‘Complete panic’: How to spot red flags in moving scams

Jenny Wilcockson missed the first red flag — the estimated price for her movers came in much lower than quotes from other companies.

Planning a complicated move from Hamilton, Ont., to Yarmouth, N.S., Wilcockson was sensitive to cost, but the company had a professional-looking website, the employee was very reassuring and responsive, and they explained the low cost by saying they would be moving multiple homes at the same time.

But it was ultimately all a scam.

“The lady was very, very responsive to the emails and all my questions,” Wilcockson said. “Very knowledgeable and helpful, and knew exactly what to say to reel me in.”

It’s a common arc for moving scams, says Nancy Irvine, president of the Canadian Association of Movers: quote a low price, get a deposit, get all the home items on the truck, then hold everything ransom while demanding thousands more. This scam often includes threats to destroy or sell your possessions, or charge storage fees daily until you can cough up more cash.

“I have photos of stuff dropped by a dumpster,” Irvine said. “They get enough of your money upfront to pay for their guys’ labour for the day. And then that’s it, they’re gone.”

In Wilcockson’s case, her entire home’s possessions were sent to Nova Scotia almost two weeks before her move-in date, and she scrambled to store everything locally before the house was hers. The total price for the movers came in triple the original quote. If she didn’t pay the company, they threatened to dump her stuff in a Montreal storage facility and charge her $50 a day.

“We were in a complete panic, we didn’t know what to do,” Wilcockson said.

She paid the scammers to get her items, but then decided to fight back.

Wilcockson started the Scam Moving Companies Victim Support Group on Facebook to share information and track cases across Canada.

“All throughout COVID, (we were getting) multiple messages a week, lots and lots of people in various states of distress getting in touch, just devastated,” Wilcockson said.

“There were people with cancer, people with young babies, people in wheelchairs, people living in their cars on the side of the road because they lost all their stuff.”

While scammers often pursue seniors, Irvine stressed that students and young people are common targets because they might be on tighter budgets. These scam companies invest heavily in ranking high in search results, fake Google reviews, a dozen different company names, and professional-looking digital footprints to seem real, even to tech-savvy consumers.

“I have found out recently from the Better Business Bureau that moving is the No. 1 fake review of all fake reviews,” Irvine said.

To protect yourself, know what to look for to determine if a company is legitimate and learn to recognize red flags, Irvine said.

Movers should have a physical address, an office — otherwise it could be just a ghost company with a great website, she said. Scammers can operate as more than a dozen different companies at the same time.

Reviews should be varied in voice and appropriate in number. If a company has only been around for a couple years, it shouldn’t have thousands of reviews already, Irvine said. It’s normal for companies to collect reviews from roughly 10 per cent of jobs, which could amount to a few dozen reviews a year. Read bad and mediocre reviews, and look at how the business responded.

The gold standard for price estimates, Irvine said, is an in-person visit or a virtual tour on a phone, such as a video call where you can show the home and major furniture.

Basic forms on a website are ripe for a very low quote, a jacked-up real price, and threats if you don’t pay. Also, rogue operators will rarely show up for a quote, she added, so this can weed them out.

According to the Canadian Association of Movers website, professional moving companies quote in weight for long-distance moves, and number of hours for a local job.

But Wilcockson felt scammers can easily take advantage of the weight pricing model — it happened to her. Homeowners have no idea what all their possessions weigh, and cannot easily challenge claims that the price will now be triple because everything was heavier.

Irvine said it’s “perfectly acceptable” for consumers to ask to see weigh scale tickets if costs come in much higher than the original quote.

According to Irvine, sham moving companies have been operating and evolving in Canada since the 1980s, and her association has been tracking cases and partnering with media, lawyers and police.

Consumers can use the association’s database of 40,000 movers to find vetted companies, Irvine said. Don’t trust moving companies that simply use logos from the association, the Better Business Bureau or other organizations on their websites to suggest they are vetted members — check yourself to ensure they’re listed.

“You’re entrusting everything you own and value to a stranger,” Irvine said. “Know who your mover is, make sure you know how to find them.”

As for Wilcockson’s scammers, Toronto police arrested four people in 2022 and laid more than 800 charges, including fraud, theft and conspiracy, under roughly a dozen business names.

Her Facebook group was quiet for a while, so Wilcockson considered closing it. Then in June, a senior couple moving in Vancouver had their items routed to Toronto, with the movers demanding double the money to bring their items to them. Desperate, they paid the extra cost, and their items arrived from Toronto “ruined and damaged,” Wilcockson said.

“I guess I will keep (the group) open,” she said. “There are still people getting scammed.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2024.

Nina Dragicevic, The Canadian Press