A fake shipper impersonated a real employee at a major steel company.
• They built fake email accounts.
• Created a fake warehouse location.
• Approved fake carriers.
• The broker didn't realize it until after he had already paid the carriers.
• The FBI is now investigating.
The story sent in from a @freightcaviar follower:
"Long story short, a shipper reached out to us about quoting a lane. The inquiry was from a huge, well-known steel company and it came from a guy who actually worked there, verified through LinkedIn and the company's website. We ran their credit and it was good. They sent us a completely filled-out customer packet with accurate information, and our insurance company checked them off as reputable.
After talking to a handful of carriers, I quoted them and they said the quote sounded good and that they'd start the project in a couple of weeks. The project was Arizona to Pennsylvania dry vans, 8–10 loads per day. As it was about to start, they told us we could find carriers, but we'd need to submit the MC numbers so their safety team could approve the carriers as well.
We got a ton of calls from our load board posting, but they only approved two carriers, saying those carriers could handle the capacity because they were large fleets. We ran both carriers through Carrier411 and our carrier packet process, and they came back clean and legitimate.
We usually live-track all carriers, but we have some good carriers that only provide updates through email, and that's what these two carriers preferred. We were fine with it. Once the project started, they would send pickup and delivery updates, and the shipper would request BOLs, send PO numbers, and handle everything else. It felt exactly like working with any other customer. The carriers always wanted quick pay, so we provided it, as we do with many carriers.
We were paying these carriers a ton of money, and there were no red flags until the customer started getting late on payments. I didn't think too much of it because some customers pay late but eventually pay. However, I tried meeting them a couple of times and they always had an excuse. Then, when they finally agreed to meet, they canceled after I had already booked a hotel, flight, and rental car.
That's when I really started to think something was wrong. The red flags began piling up. I started making calls to a ton of warehouses and eventually got in touch with the coordinator overseeing all logistics for the company. I explained the entire situation to him.
He told me that whoever I had been dealing with had stolen the identity of a real employee at the company and that the email address I had been corresponding with was fake. They had done an incredible job making the email signatures look authentic and writing professionally.
Then it hit me. When we posted the lane on the load board, the 'shipper' had been coordinating with 'carriers' who would call in, pretend to be legitimate carriers with available capacity, and then get approved by this fake shipper. There was never any freight moving at all. They even went as far as creating a Google Maps page for a fake warehouse that didn't belong to them.
There's a lot more to the story, but it has now escalated to the FBI and they are actively investigating it. I spoke with this 'shipper' on the phone several times, and despite all the due diligence we performed, they managed to make everything appear legitimate. I'm sure I'm leaving out some details, but the entire situation is absolutely insane. Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved, and enough money was stolen for the FBI to take the case very seriously."
🚨 OMG. A MASSIVE India H-1B visa fraud ring has just been busted...nearly 90% PERCENT of India's visa applications contain FRAUDULENT INFORMATION
100,000 THOUSAND counterfeit certificates have been seized 🤯
"Law enforcement in India claim it has uncovered a network of universities that produce fake degrees which were possibly used to obtain these high skilled H1B visas, including one school which allegedly stole over 36,000 fake degrees. It cost as little as $1,400 for one of those."
"And while these are supposed to be high skilled employees during almost all of Biden's time in office, 83% got junior or entry level positions."
This is INSANE! SHUT DOWN THE H-1B SCAM!
@KenPaxtonTX is now going after this in Texas 🔥
@kayleighmcenany@SatAmericaFNC
The Miami Herald is trying to portray this as some unjust crisis.
There are 1.6 million illegal aliens in Florida and an estimated 49,000 are enrolled in community colleges or universities.
No other country allows Americans to attend their schools without a visa. Yet somehow the left thinks we should be letting everyone from around the world attend our schools for free?
How did the left get to such a messed up frame of reference for these things?