The moving industry in the United States was deregulated with the Household Goods Transportation Act of 1980. This act allowed interstate movers to issue binding or fixed estimates for the first time. Doing so opened the door to hundreds of new moving companies to enter the industry. This forced a increasesd competition and soon movers were no longer competing on services but on price. As competition drove prices lower and decreased what were already slim profit margins, "rogue" movers began hijacking personal property as part of a new scam.

There are many versions to the moving scam but the basic scam takes place as follows. A prospective client contacts a moving company and requests a cost estimate. In today's market this often happens online via moving directories or brokers. These moving brokers are salesmen prone to quoting "low ball" prices with no room for the movers to provide a quality service.

Once the scam "moving company" has secured a move by providing a non-binding estimate, they arrive to pack and deliver the goods. Often the scam movers use deceptive pricing or weight measurements including prices based on cubic feet of space used in the moving truck. After packing and loading, the client is informed that their goods went over the expected cubic foot allotment and "reserved space" in the truck was used which will now have to be paid for at a substantially higher rate. Often rogue movers will not inform a client of these discrepancies until the client's goods are in transit or have arrived . The new price may be four or five times higher than the original estimate. The scam movers know that most people will be forced to pay these exorbitant rates based on their need for the personal effects.

The interstate moving industry in America is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Only a small staff (fewer than 20 people) is available to patrol hundreds of moving companies, making enforcement difficult.