matt, I do not see how, and, people that need those accounts are deparate sometimes. Hell, I wouldn't charge 50% for all transactions, smaller ones yeah, but, as the amounts grew I could charge a lower percent and make more. With a scaled pricing I'd always have the customer pay the WU or MG fees
Completely agree about the scaled pricing.
With regards to the escrow twist, think of a standard Escrow service: Person A wants something, and person B agrees to provide it. When the terms are finalized, A places the agreed upon price in escrow, and B, upon confirming that the funds are there, proceeds with the job.
In this case, we are inclined to view the person who has the PP account as person A and the "unfreezer" as person B, but I would actually argue that it is the other way around. The unfreezer is actually the person who wants something, and the people with the frozen PP accounts are the people qualified to "do the job".
I know that a lot of the escrow services have TOS restrictions on some types of jobs, and this sort of money transfer probably runs afoul of their money laundering clauses (although I don't really consider any scheme that involves losing 25%+ and waiting over 180 days to be laundering), but in theory, the unfreezer could simply offer to put 50% (or whatever the agreed fee was) in escrow up front, payable upon the transfer of predetermined $ amount from the "frozen" PP account.
Anyway, I am probably overthinking it. Some people will always be convinced this is a scam, and will never go for it, no matter what assurances are offered, and some people will always be desperate enough to try, regardless of how little guarantee there is.
