htm. There are tons of sites that are verifiably false nad many that are questionable. I read this after I was victimised and wish I would have read it before. It would have saved me mucho denaro!