Fly-by-night moving companies often give victims a low-ball estimate. Then, once they have your belongings, squeeze you for a lot more.
WASHINGTON — The FBI’s Washington Field Office has a warning for anyone who needs to hire a moving company: Watch out for the “moving scam.”
Fly-by-night companies have been taking everything people own hostage and then demanding a bigger payday, according to the FBI.
In the DMV, a very transient region, moving is a constant. Many people are on the go, moving in and out of the area. Scammers know that, and they’re taking advantage of it.
Delores Skeen was in tears when CBS talked to her in 2019. The walls of her Baltimore County apartment were bare, with no pictures of her kids, or her late husband.
“He’s gone now,” Skeen said in an interview. “I have nothing to remember him by.”
Skeen had moved across the country for life-saving back surgery, hiring a company to take her belongings from Texas to Maryland. She says they gave her a quote for about $3,500, which she paid in full. But she says after they loaded up her stuff, they jacked up the price to almost $12,000 and refused to deliver until she paid that too.
“It’s just horrible…
