A Moving Scam Company Made the Move Without Permission of the Owners
The following story illustrates how one moving company got away with hijacking all of a family's belongings. The story, taken from the bulletin board of an Internet anti-moving scam web site, occurred in the summer of 2008, and may have yet to be totally resolved.A man wishing to move from New Mexico to Myrtle Beach, S.C. invited the S. Van Lines to visit his house and give him a moving cost estimate. The owner of the moving company, D. came to the house to make the estimate. D. went through the all the rooms measuring furniture, calculating the number of boxes, and determining which items needed to be crated. While walking through the house, he learned, in casual conversation, that the owner would be out of the country for the next month. Before leaving, D. informed the householder that his assistant J. would prepare the estimate documents, and send him a full report. In order to proceed, however, D. needed to have the owner's credit card. D. assured the owner he wouldn't be charged anything, this was just for "guarantee." So not suspecting anything, the owner gave him the credit card. number.
The homeowner had no idea he was being scammed until two weeks later when he was already in Europe. He discovered that the moving company had deducted 2875.00 from his credit card. He assumed that they were merely taking a security deposit for the move, and he called them and told them he didn't want them to use that credit card. But he never suspected what was to follow. When her returned from Europe, several weeks later, he entered his house only to find it was totally emptied of all its contents. He subsequently learned that while he was away, the company made arrangements with the homeowner's brother to let them into the house. They knew the brother because they had also given him a moving cost estimate. They met him at the home and brought documents containing the homeowner's credit card, the moving cost estimate, and a forged signature of the homeowner. The brother, was duped, and signed a document giving the moving company permission to make the move.
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