On August 20, 2018, New Jersey police officially broke their silence on the mysterious “Operation Mother’s Attic”. The four-day sting operation took place this past April. At first the target of the sting may seem odd: moving companies. But moving company scams are becoming a nationwide epidemic of stolen property, extortion, and shady business practices. Authorities are taking notice, and weeding out the scammers.
The result of Operation Mother’s Attic? Almost 30 moving companies based out of New York, New Jersey, and even Pennsylvania were caught carrying out business while unlicensed. They were noted and fined $2,500. Here’s the complete list of the moving companies caught in the sting:
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- 1/2 Price Movers (Staten Island, New York)
- Alpha Moving Services (Highland Lakes)
- Affordable and Assertive Moving and Storage (Pompton Lakes)
- Avelar Trucking (Landing)
- Bin It NJ (North Bergen)
- Centurion Movers (Willow Grove, Pennsylvania)
- Consider It Done (Toms River)
- Cruz Movers (Cinnaminson)
- Enterprise Vane Lines (Congers, New York)
- GDK Logistics (Fairfield)
- HandD Transportation (Clifton)
- Helping Hands Moving (Newark)
- I.D. Noble Movers (Hackensack)
- Imperial Moving and Storage, also know as Lions Den Enterprises and Insignia Moving (Manhattan, New York)
- JandL Moving (Hillside)
- Lite Moving (Franklin Square, New York)
- Moving Good (Little Ferry)
- Moving Hero (Rahway)
- Old Country Van Lines (East Newark)
- Princeton Movers/Great Eastern Movers (Brooklyn, New York)
- Rent a Helping Hand (Pennington)
- Mundanzas (Dover)
- Roadway Moving (Elizabeth)
- Round City Moving (Garfield)
- Rosie’s Master Movers (Cherry Hill)
- TB Moving (Brooklyn, New York)
- We Move You (Maywood)
These companies DO have the option from law enforcement to cut their punishment in half. All they had to do was apply for licensing within 30 days after they were fined.
For reference, the 320 or so legitimate moving companies currently in New Jersey are required to have cargo liability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, bodily injury insurance, and property damage insurance to be licensed. Even if these 29 companies had honest business intentions, they’re required to be licensed and insured for their sake and the sake of their customers. Even so, many of these unlicensed companies are, in fact, scams to be wary of.
For example, the company from Manhattan going by three different names (Imperial Moving and Storage, Lions Den Enterprises, and Insignia Moving) should be a massive red flag. One method scam companies use to get away with stolen deposits and property is to use multiple names to conduct business and throw angry ex-customers off their trail.
New York, New Jersey, and Illinois have the top three highest rates
of people moving in from out-of-state. Collectively, Americans moving into these three states account for 63% of all moves nationwide. Considering this, it makes sense that a problem with moving scams would breed in NY and NJ.
Outside of NYC and surrounding areas, moving scams are a problem across America. The most aware (legitimate moving companies, for example) are doing their best to educate folks on the warning signs of an untrustworthy operation, but the warnings haven’t reached far enough quite yet.
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