You don’t always have to be scammed or conned in order to learn from the experience. You can learn from someone else’s experience and avoid the whole unpleasant ordeal yourself. Whether you’re buying a car from someone you’ve never met in your own state or out-of-state, and no matter whether you’ve spoken over the phone or only via email, you need to pay attention to this advice.

Whatever you do, never buy an expensive item like a car on Craigslist (or other online sites) unless you know you have an escrow website like refertrade.com on your side. Escrow websites should be mandatory in the online marketplace today. You might think that you’re dealing with an honest buyer or seller, when they really just want your money. An escrow company is on your side to make sure that both parties are honest and there is a legal transaction that goes without a hitch.

One red flag you should be wary of is when the seller refuses to use an escrow website. The buyer should always insist on using refertrade.com or another escrow site, because scammers will get nothing if they try to do the deal through an escrow site. These sites protect both parties, and they don’t care how honest you are or where you’re from. Their only stake in the sales transaction is the fee that they get for being the mediator.

Escrow companies provide several useful services. They verify that the funds being used to buy a car are legitimate and can’t be suddenly whisked away, that the car belongs to the seller, and what kind of accident and repair records exist on the car. This means you don’t find out later that your “new” used car was totaled and repaired.

I like refertrade.com because they’re honest about their services and fees upfront. It’s easy to do business through them because of their user-friendly website, and it takes only a few minutes to set up the account. If you get stuck or have questions, you can talk to the specialist customer service reps who can help you with general escrow questions or more specific queries.

My experience is what makes me such a fan of escrow sites. I got conned by someone who got away with thousands of dollars from me, and I don’t want others to go through the same hassle. They got away with it because I trusted a person I’d never met, and I thought I was buying a used Ford Thunderbird. Since the seller lived an hour away, they wanted a deposit to save the car for me and not sell it to others, and I was seeing him the next weekend. I figured it wasn’t a big deal to make sure the car would be there for me and sent the money, but the address I was given was an undeveloped housing lot and the cell number was fake. He had the $3,000 I’d sent and I didn’t have my Thunderbird.

Whatever you do, don’t be foolish and make a mistake like I did. You need to use an escrow company like refertrade.com to handle online sales transactions so both the buyer and seller are protected. Learn from my experience, not your own painful first-hand experience!