Common car shipping scams

Car shipping scams repeat a small set of moves. A price that is far too low. A fee collected before any truck exists. A payment method that is hard to reverse. A company you cannot find on the federal register. Sometimes the car really does get on a truck, and the extra demand comes when you want it back. This page describes those patterns. It does not name or accuse a company.

The source for the patterns is the Better Business Bureau's alert "Spot a vehicle transport scam before you move your car, truck or motorcycle," by Better Business Bureau, July 21, 2023. RideShipper is a comparison and quote-request service. It is not a carrier, not a broker, and not the BBB. It does not decide that an offer is fraud. You still check the record and the contract.

A deposit, then no truck#

BBB describes the common version this way. You look for a quote and find a price that looks like a great deal. You are asked to send a deposit of a few hundred dollars, usually through a digital wallet. You get a pickup date. No one comes. The company may say the driver was held up. Then you cannot reach the driver or the company. The money is gone, and nothing was transported.

One consumer experience published in that alert is specific. The person was offered a low quote to move a car from California to Florida, paid 50 dollars through PayPal to book it, called and emailed on pickup day with no answer, and later was told the driver had crashed the truck. The consumer wrote: "The company doesn't appear on the USDOT website."

That last sentence is the check you can do before you pay. FMCSA's consumer advisory, updated February 10, 2015, says interstate automobile transporters and brokers must be registered, and that you should search the MC docket. Use the SAFER Company Snapshot and the Licensing and Insurance search. Match the legal name. A copied number from a real carrier fails that match. The steps are in how to check FMCSA authority.

More money before the car is released#

BBB also describes a harsher set of reports to its Scam Tracker. In those reports the company did transport the vehicle. The problem started at the destination. The company asked for more money than had been agreed, holding the car, truck, or motorcycle until the extra was paid.

If you are standing at delivery and the price on the clipboard is not the price in the contract, do not argue from memory. Read the contract's price line. Write down the amount demanded, the name of the person demanding it, the truck's USDOT number, and the time. Pay only what the contract says you owe, if you can do that without signing a new price you do not accept. If they will not release the car for the contract price, call the broker and the carrier on the numbers in your papers, then the card issuer if you already paid. The page on a price increase with the car on the truck is the same-day list. This page does not tell you to refuse in a way that strands you. It tells you to write the facts down before more money moves.

Payment methods that the alert flags#

BBB's alert says payments through digital wallet apps are essentially cash, and that those services are meant for people you trust. It says to pay with a credit card, because it is easier to contest a fraudulent charge. It also says not to pay for the service by wiring money or with a prepaid debit card. Treat that request as a reason to stop, not as a billing option.

The detail is on Zelle, wire, and gift-card requests. FMCSA's 2015 advisory adds a card warning of its own: if you pay by credit or debit card, watch the account and make sure the amount you authorized is the amount that posts.

If a charge is already on a credit card, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's page "How do I dispute a charge on my credit card bill?" (last reviewed April 15, 2024) says to call the issuer, and to send a written billing-error notice within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on the statement if you want the billing-error protections it describes. The same page says a different process may apply when you paid for a service that was defective. Ask the issuer which one fits. A dispute is not a promise that you win.

A price that is the bait#

BBB says to treat a price significantly lower than the market value of the service as a red flag, because the low number is how the deposit gets paid. There is no public file of every price people paid to ship a car. What you can do is compare the offer with the current range for your route and vehicle. RideShipper's range is an estimate with a date. It is not a quote a carrier must honor.

Put the offer in the quote checker: company, price, route, vehicle, and what the deposit terms say. A number far under the range, plus a fee due before a carrier is named, is the pattern. A number inside the range can still be a bad contract if the price is allowed to jump later. Read that clause. The explainer on when a quote is too cheap stays with the price. The red-flag checklist is the list to hold while you are on the phone.

What a careful offer looks like#

A lawful offer can include a deposit. The difference is timing and paper. The company is findable under its own legal name. The role, broker or carrier, is stated, which 49 CFR 371.7 requires of a broker. The carrier is named before the car is loaded, or the contract tells you when that name will appear. The price either stays put after a carrier is assigned, or the contract says, in a sentence you can find, when it may change. Payment is by a method you can dispute, preferably a credit card, which is what BBB recommends. You can walk away before the deposit if those lines are missing.

The scam warning-sign checker asks short questions about an offer and returns the signs that match. It does not clear a company. If you have already sent money and the truck never came, report the pattern to BBB Scam Tracker as the alert asks, and use FMCSA's complaint line in the 2015 advisory, 1-888-368-7238. Reporting does not return the deposit. The refund steps are the money steps, and they do not promise a refund.