Federal investigators went looking for movers holding people's belongings
FMCSA ran Operation Protect Your Move in 2023 and again in 2024 in response to a significant increase in complaints of movers holding household possessions hostage to extort additional charges. The 2023 sweep alone produced more than 100 investigations across 16 states, over 60 enforcement actions and more than 1,000 regulatory violations.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Ongoing
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Moving company scams and hostage loads
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- FMCSA launched Operation Protect Your Move in early 2023 in response to a significant uptick in complaints of movers holding household goods hostage and extorting exorbitant additional charges.
- The 2023 sweep ran from 20 March to 7 April 2023 and covered 16 states.
- Dozens of agency personnel conducted more than 100 investigations, resulting in over 60 enforcement actions that may lead to revocation of operating authority.
- The 2023 operations, including three broker-focused operations in Nevada, New York/New Jersey and Florida, found more than 1,000 violations of FMCSA regulations.
- The 2024 sweep ran from 1 April to 19 April 2024 across 17 states, again targeting NCCDB "HHG hostage complaints".
- The Justice Department filed a civil penalty enforcement case arising from the 2023 operation, pending in federal court in California as at May 2024.
- FMCSA established a Household Goods State Enforcement Partnership Program; eleven state agencies had joined by July 2023, including the attorneys general of Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and Texas.
- FMCSA has the authority to revoke the operating authority of movers and brokers, and refers criminal violations to the Justice Department.
- Complaints and carrier histories are available through the FMCSA National Consumer Complaint Database.
Why this case matters
The federal government has a name for it. HHG hostage complaints — reports of movers holding household possessions hostage to extort exorbitant additional charges from consumers.
It has a name because there were enough of them to need one, and because FMCSA twice deployed investigators nationwide specifically to find the companies generating them.
What the operations found
2023. A three-week sweep from 20 March to 7 April across 16 states. Dozens of agency personnel, more than 100 investigations, over 60 enforcement actions that may lead to revocation of operating authority. Taken together with three broker-focused operations in Nevada, New York and New Jersey, and Florida later that year: more than 1,000 violations of FMCSA regulations.
2024. A second sweep from 1 to 19 April across 17 states, again aimed at the same complaint category, and targeting the movers and brokers with the highest complaint counts in the National Consumer Complaint Database.
The Justice Department filed a civil penalty enforcement case arising from the 2023 operation, pending in federal court in California as at May 2024.
The state partnership is the interesting part
FMCSA regulates interstate moving, and its main sanction is administrative: revoke a company’s operating authority. That matters, and it is slower and narrower than what a consumer needs.
So the agency built the Household Goods State Enforcement Partnership Program — giving participating state agencies access to its enforcement databases, free training on the federal regulations, and joint investigations. Eleven state agencies had joined by July 2023, including the attorneys general of Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and Texas.
That is a recognition of a structural problem this site keeps meeting. The federal regulator has the data and the jurisdiction over interstate carriers; the state attorney general has the consumer protection powers and the ability to sue. Neither on its own reaches the whole of the conduct.
What it does not tell us
There is no published figure here for how many people were affected or how much they lost. FMCSA reports investigations, states, violations and enforcement actions — inputs and outputs of enforcement, not harm.
So the honest position on scale is that we do not have one. What is documented is that the complaint volume was significant enough to launch two nationwide operations in consecutive years, and that more than a thousand regulatory violations were found in the first.
Sources
- FMCSA Continues Nationwide Crackdown on Fraudulent Household Goods Movers and Brokers. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 20 May 2024 announcement, the description of hostage complaints, the more than 1,000 violations found in 2023, the three broker-focused operations, the DOJ civil penalty case pending in California, and the revocation and referral powers.
- FMCSA Boosts Efforts to Crack Down on Moving Fraud. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 12 July 2023 announcement, the three-week sweep with more than 100 investigations across 16 states, the over 60 enforcement actions, and the Household Goods State Enforcement Partnership Program with eleven state agencies including four named attorneys general.
- Operation Protect Your Move. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 2023 dates of 20 March to 7 April across 16 states, the 2024 dates of 1 to 19 April across 17 states, and the definition of NCCDB hostage complaints.