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For 3 Years, Scammers Ran Truckless Trucking Company
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."
Sounds a bit like the music industry to me.
When the time comes for the artists to get paid...
1)Start trucking company
2)... 3)Profit!
So this is actually a valid business model?!?
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Wait - they're already employed by someone else. And probably making comparable salaries to their BRILLIANT business scheme.
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
The true middle man, Keyser Soze, gets off scot free.
I would like to subscribe to their newsletter; does anyone know their address?
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
The most environmentally friendly trucking company EVER.
What does yro mean? It has been driving me nuts...
So the moral of the story is to pay your subcontractors, right?
I'm sure they were most concerned with collecting fines/fees. The actual safety of this safety reporting clearing house probably didn't matter.
I suspect al queda will use the same system to ship their dirty bombs at taxpayer expense.
Perhaps we need to take out a loan to fund a major infrastructure upgrade so we can expand the quality work of the feds to more and more places and localities.
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!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Illegal or not, I have to grudgingly admit I'm impressed by this. After all, they were just acting as middle men and taking a slice off the top.
Slick, however you look at it.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
In earlier years, this kind of fraud could have been executed over the telephone, or through the mail. Why does the medium that was used affect the specific criminal charge applied -- "computer fraud"? Just plain fraud would do nicely.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
500 grand? Pikers. I say ship their asses back to Moscow. In fact, based on a number of Russian expats I work and deal with on a daily basis, there are a quite a few Russian immigrants that should be shipped out. Not because I don't like Russians, some of them are very warm and engaging people, but a because they're degenerates. Give 'em all a psych screening test and deport the ones that exhibit delusional arrogance and criminal tendencies. Family persecuted by the Communists? Harrassed because of your religious beliefs? If you're a degenerate, tough shit, I want your fucking ass out of here.
I guess the problem was that the folks who didn't get paid couldn't communicate well enough with the company who paid the money out. If that company had just cooperated then the funds could have been tracked to see where they were deposited, which would then lead to the criminals. I suspect that's what finally happened in the end.
Company needs merch shipped.
Fake company offers services as XYZ.
Fake XYZ makes the run.
Company pays Fake XYZ.
Both parties are happy.
XYZ is confused. That's it. So what is the deal?
Uncle Mantis
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.
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.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Truckers ran a scamming operation unnoticed for 3 years...
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
That sounds like alot of work for 500,000 over 3 years.
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.)
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.
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
500k / 2 people = $250k per person / 3 years = $80k/yr
I really can't see how that's worth it. Get a job (you obviously have computer skills), avoid the prison time, get paid about as much or more.
They do that with just about every category of fraud. I believe that it's partially related to scope and entities responsible for enforcement (different folks handle the case depending on whether I sell you a Rollex from my coat, mail fake credit card applications from my state to yours to gain personal information, or call you from Nigeria to get you to help me with a tricky financial situation). Another reason is probably related to the perceived impact to society at large (can this type of fraud easily swindle large amounts of money from many people or is this just a $1 at a time, 1 person at a time game of 3-card Monte) and the identity of the victims (single voter vs. deep-pocketed insurance company).
So, we wind up with computer fraud, phone fraud, insurance fraud, mail fraud, credit card fraud, charity fraud, etc...
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Hint: see how GP was modded "Funny". It was a joke. Laugh.
I know, I'll get modded offtopic, but...
Every Slashdotter needs this app [openendsoftware.com].
Ummmm... why does "every" slashdotter need a Mac OS X-only application? Even giving you the liberty that by "every" you just mean "many", I'm guessing your math is seriously off.
Ok, to pretend that I'm really on topic... I agree that this is just plain fraud, there's nothing special here due to computer use.
Sign all your communications with trusted keys...
Companies do this all the time. THey dot have drivers/trucks so they lease them. Some even stick their company logo over the rental logo.
No different then drop shipping sales from some other company.
They were the VAR in the loop.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The crimes that are tough to catch a crook at are the ones you can't really explain in a paragraph. I'm surprised they stayed in this for so long. Seems like they were itching to get caught.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
itsnotabigtruck
A neutral communications medium is essential. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.
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.
Fantasy: http://ferrisfantasy.blogspot.com/
My favourite scam from the uk was a couple of guys that set up a fake junk mail delivery company.
They made a fortune by pretending to deliver junk mail for companies but just dumped the lot in a skip.
It my favourite because they made their money just saving everyone the bother of doing what they were going to do with it anyway :)
Truckers run scamless scamming companies.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
...this sounds like something Joe The Plumber® might be involved in.
*ducks*
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
For punishment, a different part of their body should be sent to each destination at which they scammed people. Because we're good sports we'll let them decide which part of their body goes where.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Why were you loading a motorcycle in 4th gear at 130 mph? Next time, bail out!
It's a little complicated so I don't blame you if you didn't follow exactly what the scam was. They were acting like ebay... except they were keeping the entire final bid and disappearing to leave the bidder and seller to argue about payment.
Well, if you think it's so easy to catch cyber-criminals, particularly when the companies involved were probably far to busy pointing figures at each other and there not being much paper trail, or the fact that kept changing companies, etc.
perhaps you, Sherlock, should be applying to the FBI?
...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.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
>> 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!
> informative?
Of course it's informative! Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to find out the Bat-Man's real identity!?
Illegal or no, this served them right.
"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."
Can you all say, MSCE? I knew you could.
When was the FBI contacted?
Its Natural, No Mr. Natural. Keep on Truckin'
I am wondering how they billed . . . only thing that comes to mind is cash . . . does anyone know? I am amazed it took that long for them to be caught. Moe
SARAVA!
This is exactly what the Bush administration has been doing with their contractors -- and so far no one has said it is illegal -- they hire 1 contractor who knows nothing about doing whatever it is they are contracted to do -- then they hire other contractors to do the work -- skimming big bucks off the middle
for acting as the go-between between Bush Bush-buddy Bush-buddy's contractor friends.
If this is illegal, when they gonna hit up Washington, because this has been the well documented way of doing almost all contracts in DC since Bush took office.
Sounds like a constitutional issue -- unfair/unequal application of the law...
So the two scammers made $500K over 3 years, from which they had to pay other trucking companies for the work. This strikes me as a massively inefficient and stupid scam.
Pay the trucking company. Keep a 5 or so percent skim as a finders fee or whatever they want to call it.
Then, instead of criminals they would be called "entrepreneurs."
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Isn't it.
Because it was patented that way.
Computer fraud is like computer errors. A computer error is any error that happens and there is a computer in the room. There is always a computer in the room. Hence, all errors are computer errors.