Moving Broker Scams: Booked Online and It All Went Wrong?

The short answer: household-goods brokers — companies that sell your move and hand it to a carrier — have their own set of federal rules. A broker must identify itself as a broker, name the carriers it uses, base any estimate on a real carrier’s tariff under a written agreement, and disclose its cancellation, deposit, and refund policies. Most “moving broker scams” are one of those rules being broken.

A huge share of the moving companies you find online are not moving companies. They are brokers: sales operations that book your move and pass it to a carrier you never chose. Brokering is legal — but it is also where many of the worst moving experiences begin, and the federal rules for brokers are specific enough that you can usually point to the exact one being broken. This page lays them out. It is general information, not legal advice.

The rules a household-goods broker must follow

Subpart B of the federal broker regulations is written for exactly this situation. The ones that matter most to a consumer:

• It must use real, authorized movers. A broker may only arrange your move with a carrier holding a valid, active USDOT number and FMCSA operating authority for household goods.^[1]
• It must say it is a broker. Advertisements and websites must prominently display the broker’s USDOT and MC numbers, its status as a broker, and a statement that it will not transport your goods itself.^[2]
• It must tell you which carriers it uses. A potential customer who asks must get a list of the authorized carriers the broker uses, with their USDOT and MC numbers, plus a statement that the broker is not itself authorized to transport household goods.^[3]
• Its estimate must be real. A broker’s estimate must be in writing, based on a physical survey of your goods conducted by the carrier (unless you waive the survey in a signed writing), priced from the carrier’s published tariff, and backed by a written agreement with that carrier.^[4] That agreement must state that the estimate counts as the carrier’s estimate — including for the 110% release rule at delivery.^[5]
• Its deposit and refund policies must be disclosed. A broker must prominently disclose, on its website and in its agreements, its cancellation policy, deposit policy, and how deposits are refunded if you cancel before a carrier is scheduled.^[6]

The patterns people call “moving broker scams”

• The vanishing deposit. A large deposit by card, wire, or app, then silence — or a cancellation policy that surfaces only after you cancel. The disclosure rule above is the lever; the recovery routes are in moving deposit scams.
• The hand-off surprise. A carrier you never heard of arrives, with its own price. Who is responsible for what — and why the bill of lading must name the carrier — is in brokers vs. carriers.
• The broker posing as a mover. Trucks on the website, “our crews” on the phone, broker-only authority in the federal record. One SAFER lookup exposes it — see is this moving company legit?^[7]

If you are already caught in one

The complaint and recovery paths are the same ones the rest of this site maps: report the broker (and the carrier, if one is involved) through the channels in how to report a moving company, pursue a deposit through the routes in how to get your money back, and if goods are being held, start at the emergency page. A dispute that turns on what the broker promised versus what the carrier signed is also a sensible one to put in front of a licensed attorney in your state.

Last reviewed: June 10, 2026