EVE New Citizens Q&A

So im aware that there are a lot of scammers out there so I thought I would ask for a few tips on courier contracts. I know the basics to look out for, like to check where the route will take me, but is there anything else I should look out for with courier contracts specifically? Im staying in High-Sec btw, for now at least.

I post a lot of courier contracts. Most legit (many of them terrible, but hey, people do them), but with the occasional trap.


Look inside the contents (without breaking the package) and price them out.

If they are well above the collateral - break the package and take them. But before doing this, be certain of the prices.
If they are somewhat close to the collateral - do not expect a trap. Doesn't mean you are safe, but the contractor probably is not trying to have you ganked.
If they are less than half the collateral - expect a trap. You are committed to doing the contract now, so be extremely careful. Use an unexpected route, or if you have an alt that can also fly a hauler, get them to do the hauling for you.

If it's a big trap (say a 10b collateral contract, and the contents are worth only 1b) - set up a single-player corporation, and have your hauler and an alt join it. The hauler flies their usual ship, tanked heavily. The alt flies a Daredevil. Every gate, order the hauler to jump to the next system, then immediately have the Daredevil lock and double web the main. This will rocket them straight into warp as they are now travelling at over 75% of their new maximum speed in the direction of the next gate.

IIRC, you can check an issuer's contract history using the middle tab of the Contracts window. It normally comes up with your name or your corp's name, but you can highlight the field and enter whatever name you want to check. You can only check for finished contracts, but it should (again, IIRC) give you a list of the contracts they have issued and their disposition. If you see a lot of failed courier contracts issued by them, you might want to watch out... that or they habitually under-collateralize their courier contracts and get taken to the cleaners on the regular. I'll let you figure out which is more likely.

Check the obvious things like:

doesn't go to or through low sec (unless that's your thing, but if so you wouldn't be asking I guess), or to null sec.

That it's not too big or the collateral isn't too much, even though you might have the isk, very high collateral courier contracts should have a correspondingly larger reward per jump.

As Hans says above, check the issuer's contract history and look for failed couriers. Apart from his method, I find it easier to Show Info on the character, then in the top left corner, click the bars and Show Contracts. If there are any failed contracts that doesn't automatically mean the person is a scammer. Look at the failed contracts and see whether you think they were over-collateralised, check the killboards for the person that failed it to see if they were ganked in a choke point or whether they were killed by a war target (it does happen, go figure). If you find a killboard entry, look at what is on the killmail, if it's cans or containers then it could well be a setup job.

Apart from that join the channel " Haulers Channel " and read the MOTD, there is a link called something like "Newbies Guide to Hauling " that will give you some tips.

Also hang out in that channel and in RF Freight and PushX to pick up tips, see how other people spot scam contracts, etc.