How to Avoid Shipping Container Scams

The one rule that matters

Never pay a deposit for a container you have not seen. That is the whole scam. A fraudulent listing exists to collect a wire transfer, a Zelle payment or a “refundable” deposit for a unit that was never in anyone's yard. Once that money moves, it is gone — these payment methods have no chargeback protection, which is exactly why scammers ask for them.

It is the reason we structure our business around payment at delivery. You inspect the container in front of you, then you pay. There is no window in which we hold your money and you hold nothing.

Warning signs

• Price well below market. If a 40ft cargo-worthy is listed at $600 in Houston, it is bait. Real used 40ft units run $1,465 and up.
• Deposit or full payment demanded up front, especially by wire, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, gift card or crypto.
• Stock photos. Reverse image search the listing photos. If the same container appears on ten sites, nobody at that company has actually seen it.
• No physical yard address, or an address that turns out to be a mailbox store or vacant lot on a map.
• Refusal to let you inspect or to send a fresh photo of the specific unit with today's date written on a card.
• Pressure and urgency. “Three people are looking at this one, I need the deposit today.”
• New or unverifiable business. No review history, a domain registered weeks ago, no phone number that a human answers.

How to verify a container seller

1. Call them. A real yard answers the phone and can tell you what is physically on the ground today.
2. Ask for a photo of your specific unit with the container number visible.
3. Ask to visit the yard, or to pick the unit up yourself. Legitimate sellers welcome this — we offer free self-pickup.
4. Check reviews with substance, naming cities and delivery details, not five-word five-star reviews posted the same week.
5. Insist on paying at delivery. If the seller will not do it, ask why not.

If you have already been scammed

Report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, file with the Texas Attorney General's consumer protection division, notify your bank immediately (fast action occasionally stops a wire), and report the listing on whatever platform carried it so the next person does not lose money the same way.