Could Radiohead's Success Spell Doom For Music Collective Bargaining?

Scammers Run A Trucking Company With No Trucks

from the the-magic-of-computers dept

Wed, Oct 22nd 2008 2:43am — Mike Masnick

You have to admit that there are some creative scammers out there. Take, for example, a group of Russian immigrants, who used their hacking skills to effectively run a trucking company that didn't exist. They would hack into a Department of Transportation website that listed licensed trucking firms to change the contact info (temporarily) on certain firms to their own address and phone number. Then, they would go to another online site that listed cargo in need of transportation. They'd pose as the firm whose contact info they'd replaced, get the deal, and then go find another trucking firm to actually deliver the cargo. The cargo itself would get delivered, and the scammers would contact the original cargo owners to get paid. Then, the company that actually delivered the cargo would contact the company these scammers pretended to be working for, and discover that it had no clue what they were talking about. Apparently, this scam was effective enough to net the scammers over a half-million dollars. Of course, it wasn't effective enough to keep them from getting arrested.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: man in the middle, scams, trucking

25 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Trucker, 22 Oct 2008 @ 3:38am

I don't get this. People try to innovate with new business models and they get called scammers and stuck in the slammer?

Get a grip.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Dave, 22 Oct 2008 @ 3:56am
  
  Re:
  I think the issue is that they effectively subcontracted the work (which is OK), but kept all of the money.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - jonnyq, 22 Oct 2008 @ 6:32am
    
    Re: Re:
    Or, you know, the whole hacking and fraud thing.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Innovative?, 14 Nov 2008 @ 2:21pm
  
  Re: by Trucker
  How is stealing the services of a company an innovative business model? I guess for the crooks, yah!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2008 @ 4:09am

I've always had a soft spot for scammers/con men. Whenever I hear of them getting caught and punished, it always feels like too harsh a punishment.

I know they make serious trouble for many people etc... but still. They're so cool.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Scrathing my head, 22 Oct 2008 @ 4:35am

re
Idiots. How can you condone breaking the law? How would you like being the independent owner/operator that got stuck with the cost of delivering said goods.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- ;), 22 Oct 2008 @ 5:00am
  
  Re: re
  Sarcasm
  
  ---------
  
  Your head
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
martyburns, 22 Oct 2008 @ 5:10am

I disagree
As someone who has no part to play in the matter, it entertains to read about it and marvel at peoples cunning. I know it would suck to be at the receiving end, and I would feel different if I was, but I'm not, so I think its clever regardless of being illegal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- nasch, 22 Oct 2008 @ 9:29am
  
  Re: I disagree
  What I love about it (from an abstract sort of view) is that the cargo, which the scammers didn't care about at all, actually got delivered! It seems like the usual scam is to say I'll provide a service, get payment, then not provide the service. These guys actually provided the service, then got payment, and then screwed over the service provider. Clever indeed - and I'm glad they got caught too.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
The i-Team, 22 Oct 2008 @ 5:30am

Supposing...
Supposing these people put that much time and energy into developing legit business models, they'd probably end up quite well off.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2008 @ 6:15am
  
  Re: Supposing...
  Seriously, these guys are probably smart enough to come up with a legitimate (only criminals use the word "legit", btw) business...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - ehrichweiss, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:23am
    
    Re: Re: Supposing...
    MC Hammer sought for questioning.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - asdf, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:37am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Supposing...
      Mr. MC you're being accused of hammering when it was indeed, not "time".
      
      How do you plead?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- chris (profile), 22 Oct 2008 @ 6:26am
  
  Re: Supposing...
  Supposing these people put that much time and energy into developing legit business models, they'd probably end up quite well off.....
  
  and get sued for infringing on a vague patent on some business process?
  
  nah, better to get in and get back out before the big time criminals and their lawyers show up.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2008 @ 6:59am

Very cunning, smart and cool. Kudos to law enforcement for reigning this criminals in but I still have to toast the bad guys from being cool.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mark Regan, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:48am

Sounds To Me Like What US Businesses Do Every Day
Example: Guys need money to start up a business. They print and issue stock certificates. Sell stock on Wall Street to stupid people (mostly taxpayers). When the business fails, stockholders and retirees and employees lose. Businessmen don't lose, because they call up their buddy, George Bush, for a bailout with taxpayer money. Deal done. Bush prints money and gives it to his business buddies who promptly pay themselves hundreds of millions of dollars for the "risk" they took in starting the business. Bush sends bill for the bailout of his business buddies to taxpayers and their children. Oh, isn't Capitalism great?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mojo_Death, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:57am
  
  Re: Sounds To Me Like What US Businesses Do Every Day
  What you are describing is not capitalism, and only demonstrated your ignorance of the issue at hand.
  
  Sorry to burst your naive, socialist bubble.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- interval, 22 Oct 2008 @ 8:45am
  
  Re: Sounds To Me Like What US Businesses Do Every Day
  Yeah. Capitalism breeds criminals. So much worse than the mass murderers Communism breeds. Or the "give a shit about anything" attitude of Socialism. You're so right.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Bob, 22 Oct 2008 @ 9:18am
  
  Re: Sounds To Me Like What US Businesses Do Every Day
  Markie, what you have just described is not free market capitalism but Stalinist socialism.
  I might suggest a bit of reading beyond Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto.
  Maybe some Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, and a bit of Max Weber.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mojo_Death, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:53am

Crime as a business model
Crime, in many ways is a "legit" business model. No matter the industry, it seeks to maximize profit and minimize expense.

The down side of course, (and the thing that keeps most people out of it) is that the potential profits seldom out weigh the penalties that will most certainly be imposed on a criminal level.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mojo_Death, 22 Oct 2008 @ 7:53am

Crime as a business model
Crime, in many ways is a "legit" business model. No matter the industry, it seeks to maximize profit and minimize expense.

The down side of course, (and the thing that keeps most people out of it) is that the potential profits seldom out weigh the penalties that will most certainly be imposed on a criminal level.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lickity Split, 22 Oct 2008 @ 10:48am

Hardly a new Biz Model
It's called a truckload brokerage firm and there are thousands of them out there and it is VERY competitive...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The i-Team, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:58am

You can't touch him!!
You can't touch him!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Erik L, 23 Oct 2008 @ 7:13am

as illegal as this is...speaking...
as illegal as this is...speaking of the fraud and hacking...you have to give these guys props for coming up with the whole thing.
as The i-Team said, Supposing these people put that much time and energy into developing legit business models, they'd probably end up quite well off.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Illi, 21 Dec 2016 @ 6:34am

be careful
If one is careful and checks out all the data of the company including phone numbers plus uses a reliable online platform, like this: http://www.truck1.eu/ , nothing bad happens.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]