b) Deceptive, leading the person to believe that a 3rd party was acting as escrow and charged them extra for the privilege.
Why would a potential trading partner care whose pocket an escrow fee ends up in? Out of spite? If you were somehow forced to utilize an escrow service, then the price you would be willing to pay for the item would decrease by the amount of the escrow fee, this is regardless of who is "paying" for the fee.