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For 3 Years, Scammers Ran Truckless Trucking Company
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Oct 22, 2008 01:58 PM
from the trucker-in-the-middle dept.
from the trucker-in-the-middle dept.
mikesd81 writes "Wired reports Nicholas Lakes and Viachelav Berkovich are charged with computer fraud [PDF] for a man-in-the-middle attack that allegedly let them run a profitable trucking company without the hassle of driving a truck. For over three years the Russian immigrants hacked a Department of Transportation website called Safersys.org, which maintains a list of licensed interstate trucking companies and brokers. They then went on forums where brokers advertise cargo in need of transportation and negotiate a deal, for example, to transport cargo from American Canyon, California, to Jessup, Maryland, for $3,500. But instead of transporting the load, they would outsource the job to another trucking company posing as the legitimate company whose identity they'd hijacked. They would then invoice the company and take the money. When the company that owned the actual truck tried to contact the company that needed the goods delivered, they found they knew nothing about it. Over all they made nearly $500,000."
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Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
When the time comes for the artists to get paid...
Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
2)... 3)Profit!
So this is actually a valid business model?!?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It's actually a very common business model, in this case it's improper because of all the computer hacking and lying.
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Interesting)
They were not subcontractors. The criminals were imitating contractors and taking money in their name. When the real contractors showed up, the goods were there, but the money had been paid to someone else.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Informative)
No.
The criminals imitated a legitimate trucking company, bid on and won loads, then subcontracted the actual hauling out to a second trucking company. When the load was delivered, the criminals would pocket the money. When the subcontractor that did the actual hauling would contact the legitimate company to get paid, the company wouldn't know anything about it because said company was impersonated by the criminals.
The scam worked like this:
Criminals hack into SaferSys.org and get the info of trucking company A.
They would then go on a load board and bid on and win a load from company B.
Then, as A they would contract trucking company C to haul the load for B
When the load was delivered, B would pay the criminals thinking they were paying A.
The criminals then disappear with the money.
Meanwhile company C would contact A to get paid for actually hauling the load and A would have no idea what C was talking about.
Got it?
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for that explanation.
Has anyone noticed that these two zeebs didn't actually earn a very good living with this scam?
Two guys laboring for three years to produce ~$500,000... that is an annual salary of $83K apiece, which is good pay for a regular low-risk job but lousy pay for a high-risk situation like this one. And lo and behold the risk occurred and stung them both.
The more stories like this I hear about, the more I think that most criminals work too hard for their take, and ought to reconsider.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
(didn't RTFA)
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
On the contrary, where can you find a job doing anything legal which nets you $83k after taxes and lets you (a) work from home (b) not bother to work when you don't want to and (c) only requires a few hours a month (which is all they probably did). If the 83k were taxable, it would put them in the top 23% of wage earners in the US, and if you account for taxes on top of their (untaxed) 83k (i.e. payroll and income), you're solidly in the top 15% in take-home.
Trust me, being a criminal is far less time intensive than a steady job at the same wage. Most of these guys would probably struggle to hold down a $22-30,000/yr service position in the "real world".
Besides, now it looks like they'll get free room and board for several years.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
ya, but there is no insurance or matching 401k.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:4, Interesting)
That's a very good observation. I recall reading, a number of years ago, that since President Reagan's days there was a lot of deregulation in trucking, partly in an effort to break the Teamsters. And, as a result, the collateral damage was a large increase in longer hours behind the wheel, a marginally capable pool of 'new' immigrant drivers and the NAFTA, which had a lot of Mexican truckers, who were obviously unfamiliar with US highway driving, crossing all the way to Canada and East.
Over the last 15 years or so the number of trucks increased about 40% but the number of miles driven nearly doubled. Also, the number of automobiles involved in fatal crashes with trucks declined by around 40%, but trucker fatalities only dropped by about 6%. I'm not saying that 'proves' anything, but it certainly looks like truckers, on average, are pulling more miles, and getting themselves killed in solo accidents, as a result. [My brain isn't hooked-up for math, tonight, but before the declines in fatalities, on the highways, in general, 2/3 of the accidents involving big trucks were caused by cars, so, if auto fatalities, in general, have declined, and they have, then truck fatalities should have also declined at a much better rate, if all things were considered equal]
Driving a truck is no party. I used to drive a car, heheh, about 100,000 miles a year. And I remember, mid-to-late 80s or so, realizing that a fair number of trucks, out on the Interstates, late at night, seemed to do little things that they didn't do in the 'old days.' Truckers used to be the best drivers on the road, and they very well might still be. But that is one tough way to make a decent living.
I only drove a cab for a few years, a piece of cake compared to a transport truck, and even that was a bit rough. I leased my car 24/7, and there were plenty of times I could drive, but not walk (not without a great deal of discomfort). No doubt truckers are suffering a lot of physical ailments, besides having to avoid a-holes cruising in their blind spots, and all the other crazy shit that cars and their drivers come up with.
I know how tempting it is to be more amused at the two Russians' clever little scam, but driving long hauls, and not getting compensated, because of a couple of scumbags? If there's any justice Vlad and his pal will end up in a joint, on a block with some Teamsters. I guarantee they won't be laughing and feeling so fucking smart then.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't understand. Can you repeat this with Alice, Bob, Carol and Ted?
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
No. In this case it's got to be Anastasia, Boris, Katya and Taras.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Informative)
You're incorrect. The criminals would replace the phone number of an approved contractor with their own number, and then pose as that company when the customer with goods to ship called them up to arrange a contract. They'd then turn around and, still posing as the legitimate trucking company, subcontract the job to someone else who would actually pickup the goods and deliver them.
Thus, the customer pays the criminals to move the goods, and the criminals get the subcontractor to do it, then they just don't pay the subcontractor. If the subcontractor wants to complain, he just ends up talking to the company that the criminals were impersonating, who has not been involved at all up to that point.
The "real contractors" never show up to ship anything -- they are just the "fall guy" who the customer and subcontractor both thought they were dealing with.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't find that incredible at all. I have relatives in the trucking industry (yeah go figure!).
1. Contractors usually invoice with net-30 terms, meaning they only get paid a month after the job is done.
2. Some jobs are paid upon project completion, which means you could be waiting 3-6 months or more.
2. A lot of trucking/construction businesses are run by imbeciles with poor cashflow that pay late, and some of them are just assholes who pay late on purpose.
3. A lot of companies go bankrupt (or vanish) and never pay.
4. A large number of truckers are independent, so the bookkeeping is handled by either the guy himself or their spouse. Things fall through the cracks all the time.
5. How many trucking companies are there in the US ? Enough that these crooks never had to use the same one twice. These contractors don't exactly communicate fraud information with each other, so you could scam N-2 companies and still find a pair of suckers.
Parent
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
The story of hacking isn't bullshit. They changed the contact info for the companies they were impersonating to numbers they controlled. It says so in TFA. The scam may have worked without that step, but according to the article that's what they did.
Also, it's funny that if they'd paid the subcontractor and kept the difference, they'd probably still be running the scam. They'd probably be able to rip off the brokers indefinitely if the trucking companies were happy with their pay and arrangements. It seems it was the angry trucking companies coming back on the brokers they thought hired them that caused this to break open.
A smaller, slower take could have given them a good steady side income for years longer. If the only crime was posing as some broker and using that broker's good name to garner business, they'd get light sentences even if they were caught. If they could have ramped up to where they were stealing 3% or 4% of every broker's business, they'd have been able to live very comfortably.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess that would too close to "work."
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Reading the affidavit, they where actually recieving less for teh loads than they where promising to pay.
IE, they would agree to move a load for 3400 dollars. Then sub it to someone else for 4K dollars.
Kind of hard to make money that way, eh?
--Toll_Free
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If they did that:
1) They would have to compete with other trucking company
2) They would not be able to offer lower rate to the shipper, and higher rates to the subcontractor. (hence harder to compete)
3) They would have made $2000 instead of $500000 (assuming they could charge a difference of 4% - and assuming they could get the same amount of business)
4) Their only monetary benefits compared to a being a real broker would be avoiding paying taxes and whatever fees a broker needs to pay.
So yeah... It would n
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
1)Start trucking company 2)... 3)Profit! So this is actually a valid business model?!?
No, and you forgot the 4th step:
4) Get arrested!
Re:Wait... EXACTLY. It took 3 years to shut down? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just another example of how the FBI is failing the people of the USA. There is no way this should have taken 3 years to shut down.
It's not even an example where the FBI helped a company but would not help individuals. Most (if not all) of the victims were companies.
Parent
Give them a Job (Score:2)
And, as usual... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
He's not real!
More Info! (Score:3, Funny)
I would like to subscribe to their newsletter; does anyone know their address?
Re:More Info! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:More Info! (Score:4, Funny)
Inmate #3L33T3
P.M.I.T.A Prison
Dontdropthesoap, CA, 10101-1010
Parent
These people should be considered heroes (Score:5, Funny)
The most environmentally friendly trucking company EVER.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that it wasn't environmentally friendly because a truck still rolled with a load. The load got delivered, but the pay for the delivery was stolen. And, chances are the "company" that delivered the load and didn't get paid was an independent trucker, and loosing that money could put them out of business.
Re:These people should be considered heroes (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
yro? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:yro? (Score:4, Funny)
Yaks Receive Oscar
Parent
Re:yro? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I was scammed by these guys (Score:5, Funny)
Nice guys, they're very persuasive in person. Vitaly is loud, boisterous, always wants to have a good time. He wears fine suits and a lot of gold. Vlade is quieter, and he seems to have some sort of brooding intensity. He was always wearing track suits and listening to Run-DMC.
I honestly believed that these were best guys for transporting my adult novelties across state lines. This can be illegal in some jurisdictions (like Texas) and you need someone who knows how to run an illegal business. Since they are Russian, I knew they could handle it.
They kept telling me that the merchadise was seized at the Texas border by Davy Crockett and Ed Meese, and I believed them for a long time. Finally, after the 3rd shipment I started to suspect something. All of a sudden, the phone stopped ringing. Those Russians had played me for a fool!
That's when I knew I had to become a symbol. A creature of the night, to frighten away criminal scum like these Russians. I prayed to Jesus, and he transformed me into...the Bat-Man!
Re:I was scammed by these guys (Score:5, Informative)
informative?
Parent
Re:I was scammed by these guys (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Computer fraud? Or just plain fraud (Score:5, Insightful)
Crime does not pay (Score:5, Insightful)
All that work by several people over three years to make $500K? There were apparently more people involved than the two indicted, and they had some operating costs. So they might have made $50K/year per participant, if they were lucky. And they had all the hassles of running a business. Even without the "going to jail" part, this was a lose.
They probably would have done better running a legit trucking brokerage, which they clearly knew how to do. They had to do all the selling and paperwork a real broker would do. Worse, their scam model didn't allow for much repeat business, so they had to keep hustling to find new customers.
Owner of a trucking company speaks out. (Score:5, Informative)
This has been going on for years.
I OWN a trucking company now, and have been dealing with assholes like this for years.
Whats becoming even MORE of a problem is the illegals who go out and steal (borrow) an MC and/or DOT number and slap it on the side of their truck. Then they "go to work".
What with my insurance costing me > 1200 A MONTH, PER TRUCK, it is easy to see why someone would want to "run illegally". It's fairly hard to get caught, unless you run across state lines. Hence, most of the people don't.
If your truck is titled, with a sticker for the correct weight, you don't go over it, and you don't have any other reason for a scale to flag you, then they don't pull you in. You don't get pulled in, you don't get busted.
At the risk of being called a racist, the BIGGEST Lusers of this type of behavior, are mexicans. Period. And, this isn't a local trend (California), this is a NATIONAL trend.
Whats sad is this: The idiots doing THIS scam didn't have to hack anything. All they had to do is look up a legit DOT / MC number for a BROKER, and then go into business with the same business name.
And brokers licenses are CHEAP. Instead of my insurance rates (600/month liability (1 million dollars), 1000/6 months Cargo, 500/month basic liability (the 600 a month liability doesn't cover you, unless you have a loaded trailer or a load in the "box truck")). For a brokers license, you need a basic 10K dollar insurance policy. Costs, at most, about 250 a month, if you go to the right insurance agent. BOC3 filings cost another 100 a year.
These people are the reasons trucking businesses are going out of business. It's hard enough having to make 3.00 a mile, when most freight will pay you 1.50 to 2.00 a mile. Then you get the .ru faggots in there stealing business, etc.
They went even farther than that. According to the Owner / Operator Independant Drivers Association (http://www.ooida.org), they have pulled Russian's out of trucks who didn't speak A WORD OF ENGLISH, where UNABLE to properly identify 3 road signs, etc., and WHERE BEHIND THE WHEEL OF 80,000 to 120,000 pound trucks. However, if you REALLY research it, you can / will find that most people who are running illegally, carry names like Jose, Manuel, etc.
Sad state of affairs, having to try to make money while people operating illegally are competing with you. Even sadder state of affairs when legal companies are getting profits skimmed off them from illegal brokers, and having to deal with Hose-A and Hose-B running illegally.
Thank GOD I had dedicated accounts who paid me regularly, and everything else was handled COD.
This isn't going to stop, nor is it going to go away. It's a fact of life, and until they do PrePass on EVERY truck (somewhat like RFID, but uses EasyTag type devices in the trucks), everyone who operates on the road has to deal with people like this.
--Toll_Free
(disclaimer: I took a motorcycle into a wall at 130MPH 6 or so months ago. My company closed at that time, so read into this what you will. Unfortunately, this WAS work related, the motorcycle was a customers, and the throttle cable stuck in a 3/4 gear shift getting the bike to my trailer.)
Too Much Supply... (Score:4, Interesting)
...Chasing too little demand.
Not that I don't sympathize with the plight of the trucking industry, but it sounds like the business model you're describing is no longer profitable.
The problem with the trucking industry is not illegal immigrants or unscrupulous competitors. The business you describe should, in theory, be able to attract clients willing to pay more for licensed drivers and adequate insurance. And yet they are still operating with razor thin (and even negative) margins. Most likely because their are just too many legal operations in competition for too little business.
Singling out "mexicans" (ignoring the varied origins of the local Latino population) strikes me as being quite explicitly racist in this context. You are using people of a different cultural background and physical appearance as a scapegoat for problems caused by the inherent weaknesses in your industry.
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
lol. Spoken like someone that came here on a boat, probably from Cuba, or somewhere else (to make a racial slur, from your moniker here).
Anywho, 10 years ago, it was a VERY profitable venture, operating a trucking company.
NAFTA broke a lot of the companies that where making a LOT of money, especially on the border states.
Most places don't CARE how the freight gets there, just as long as it DOES. Legal or not, if it arrives, who cares.
Then you have the current problem with oil prices. Diesel prices are ex
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why didn't you just press the kill switch or pull in the clutch?
Kawasaki 750 turbo motorcycle. Gets moving PRETTY quick, especially when I found out the original owner had done the "race mode" modification of changing two wires on the ECU. Turns off the wastegate on the turbo, so basically, as much boost as that little hairdryer would spool, is what I was running at. From noticing the problem to the accident was all of about 2 seconds. Not a whole lot of time.
Went from 50 to 130 in about a couple carlengths.
Was trying to get the throttle unstuck, as I was on a strai
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I assume you were doing heavy permit hauling since the weight limit on the U.S. national highway system is 80,000 pounds.
No, I own a hotshot company. 33K pounds and less.
I was talking of someone operating illegally, as indicated on ooida.org.
And although you can go up to 80K pounds INTERSTATE, INTRASTATE commerce (within the state lines) is governed by the state DOT.
IE, you can go up 100K pounds in Oregon, and their length laws are different.
Each state has their own operating laws. California is a bunch of bitches, considering they say it's to keep the highways "nice", and the highways here SUCK, for lack of better terms.
I h
Almost legitimate (Score:3, Insightful)
Except for the fact that they were stealing another company's identity, that's not a bad idea. If they'd started something called, say, "truck-bay" and allowed people to take bids from trucking companies on specific delivery jobs (tacking on a service fee of their own of course), they'd have a perfectly legitimate business.
But... But... But it runs on IIS! (Score:4, Funny)
Safersys.org runs IIS on Windows Server 2003.
I really wonder how these hackers managed to crack they way into such a well-known paragon of security and reliability.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Apparently a 100% slice. That's the problem.
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Informative)
No, if that's what they were doing they could have set up a legitimate business and possibly been successful.
They weren't "taking a slice off the top" - They were taking the whole pie, having the sub-contractors haul the loads they'd committed to, and then leaving the drivers uncompensated because they had in fact been hired by scammers rather than a legitimate contracting firm. Contacting the actual contracting firms did no good because they had no knowledge of the contract and the $$ had gone to the Russians.
I admit that the summary was a little hard to follow - I had to read it a couple of times too - TFA makes the situation much more clear.
Parent
Re:500k isnt that much (Score:5, Funny)
500k should be enough for everybody.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)