Courierology :

Some recent scams have looked like this:

• you pay a weekly or monthly amount by standing order to be on their books
• you fill in an application form and provide references
• they pay an hourly rate instead of mileage rates
• the pay is too good to be true
• they offer 'shifts' with set hours
• they say they have lots of big customers who are crying out for couriers
• they use a 'virtual office' address
• there's an 0871 or 0870 contact number (which pays them money when you use it)

How to avoid these scams

There are some genuine agencies and clearing houses (sometimes called freight forwarders).

Here are some checks you can do to avoid being taken in:

• check on forums like codforum to see if anybody knows anything about them
• use a 'whois' search to see when their website was registered, and who registered it
• search the Companies House records to see if they are a registered company.
• search the insolvency register for the business name and/or people's names
• use internet search engines to search for their name and phone number
• use internet search engines to search for their address, to see if it's a 'real' address

Some books and websites say they will tell you about a national company which is looking for 1,000 new couriers.

There was a company filling a new contract which would need about 1,000 couriers. But at least 3 different web sites have been promising the same 1,000 jobs for at least a year, so there can't be many left now!

Not really a scam, just a lie — some books and web sites try to get you to hand over your money by saying you can ‘earn up to £250 a day’.

You might have a turnover of £250 a day sometimes, but your average earnings will be more like £50 a day.

You get a phone call to say they are looking for ‘just one courier’ in your area to advertise on a wall planner, which will be sent to all local businesses. They take your money for an advert, but the planner is never printed.

You get a letter/email from a directory, asking you to confirm your details. You fill it in and send it back, and they send you an invoice for being in their directory.

Then you discover the small print that said you were agreeing to pay for inclusion in the directory — which probably doesn't exist anyway!

The obvious solution to this one is to read everything carefully before you sign it!

This one is a bit different:

• a private customer from a different area rings you and says they have bought something by credit card from a big shop near you
• they ask you to pick up the goods from the shop and deliver them to a residential address, where you will be paid
• when you arrive at the address several large men take your goods and disappear (without paying)
• and the credit card they used to buy the goods was stolen or fake!

You get an official–looking letter and/or invoice, saying you need to register under the Data Protection Act, and it will cost you anything up to £100 to register.

In fact you almost certainly don't need to register, and if you do it costs £35 on the Information Commissioner's website

You are in business as Joe Bloggs Couriers. You get a phone call from an internet/hosting company, to say somebody else has asked them to register joebloggscouriers.co.uk but if you're quick you can have it instead.

Domain names are not really registered that way, and nobody is trying to register 'your' domain. You can register it yourself at any reputable internet service provider and it won't cost you more than about £14 for two years.