Lawyer and movers’ association say ‘moving scams’ are being overlooked by police

The couple fell victim to what they called a “moving scam,” where a hired company suddenly jacks up the measured weight of their belongings and the price for their service.

Alex Fox and her partner, Max Hill, have spent their last 12 months worried about boxes.

First, packing them and preparing for a massive cross-country move from Vancouver to St. John’s. Then tracking them down, after falling victim to what they called a “moving scam,” where a hired company suddenly jacks up the measured weight of their belongings and the price for their service.

Finally, over the weekend, the pair were selling their boxes and belongings to try and recoup some of their unexpected costs. They didn’t pay the extra $3,000 their movers asked for, but they did hire a lawyer and a separate moving company to rescue their belongings.

“It just felt really demoralizing and vulnerable and exhausting,” said Fox. “Every day was just, ‘is everything we own, is our entire lives going to be taken away from us?’”

Both the couple and their lawyer, Toronto-based Rocco Scocco, declined to name the company that they allege acted unethically. Fox said she and her partner feared further reprisal from the group, which already threatened a lawsuit, and Scocco said the company did the right thing after he got involved in the case.

“What we’re seeing is it’s being built back up again,” Scocco said of unfair behaviour in the moving industry. “The numbers are increasing.”

The lawyer, who has made a speciality in helping clients in moving scams and other similar situations, said the number of complaints he saw dropped dramatically in 2022, after police in Toronto made a high-profile bust of a group of companies, arrested four people and laid hundreds of charges.

But Scocco alleges police have lost interest in pursing these types of cases, and malicious actors are starting to notice.

“What we’ve seen in the last year is that there are companies that are now re-emerging with new names, and running the same old scam,” he said.

“The crack that is really giving these companies the success is that police aren’t doing any enforcement,” Scocco continued. “The companies aren’t worried about getting charged criminally so they just continue operating, and [in many cases] it’s too expensive to hire a lawyer to fight it.”

An association representing moving companies in Canada agrees.

“We are very disappointed because at one point in time, at the height of moving scams during the pandemic, the Toronto Police Service were leading the charge in calling out these scamming operations,” said Nancy Irvine, the president of the Canadian Association of Movers.

“More and more now, all police departments are reverting back to the ‘it’s a civil matter’ line and walking away from any further involvement.”

Fox and her partner say they went to the Peel Regional Police to ask for help in returning their belongings after they used an Apple AirTag to locate their boxes.

They say police told them it wasn’t criminal, just a matter for civil litigation, and declined to get involved.

Peel Regional Police confirmed to CTV News that they’re aware of an incident involving a moving company allegedly withholding personal property.

“Peel Regional Police reviews each call and complaint on a case-by-case basis. Whether a matter is considered criminal or civil depends on the specific facts and circumstances presented,” police said in an email.

“While some disputes may appear to involve criminal elements, they may ultimately fall within the scope of civil law, requiring resolution through legal counsel or the courts.”

Fox said she believes that one of the only reasons she was able to get her stuff back was because the couple made extensive notes on the boxes they packed, what was in them and how much they paid. They supplied those notes to their lawyer.

Fox said they knew, for sure, that their belongings weighed about 5,000 pounds, not the 8,000 pounds that the company suddenly quoted, after the boxes were moved as far as Ontario.

“Even if we did have an idea, but didn’t have it documented so well, then we probably wouldn’t have been able to go after them in the way that we did,” Fox said.

The second bill the company provided put the charges at $8,750, about $3,000 more than their initial estimate. That bill came on June 24, the couple said, almost 8 weeks after the belongings were picked up in British Columbia, and a week after the initial estimated delivery date in Newfoundland and Labrador.

They didn’t end up paying that $8,750 bill. The company agreed to let them and their lawyer pick up the belongings after only paying the initial $200 deposit, but it did threaten a lawsuit.

Fox said the second moving company they hired confirmed their initial weight estimate, weighing 5,120 pounds.

The couple’s stuff finally arrived in St. John’s in late August. They say their experience was an ordeal, costing them thousands more than they had budgeted.

“Scams that these people try to do work because, you know, people are tired,” Hill said. “They’re exhausted, they’ve already gone through this whole process, and they just kind of want it to be over.”

They saved about $8,000 for their big cross-country move. With legal fees and additional movers, it ended up costing them nearly $15,000.

“We budgeted for years, and that’s what’s frustrating about this is we ended up paying double, and it was a lot of work and effort and saving and intentionality to even save the amount of money we had.”