Governments crack down on moving scams

Federal and state authorities are cracking down on online scam artists who pose as licensed movers and rip off consumers by jacking up prices, giving fake estimates and holding consumers' belongings hostage.

States including New Jersey, California , Nevada, and Illinois have conducted undercover operations this year, and Maryland approved legislation that keeps movers from charging more than 25% above an original estimate.

Unlicensed moving companies are significantly more likely to rip off consumers, says Linda Bauer Darr, president and CEO of the American Moving andStorage Association, a trade group of 3,200 professional movers.

"Our mission is to get these rogues off the road, that is the single most important thing we can do right now," Darr says. "The rogues in the industry are killing our business and killing consumers' faith in professional movers."

The Better Business Bureau received more than 8,900 complaints against both licensed and unlicensed movers in 2010 — a 5% increase over 2009, says spokeswoman Sheila Adkins. Until 2010 the BBB didn't specifically track complaints against those brokers, who serve as go-betweens between consumer and moving company. It logged 285 such complaints in 2010 and 111 so far this year, Adkins says.

In an interview with Mike the Mover, owner of Interstate Contracted Movers, "the growing concern is with unlicensed movers and online moving brokers... They are one creating the most problems". Recently, three California-based moving companies face civil penalties of at least $25,000 each after a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration enforcement sweep in March in nine major U.S. cities. Two of them were caught here in Las Vegas.