Sudbury police investigating complaint about alleged scam involving movers

The Canadian Association of Movers says the pandemic has created an opening for disreputable moving companies to profit.

Sudbury police say they are investigating a complaint of a moving company allegedly holding a customer's shipment hostage for higher payments than estimated.

Sudbury Police say they are investigating one complaint and believe there may be others.

The President of the Canadian Association of Movers says this type of fraud has been around for decades.

But Nancy Irvine says it's worsened during the pandemic because movers aren't going into homes to offer quotes–  leaving an opening for fraudsters.

"A lot of scammers will just say 'here is our price, we can't come to see you, we'll show up at this date,' and then they show up and the scam begins," she said.

"They start with their stories of how you have more things than you told us you were going to have and they come up with all these excuses."

Irvine says the amount sometimes ends up being $1000s over what was first quoted, and some people give up on getting their property back.

People can protect themselves by checking with the Canadian Association of Movers and googling news reports of fraud, she said, 

She added that a legal team is working with her group to offer free legal advice to navigate their moves during this difficult time.

"You'll get some really good advice from them on what you can do to try to get your things back," Irvine said. "It takes about five weeks to go through court but there have been some very successful cases this year and they didn't have to pay the ridiculous amounts of money they were being held ransom for."