Nydam discovered Moving Services of America through its website, and hired the company to relocate her from North Carolina, where she was finishing her law degree at Duke University, to her new home in Newport Beach, California.
The movers arrived a day late to load her things, but this was not the worst of it. Nydam's possessions did not arrive on schedule in California, and she received word they would be held by the moving company unless she paid an additional $3,000. The movers had originally agreed to a total fee of about $1,900, and Nydam had already put down $1,200.
When ABC reported the story on June 16, Nydam still had not recovered her belongings, but had determined she would have to meet the moving company's demands. According to the news source, it's difficult for law enforcement to intervene in these cases because the criminals usually work from unknown locations and use local freelance movers who aren't in on the scheme.
In addition to being aware of moving company scams, individuals moving house in California and North Carolina should be on the lookout for mortgage fraud. Both states ranked in the top four for mortgage fraud per capita in a recently released report.
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