Short answer
If anyone says a courier is collecting and you, the seller, need to pay a fee first, it's a scam. A genuine courier booked by the buyer never asks the seller for money.
How the scam works
- A "buyer" messages about your item and agrees your price without haggling.
- They say they're away and will send a courier, often naming a well-known company.
- You receive a link or email that looks official, asking you to pay a small "insurance" or "verification" fee (around £47 in many reports) to release the payment.
- The money and your card details go to the scammer. No courier comes.
One Mumsnet thread alone holds 16 reports of this. It has made sellers so wary that in one thread a buyer offering a genuine courier was called a scammer by 7 of 8 replies.
Warning signs
- You are asked to pay anything as the seller.
- The buyer won't speak on the phone or meet.
- A link to a payment page arrives by email or text instead of through the platform.
- "Free delivery, cash on delivery" listings for new-looking furniture are often dropship spam. On Marketplace, about a quarter of sofa listings and 42% of wardrobe listings we sampled used that line.
How a genuine renwd collection works
- The buyer books and pays for the delivery. renwd never asks a seller for an "insurance" or "release" fee.
- The seller gets a link on renwd.co showing the driver's first name, the day and a 2-hour window.
- The driver shows a collection code that matches the one in the seller's link. No code, no handover.
- You can check any booking by contacting us directly through renwd.co.
More detail on our safety page.
Questions people ask
Do couriers ever ask sellers to pay insurance?
No genuine courier booked by a buyer asks the seller to pay. Any request for a fee from the seller is a scam.
How do I know a renwd collection is real?
You get a link on renwd.co with the driver's first name, the day and a collection code. The driver shows the same code at your door. We never ask sellers for an insurance or release fee.
What should I do if I paid a fake courier fee?
Call your bank straight away using the number on your card, then report it to Report Fraud (the service that replaced Action Fraud) and to the platform.