Courier Contract Scam a.k.a. “Gank Contract”
Ok, so these types of scams can be somewhat harder to spot compared to two types previously mentioned. As any other legit courier contract, these “Gank Contract(s)” also requests that you take some cargo from point A to point B, well that is the main idea behind Courier Contracs, but the cargo you need to haul has high volume and low value, more often that not it’s just empty containers that you’re actually moving.
What the scammers want to force you to do, is to get you into using a DST (Deep Space Transport) or a Freighter (preferably the latter), which are bulky and slow as hell and not to mention an easy target for any gank fleet waiting for you.
Let’s take a look at a Courier Contract which I highly suspect of being a “Gank Contract”:
So what information does this give you:
- Very short time to complete the delivery, measly 1 day!
- Volume to be hauled is 965,000 m³, this not only requires a Freighter but it also requires said freighter to fully fit 3x Expanded Cargohold modules. - making this a much easier target to gank.
- There are practically no Reward to speak of, again only a measly 18 million ISK.
- Just look at that Collateral!?, 4 billion ISK, what sort of cargo is it supposed to be?
- Could it be Compressed Ore? No, I do not think so, as one of my stashes of compressed ore/ice has a volume of 338,600 m³ with a market value of around 2.8 billion ISK.
- Could it be a combination of 3 Enormous Freight Container, 1 Giant Freight Container, 1 Huge Freight Container, 4 Large Freight Container and 1 Medium Freight container? Yes, but there is no way of knowing until accepting the contract.
- Route is from Jita to Kiskoken, only a 8 jump trip but the catch is you will have to traverse 2 Lowsec systems, one of these being often gate camped (see pic).
This shows that the first lowsec system Aurohunen is gate camped at the entry gate from Korama, as I’m writing this, there have been 4 kills within the last hour. - The contract have been up for nearly one month, which could also be an indication of foul play.
- Just for good measure, the Contract have probably been double wrapped. This means that a contract have been made, then accepted and the package then re-contracted into the final Courier Scam Contract.
This type of contract is created for the issuer to “milk”, collect the Collateral, ISKs from you, this is done by making it impossible for you to complete the delivery one way or the other. Destroying your ship or you giving up on delivering the cargo, whichever comes first.