Consumer complaints about moving companies filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation more than doubled in seven years, rising from 3,030 in 2015 to 7,647 in 2022, according to DOT figures reported by Newsweek. That surge pushed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) into a string of enforcement sweeps, federal court cases, and joint actions with state attorneys general. This report pulls together the most recent verifiable numbers on moving complaints and scams from FMCSA, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the DOT Office of Inspector General, and the federal rules in 49 CFR Part 375, so you can see what goes wrong, how often, and what the law says a mover can and cannot do.
Quick answer: DOT moving complaints rose from 3,030 in 2015 to 7,647 in 2022. BBB Scam Tracker victims of moving scams lost a median of $532 in 2025. The most common problems are lowball estimates, surprise charges, and goods held “hostage.” Federal law caps delivery payment on a non-binding estimate at 110% and sets hostage penalties starting at $20,537 per violation.
Moving Complaints by the Numbers
There is no single public dashboard that tracks every moving complaint in the country. Consumers file with FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB), with the BBB, with the FTC, and with state attorneys general, and each source counts differently. Read together, though, they point the same way: complaint volume has grown, and overcharging dominates.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
| DOT moving complaints, 2015 | 3,030 | DOT figures via Newsweek (2023) |
| DOT moving complaints, 2022 | 7,647 | DOT figures via Newsweek (2023) |
| FMCSA complaints in 2019 / share involving overcharging | 4,780 / 57% | BBB Know Your Mover study |
| Complaints filed with BBB against movers, 2024 | 718 | BBB Scam Alert: Moving scams |
| Inquiries about movers on BBB.org, 2024 | More than 100,000 | BBB Scam Alert: Moving scams |
| Median loss, moving scams reported to BBB Scam Tracker, 2024 | $754 | BBB Scam Alert: Moving scams |
| Median loss, moving scams reported to BBB Scam Tracker, 2025 | $532 | BBB Wisconsin moving scam alert (April 2026) |
| Estimated NCCDB respondents per year (all 12 complaint categories) | 64,545 | FMCSA notice in the Federal Register (Jan. 2025) |
A few notes on reading this table. The DOT increase from 3,030 to 7,647 works out to roughly 152% growth over seven years (illustrative calculation: 7,647 ÷ 3,030 = 2.52). FMCSA has also published a separate figure: its 2022 announcement of a Top 100 household goods compliance operation (archived copy) said complaints to the NCCDB rose from 4,340 in 2020 to 8,295 in 2021. The two sets of numbers come from different releases that don’t spell out the same counting rules, so treat them as separate snapshots rather than one continuous series. The BBB median loss fell from $754 in 2024 to $532 in 2025 (the 2025 figure as published by BBB Wisconsin), a drop of about 29% (532 ÷ 754 = 0.71), but a lower median does not mean fewer scams, only that the typical reported loss was smaller. And the 64,545 figure is FMCSA’s estimate of annual respondents across its entire complaint system, which also covers truck and bus issues, driver coercion, and other categories, so it is not a count of moving complaints alone.
The BBB’s larger 2020 Know Your Mover study gives a sense of how many problems never reach federal regulators. It found the BBB receives an average of 13,000 complaints and negative reviews about movers each year, and that at least 1,335 moving companies had earned an “F” rating. The same study cited the FTC finding that fewer than 10% of fraud victims report to the BBB or law enforcement. Official counts are almost certainly a floor, not a ceiling.
What Consumers Complain About Most
Overcharging is the single biggest category in every dataset that breaks complaints down. In FMCSA’s 2019 data, 57% of the 4,780 complaints involved overcharging, which is roughly 2,700 complaints (illustrative: 4,780 × 0.57). The BBB’s own records tell a similar story. According to the BBB Know Your Mover study, overcharging complaints and reviews climbed from 4,286 in 2017 to 5,492 in 2019.
| Year | All BBB mover complaints | All BBB mover reviews | Overcharging complaints | Overcharging share of complaints |
| 2017 | 8,274 | 2,523 | 3,318 | 40% |
| 2018 | 11,600 | 3,296 | 4,716 | 41% |
| 2019 | 10,132 | 3,193 | 4,274 | 42% |
Source: BBB Know Your Mover study (2020). The share column is our illustrative calculation (overcharging complaints ÷ all complaints, rounded).
The BBB groups the moving scams it hears about into four recurring patterns, listed in its moving scam alert:
- No show. The customer gets a quote and pays a deposit, and the movers never arrive.
- Upcharge. The customer’s card is charged more than the company originally quoted.
- Extra fees. After loading, the company claims the shipment is heavier than expected and demands an additional fee.
- Stolen items. Belongings are held “hostage” or never delivered unless the customer pays more.
The DOT Office of Inspector General describes the same schemes from the criminal side: deliberately lowball estimates followed by threats to withhold goods, “weight bumping” (assigning a fraudulent weight or volume to a shipment), inflated charges for packing materials, and fraudulent bills of lading.
How Hostage Loads and Broker Schemes Work
The most damaging moving scam is the hostage load. A company quotes a low price, loads the truck, and then refuses to deliver or unload until the customer pays far more than the estimate. Federal enforcement has focused heavily on this pattern. FMCSA’s 2023 Operation Protect Your Move sweep targeted complaints about movers holding possessions to extort extra charges and ran in 16 states from March 20 to April 7, 2023. Combined with three broker-focused operations later that year, FMCSA’s 2023 operations uncovered 1,014 violations of FMCSA regulations, according to FleetOwner’s coverage of the FMCSA operation.
The second common setup involves brokers. A broker arranges a move but does not own trucks or employ crews. That is legal when disclosed, but scams arise when a broker presents itself as the actual mover, takes a large deposit on a low quote, and hands the job to an unvetted carrier who then raises the price. Federal rules address this directly. Under 49 CFR 375.409, a household goods broker may give an estimate only if a written agreement exists in which the carrier adopts that estimate as its own, and the carrier must then honor all Part 375 estimate rules, including the 110% delivery cap.
The Florida case against the Gold Standard Moving and Storage entities shows how this plays out. According to a summary of the Florida Attorney General’s March 2025 resolution, the companies allegedly claimed to provide door-to-door moving service while operating as brokers, quoted low prices to secure up-front deposits, and outsourced the work to unvetted carriers. The resolution included a $4 million judgment, $1 million of it for consumer relief, and a permanent ban from Florida’s moving broker industry.
Federal and State Enforcement Actions, 2023 to 2026
For years, enforcement lagged behind complaints. Newsweek’s 2023 investigation found that DOT investigations had produced only 13 criminal cases and six civil cases against scam moving companies since January 1, 2017, and that FMCSA was doubling the number of investigators assigned to moving complaints from 8 to 17, as reported in Newsweek’s April 2023 article. The pace has picked up since then. Recent verifiable actions include:
- September 2024, federal court (California). The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered USA Logistics, Inc. to pay $25,000 for repeatedly moving household goods across state lines without proper registration, in a case brought by the Department of Justice. The same year’s Operation Protect Your Move produced 60 investigations and more than 30 enforcement actions, according to FMCSA’s announcement of the judgment (archived copy).
- March 2025, Florida. The Gold Standard broker resolution described above: $4 million judgment, $1 million in consumer relief, and a permanent ban from Florida’s moving broker industry.
- October 6, 2025, federal court (New Jersey). Two moving companies, Abda Moving, LLC (doing business as 11 Even Movers and Storage) and Mallad Trading, LLC, were each sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $1,908,486 and $314,761 in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the DOT Office of Inspector General, the companies demanded drastically higher fees after taking possession of customers’ belongings and refused to release the property until victims paid. Combined restitution comes to $2,223,247.
- April 7, 2026, Florida. The DOT OIG and the Florida Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division reached a civil settlement with NYC Holdings, LLC, Navistar Van Lines, LLC, and owner Douglas Miller totaling $474,123, including $385,000 in civil penalties and $71,992 in consumer restitution, per the DOT OIG announcement.
Oversight of the complaint system itself has also been under review. In September 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office examined FMCSA’s system for collecting and addressing complaints against truck, moving, and bus companies and made 14 recommendations. FMCSA’s January 2025 Federal Register notice states the agency is modernizing the NCCDB in line with those GAO recommendations.
The Bigger Fraud Picture
Moving scams sit inside a much larger and fast-growing fraud economy. The FTC reported that consumers reported losing $16 billion to fraud in 2025, the highest on record and about 25% more than in 2024. For comparison, the FTC’s 2024 figure was $12.5 billion.
The BBB sees the same trend. Its Scam Tracker received about 146,000 reports in 2025, up from 81,000 in 2024, and the median loss per scam rose from $93 to $130, according to CBS 58’s coverage of the BBB report. Set against that all-scam median of $130, the $532 median loss for moving scams in 2025 is roughly four times higher (illustrative: 532 ÷ 130 = 4.1). Moving scams are not the most reported fraud, but when they happen, they tend to cost more than the typical scam, because victims have already handed over a deposit or their entire household.
What Federal Law Says a Mover Can and Cannot Do
Most moving scams depend on customers not knowing their rights. The rules for interstate household goods moves are in 49 CFR Part 375, and several provisions map directly onto the complaint categories above.
- Written estimates, based on a survey. Under 49 CFR 375.401, a mover must physically survey your goods and give you a written estimate based on that survey. You can waive the survey, but only in writing, signed before loading.
- Binding estimates. A binding estimate guarantees the total cost for the listed goods and services, per 49 CFR 375.403. If you add items, the mover must reaffirm the estimate, write a new one, or agree to a different arrangement in writing before loading.
- The 110% rule. On a non-binding estimate, the estimate must state that you will not be required to pay more than 110% of it at delivery (49 CFR 375.405). Once you pay that amount, plus any extra services you requested after the bill of lading was issued, the mover must release your shipment (49 CFR 375.407). Illustrative example: on a $4,000 non-binding estimate, the most the mover can demand at delivery is $4,400. Remaining charges are billed after 30 days.
- Impracticable operations cap. Charges for impracticable operations (such as unusually difficult access) collected at delivery cannot exceed 15% of all other charges due at delivery, per 49 CFR 375.407(d).
- Required documents. With the written estimate, the mover must give you “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move” and the “Ready to Move?” brochure, or link to them, under 49 CFR 375.213.
- Arbitration. Every interstate mover must offer a neutral arbitration program. It must be binding for claims of $10,000 or less if you request it, and the arbitrator must decide within 60 days (49 CFR 375.211).
- Claims deadline. The consumer booklet in Appendix A to Part 375 gives you 9 months from delivery to file a written loss or damage claim.
Penalties for breaking these rules are significant on paper. The hostage statute, 49 U.S.C. 14915, allows registration suspension of 12 to 36 months, extending to companies with the same ownership, and treats each day goods are withheld as a separate violation. After inflation adjustment, the FMCSA penalty schedule in Appendix B to 49 CFR Part 386 sets these minimums:
- Knowingly failing to deliver or unload after the shipper tenders the required payment: not less than $20,537 per violation, with each day a separate offense.
- A broker giving an estimate before having an agreement with a motor carrier: not less than $15,846 per violation.
- Moving household goods or brokering without FMCSA registration: not less than $39,615 per violation.
- A household goods carrier violating any shipper-protection regulation: at least $2,052 per violation.
Illustrative math: a mover that holds a shipment for five days after the customer offered the legally required payment faces a minimum exposure of about $102,685 (5 × $20,537) under that schedule.
Red Flags Drawn From the Complaint Data
Each warning sign below ties back to a documented complaint pattern or a specific federal rule:
- A quote over the phone or online with no survey and no written waiver. Federal rules require a physical survey unless you waive it in writing.
- A large up-front deposit. “No show” and broker deposit schemes both start here, according to the BBB and the Florida enforcement record.
- A company that won’t say whether it is a carrier or a broker. Brokers may estimate only under a written agreement with the carrier.
- A “weight surprise” after loading. The BBB lists post-loading weight fees as a core scam pattern, and the DOT OIG calls it weight bumping.
- A demand for more than 110% of a non-binding estimate before unloading. That is exactly what 49 CFR 375.407 prohibits.
- No copy of “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move.” Providing it, or a link to it, is mandatory.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many complaints are filed against moving companies each year?
DOT figures reported by Newsweek show 7,647 moving complaints in 2022, up from 3,030 in 2015. In a separate 2022 release, FMCSA put complaints to its NCCDB at 8,295 in 2021, up from 4,340 in 2020. FMCSA received 4,780 complaints in 2019, according to the BBB. The BBB itself logged 718 complaints against movers in 2024. Because fewer than 10% of fraud victims report, the real number of problems is likely much higher.
How much do people lose to moving scams?
Victims who reported moving scams to BBB Scam Tracker lost a median of $532 in 2025 and $754 in 2024. Large schemes cost far more in total: in one 2025 federal case, two New Jersey moving companies were ordered to pay more than $2.2 million in combined restitution.
Can a mover legally hold my belongings until I pay more?
Not beyond what the rules allow. On a non-binding estimate, once you pay up to 110% of the estimate plus any extra services you requested after the bill of lading was issued, the mover must release your goods. Refusing to deliver after proper payment carries a minimum civil penalty of $20,537 per violation, with each day counted separately.
What is the most common moving complaint?
Overcharging. It accounted for 57% of FMCSA complaints in 2019, and roughly 40% to 42% of BBB mover complaints between 2017 and 2019. Typical forms include upcharges above the quote, post-loading weight fees, and inflated packing charges.
Where should I file a complaint about an interstate mover?
File with FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database, which the DOT OIG lists at 1-888-368-7238. For suspected criminal fraud, the DOT OIG hotline is 1-800-424-9071. You can also file with the BBB and your state attorney general, and you can request arbitration for disputes of $10,000 or less.
How long do I have to file a damage claim after an interstate move?
Nine months from the delivery date, or from the date delivery should have happened if the entire shipment is lost, according to the “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move” booklet in Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375. The claim must be in writing.
Your Next Step: Check the Estimate Before You Sign
The complaint data points to one moment where most scams can be stopped: the estimate. Before you pay any deposit, get a written estimate based on a physical or video survey, confirm whether it is binding or non-binding, confirm whether you are dealing with a carrier or a broker, and make sure you received “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move.” If a price is far below every other quote, treat it as a warning, not a bargain.
If you are planning an interstate move and want a written, survey-based estimate that spells out every charge, Interstate Moving and Relocation Group can walk you through the numbers line by line so you know exactly what you will pay at delivery.
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