A high-tech toy company has been the victim of an elaborate robbery that robbed them of more than $1 million worth of holiday merchandise, three truckloads of goods. This is the latest example of a new type of fraud that threatens to plague businesses across the country, the Post reported.
In mid-October, London-based Flycatcher was preparing to ship 12,600 fish. smart sketcher — A toy projector that helps kids learn to draw, retails for $108 — will be shipped from a warehouse in north Las Vegas to a Walmart distribution center in Atlanta.
But three trucks hired to deliver the toys ahead of the crucial Black Friday weekend never reached their destination. Warehouses, truck drivers, and logistics companies were all caught up in a complex scam in which two of the shipments were diverted to Los Angeles.
The fate of the third shipment is still unknown, but Flycatcher believes it may have been rerouted and taken to New York City.
Part of the reason is that in recent weeks, Flycatcher has found the Smart Sketcher on sale at a deep discount from a Brooklyn-based third-party seller on Amazon, making Flycatcher a competitor. said Shay Chen, owner and founder of Flycatcher.
“We cannot tolerate what is happening,” Chen told the Post. “We are losing a lot of money during the holidays.”
Flycatcher filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan against 14 online retailers for selling stolen SmartSketchers despite receiving cease and desist letters. Four of the sellers are located in New York City, and the others are in California, Oregon, and New Jersey.
Meanwhile, Chen said Flycatcher is still compiling details about how the scammers made off with its merchandise after reporting the incident to Las Vegas police and the FBI.
According to a police report, Shipfusion, a warehouse operator that serves e-commerce companies such as Flycatcher, arrived in Cincinnati in mid-October to coordinate shipments of Smart Sketchers from its warehouse in North Las Vegas. We commissioned US Logistics, a major shipping company.
But things took a turn for the wrong after US Logistics offered the trucking company a job. According to a police report, the intermediary accepted bids from two legitimate companies, but it turned out to be thieves posing as the two companies.
One legal trucking company is Chicago-based Orest Express, whose co-owner Ihor Motkalyuk said US Logistics contacted him last month to confirm that his company was located in California. He said he had confirmed whether the delivery to the warehouse had been completed. The toys were stolen by scammers.
“We told them that we had never done cargo handling like this and that someone must have pretended to be us,” Motkalyuk said.
Motkaliuk added that sophisticated criminal organizations are a serious problem for the trucking industry, partly due to inadequate policing at both local and national levels.
“Scammers are stealing cargo and personal information. This is really bad,” he said. “They're getting bolder. They're not scared because they don't get caught.”
John Howell, a flycatcher representative for US Logistics, declined to comment to the Post. ShipFusion did not respond to a request for comment. North Las Vegas police declined to comment on the “active investigation.” The FBI also declined to comment.
So-called “strategic theft,” in which legitimate companies are tricked into helping steal cargo, is exploding, with a 1,445% increase this year compared to 2022 levels, according to Cargonet. According to the Theft Prevention and Recovery Network, this scam now accounts for 33% of all cargo thefts, up from between 5% and 10% before 2022.
The epidemic is being fueled by organized crime groups in 20 countries, said Scott Cornell, a crime and theft expert at Travelers. Cornell, who was not directly involved in the Flycatcher investigation, said the scammers likely carried out a “double intermediary” scam.
“It always starts with identity theft, where a fraudster poses as a legitimate trucking company and submits a quote or bid to a broker. Once they pass the vetting process, they go to the trucker pretending to be a broker and They offer good rates. The legitimate trucking company has no idea they are involved in the theft,” Cornell said.
Another legitimate trucking company whose name was used by the scammers in the Flycatcher scam is San Antonio-based Basse Truck Line. Owner Dylan Bass said he didn't know about the disruption until he was contacted by the Post. Despite this, he admitted that someone had been using his business name and identification number over the past month.
“They use fictitious emails that are slightly modified versions of our emails to book work with various brokers,” Bass said.
In fact, Basse Truck Line was listed on the invoice for one of the Flycatcher shipments that ended up in LA. The toy was delivered by Omar Siguenza, owner of Los Angeles-based World Route Transline. He got caught up in the scam after responding to a job posting and agreeing to transport toys 440 miles from Las Vegas to Southgate, Calif., for $700. Located in Los Angeles County.
While driving, he had multiple conversations with the scammer and agreed to increase his fee by $1,000 in exchange for delivering the item almost 12 hours later than the agreed upon time. However, Siguenza was not paid for the trip on October 18th.
“I thought I was talking to a broker, but it turned out to be a scammer,” Siguenza said. “I've been doing this job for 38 years and I've never experienced anything like this.”
When Siguenza submitted his bill for payment, he learned he had been defrauded by Bus Truck Lines, which told the collector it had no involvement in the work. This is despite the fact that the bus's name was on the invoice Sigüenza received when he picked up the goods in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, flycatchers are racing to go after companies that sell their products on third-party sales platforms like Amazon and Walmart. These include sellers in Sacramento and San Diego, as well as Brooklyn-based Ozmos LLC, which listed Smart Skechers for just $84.
“The first seller appeared on Amazon on Nov. 6 and they were selling it at a 25% discount from the price we were selling it at,” Chen said.
The flycatcher purchased its own toy from a vendor to learn its location. Despite a cease and desist letter from Flycatcher's attorney, the seller continued to sell the product.
Chen notified Amazon on Nov. 7 and received an automated response saying Amazon was looking into the matter. The web giant closed the seller's stores late last month after the Post contacted Amazon.
Nevertheless, “new sellers appear every few days,” Chen lamented.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Online retailers named in the federal lawsuit, including Osmos in Brooklyn and EYG Deals in Fresh Meadows, Queens, could not be reached. For comments.
A few days after Siguenza delivered the Smart Skechers, she and her son drove to the South Gate warehouse to retrieve the items. It was only about five miles from my home in Los Angeles.
“We spoke to the building management and [bill of goods receipt] Then he told us the cargo was gone,” Siguenza said.
To add insult to injury, US Logistics is now threatening to sue Sigüenza for $361,872, according to a letter to his insurance company.
“This is devastating,” the truck driver told the Post, adding that his cargo insurance only covers $100,000.
