Money protected by design.

How escrow works

When a buyer accepts an offer, Stripe charges them and Nscrow holds the funds. The sourcer doesn't see a cent until either condition fires:

• The buyer confirms receipt from the order page — funds release immediately.
• Tracking is marked delivered and 48 hours pass with no dispute — funds release on the timer.

If a dispute is opened before either trigger, the release pauses until it resolves. See how disputes work for the full process.

Sourcer verification

Anyone can browse listings, but nobody submits offers until they've passed Stripe Connect onboarding. This isn't our checkbox — it's Stripe's real KYC.

Identity verification

Government-issued photo ID and a selfie, processed by Stripe Identity. Documents are submitted directly to Stripe; Nscrow never sees them.

Tax & legal name

Stripe collects legal name, date of birth, and tax info where required (W-9 / W-8 / ABN). Real-name accountability behind every offer.

Bank account on file

Payouts only land in a verified bank account or debit card. No anonymous withdrawal addresses, no crypto wallets, no prepaid cards.

Account standing

Stripe monitors Connect accounts for fraud signals continuously. If an account gets flagged or restricted, the sourcer can't take new offers until it's cleared.

Buyer protection

3D Secure on every card

Stripe runs 3DS authentication on every payment. Your bank verifies the transaction, so card-not-present fraud is caught at checkout, not after.

Held in escrow until delivery

The sourcer can't access the funds, even with the order open. If they disappear after accepting, your money is still in Nscrow's custodial balance — refundable.

Chargeback rights preserved

You're paying via your bank's card rails, so your normal chargeback rights apply. If a Nscrow dispute doesn't resolve to your satisfaction, you can still escalate to your card issuer.

Card data never touches our servers

Payment is collected by Stripe's hosted Checkout page. Nscrow stores a token and a transaction reference — not the card number.

Identity privacy

Buyers and sourcers don't see each other's names, emails, or addresses while an order is in flight. The pitch is “a stranger sources it cheaper” — that only works if you stay strangers.

• Listings show no buyer identity. Sourcers see what you want and where it ships to (country only), not who you are.
• Offers show no sourcer identity. Buyers see the offer amount, delivery estimate, and condition promise — nothing personal.
• Chat is anonymous on both sides. Messages are tagged “buyer” and “sourcer” in the UI. Don't paste your real name or address — we hide identities, but we can't scrub message content.
• Address shared only at fulfilment. Once an offer is accepted and funds are escrowed, the sourcer needs the shipping address to dispatch the item. It isn't shown before then.

What we monitor

• Suspiciously low offers. If an offer comes in well under sustainable cost, we surface it as a warning. Sometimes it's a deal; sometimes it's a new account testing the waters.
• Pattern-level fraud signals. New accounts taking high-value orders, repeated disputers on either side, mismatched billing/shipping geographies, listings that look like they're trying to launder payments.
• Off-platform attempts. If you see a sourcer ask you to pay outside Nscrow, report it. We'll suspend their account — and you should never agree, because we can't protect what we don't see.

What we can't protect against

Honest about the edges, because escrow is a system, not a magic shield.

• Information you share in chat. We hide who you are at the account level. If you tell the other party your name, address, or phone in a message, that's out of our hands.
• Off-platform agreements. Any commitment, payment, or trade made outside the order flow has no escrow behind it.
• Third-party retailer issues. If the sourcer's actual source (Amazon, an outlet, a parallel importer) has its own return policy, that's between them. Nscrow disputes only cover what you received vs. what was listed.
• Carrier loss after delivery. Once tracking confirms delivery and the buyer takes possession, post-delivery damage or theft is the buyer's insurance problem, not the sourcer's.
• Buyer's remorse. If the item matches the listing snapshot, a change of heart doesn't trigger a refund. See the refund policy.

Custodial disclosure (beta)

During the beta, escrowed funds sit in Nscrow's Stripe balance. This is a custodial setup — Nscrow has technical control of the funds until the release condition fires. We don't commingle balances with operational funds, but the legal structure is “you're trusting Nscrow as the custodian.”

Non-custodial settlement (e.g. on-chain USDC with smart-contract release) is on the longer-term roadmap so this trust assumption can be replaced with code. Until then, the protections above are what stand between every transaction and an honest result.

If something feels wrong

Don't wait. From any order page, open a dispute — it pauses the release timer immediately and gets a human at Nscrow involved. If you suspect off-platform abuse, account-level fraud, or a misuse of the platform, message us from your dashboard or email safety@nscrow.com.