In short
- You complete 2 checks before holding a shop’s stock: verify your identity with a document and selfie, then link a payout account in your own name. Verification allows you to become available; it does not guarantee paid orders.
- The reason is simple: a shop is about to send its stock to a stranger’s house. Verification is what makes a stranger someone they can send to.
- A shop never sees your address on your profile. It sees a username, your region from your postcode digits, your parcel sizes, carriers and reviews. Your address goes on the label as the sender address, with the shop’s name on it.
- Verification is also what a forwarding scam cannot do. Anonymous chains need at least one party nobody can name; here both parties are named.
- It is not insurance, not employment and not a guarantee of orders. It is a gate, and it does one thing: keep anonymous people out.
- The check is done once, by an identity-verification provider, not by a person at a desk reading your passport. Your document is not shared with shops.
- AirPost is a peer-to-peer fulfilment network: online shops have their orders packed and dropped at a parcel point by verified people near their customers, who earn a fee per parcel from home. No warehouse, no minimum order volume.
Every article about home-based work warns you not to send your identity documents to a stranger who offers you a job. That advice is correct. And the first thing we ask you to do before you can pack a single parcel is verify your identity with a document and a selfie.
Those two things are not in conflict, but you deserve to know why — what is checked, who sees what, what happens to the document, and what verification does and does not mean. That is this article.
Why is there a check at all?
Turn it around. A small shop is about to put fifty units of its stock in a box and post it to the home of someone it has never met. It will do that on the strength of a profile page. What would you want to know before doing the same?
You would want to know that the person exists, that the name on the profile is the name on their ID, and that the money for their work goes to an account in that same name — because an account in someone else’s name is how stolen goods get paid for. Those three things are exactly what the check establishes, and nothing else.
That is also why the check is the dividing line between this and the forwarding scams the warnings are about. A parcel-mule scheme needs at least one anonymous party in the chain; the person packing the boxes is the only one with a real name, which is the point. Here both sides are identified, so the scheme cannot run. The five signs of a forwarding scam, and how each one differs here, are in is packing parcels from home a scam?.
What is actually checked
Your identity document
A passport, national ID card or driving licence, photographed with your phone. The check reads the document, confirms it is genuine and not expired, and extracts the name and date of birth.
A selfie against the document
A short live capture matched to the photo on the document. This is what stops someone using a document that is not theirs.
A payout account in the same name
Your bank account, linked through the payment provider that handles payouts. The name on the account has to be yours. This is the second half of the check, and it is the half that matters most: money that can only flow to the named person is money that cannot flow to a scheme.
Who does the checking
An identity-verification provider, automatically, in a few minutes. Nobody at AirPost reads your passport, and no shop ever sees it. What we store is that you passed, when, and the verified name — not the document itself.
Everything else in the sign-up — username, postcode digits, storage space, daily capacity, carriers, printer — is about being findable and useful to a shop. Only these three steps are about trust, and they are the ones you cannot skip.
Who sees what
This is the part people worry about most, so here it is as a table rather than a reassurance.
| A shop browsing senders | A shop you work with | The carrier | AirPost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Username | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Region (from postcode digits) | Yes | Yes | — | Yes |
| Parcel sizes, carriers, reviews | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Full address | No | No — it goes on the label as sender, with the shop’s name | Yes, on the label | Yes |
| Legal name | No | No | No — the label carries the shop’s name | Yes, verified |
| ID document | No | No | No | No — only that you passed, and when |
| Bank account | No | No | No | Held by the payment provider |
The one place your address does appear is on the outbound label, as the sender address, with the shop’s name on it rather than yours. A parcel has to have a return address, and it is your shelf the parcel came from. That is the same as any marketplace seller posting from home.
What verification does not mean
A page about a trust mechanism that only lists what it protects is itself a warning sign. So here is the other side.
- It is not insurance. It reduces the chance of the wrong person holding a shop’s stock; it does not insure the stock, for the shop or for you.
- It is not employment. No fixed hours, no guaranteed volume, no notice period. Passing the check puts you on a list; it does not put orders on your shelf.
- It is not a character reference. It says you are who you say you are. It says nothing about whether you pack neatly or reply quickly — that is what reviews are for.
- It is not permanent in one direction only. Fail to keep your payout account in your own name and you drop off the list until you fix it.
- What it does do: make both sides of every order a named person, record every batch and every shipment, and route every euro to the account of the person who earned it.
What a shop does to earn your trust
The gate has two sides. A shop goes through identification too before it can list itself or send stock, and there are three things you can check yourself before you accept a first batch.
- The shop exists. Its profile links to a store you can visit and a registered business you can look up. A "shop" that is a person with a phone number is not a shop.
- The stock comes from the shop, to you, in advance. One sender, one batch, recorded in your account. If anyone ever asks you to receive parcels from a third party and send them on, that is not an order — stop.
- The money is in the ledger, not in a message. Every order shows its fee; every fee shows when it was booked and when it becomes available. How that works is in how payouts work when you pack parcels from home.
You never pay anything to start — no deposit, no registration fee, no postage. The label is paid by the shop from its balance. The moment anyone asks you for money before you have earned any, the answer is no, whoever they claim to be.
If the check fails
It happens, and it is nearly always one of three things: a photo of the document that is blurred or cropped, a selfie taken in poor light, or a document that has expired. Try again with better light and the whole document in frame. If it still fails, support can see which step did and tell you what to change — without ever seeing the document itself.
Until you pass, you are not listed and no shop can find you. That is not a penalty. It is the reason a shop is willing to pick someone from the list at all. Where senders are listed today, and what a profile looks like from the shop’s side, is on /en/senders.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 2 verification checks for packing parcels from home?
Identity verification with a document and selfie, plus a payout account in your own name. The checks protect stock handover and payment; they are not a promise of work.
Does sender verification guarantee parcel-packing work?
No. Work depends on a shop needing a sender with your location, capacity and supported carriers. Check the requirements on earn from home before preparing storage space.
Who sees my passport?
An identity-verification provider, automatically. Nobody at AirPost reads it and no shop sees it. What is stored is that you passed, when, and the verified name.
Does a shop see my address?
No. A shop sees your username, your region from your postcode digits, your parcel sizes, carriers and reviews. Your address appears only on the label, as the sender, with the shop’s name beside it.
Can the payout account be in someone else’s name?
No. The account must match the verified identity. Money that can only reach the named person is the second half of the check.
Does verification guarantee me orders?
No. It puts you on the list. Whether a shop in your region picks you depends on demand there, your sizes and carriers, and your reviews.
Sources
The warning says never send your passport to a stranger offering work. The check exists so that nobody in this chain is a stranger.
See what you need before the check, and what you earn after it
Earn from home