Cybercrooks team up with organized crime to steal pricey cargo

Cybercriminals are increasingly orchestrating lucrative cargo thefts alongside organized crime groups (OCGs) in a modern-day resurgence of attacks on freight companies. Reminiscent of the decades-old criminal campaigns targeting train carriages and other shipping methods, researchers at Proofpoint say criminals are not only …

[David Newall]

that seems like a lot of work for not really so much money.

[simonlb]

But if you're going to advertise what you have on offer people will take advantage. Rewind 30 years to when plasma TV's were the new and expensive shiny shiny, and here in the UK the TV rental company Martin Dawes had ' 42" Plasma TV Installation Service ' emblazoned on the sides of the vans that were installing them at residential locations. Crims would just follow these vans, watch where they were installing them and two weeks later break in and rob the TV.

Then we got social media where people would show off their big, fancy, new, wall mounted LED TV and then a month later tell everyone they were going away for two weeks so the house would be empty...

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

n

Poor old Feech Lamana eh...

[Anonymous Coward]

The classic was of course to put the cardboard box from the 42 inch plasma out with the bin on recycling day - thus advertising to the street and dog that you had shiny new telly.

A friend of mine back then was running a home AV/theatre install business and always took the boxes away in his unmarked van. He was amazed how many people were oblivious to leaving the cardboard box outside and advertising your new gadgets to the local crims.

[MrReynolds2U]

If I buy anything expensive, I keep the packaging in the attic until the warranty expires (usually a year), then take the box to the local tip myself. Just in case it needs to be sent back or for repair.

Sometimes I'll break the box up and put in my recycling the night before pickup. I never leave it in view though.

But then I also have blinds that are always drawn stopping people getting a look at my living room as they walk by.

[MachDiamond]

RAM CPU's Fancy Wine

A team that gets inside logistics systems can find out what things are being shipped, who's doing the haulage and plan a way to take the products. Way back when RAM and CPU's were extremely dear, I had some customers I would transport them for packed in beige PC cases. I'd walk in with a generic beige box and leave with a generic beige box that had the shipment while the company didn't actually do repairs or builds yet advertised that on their building and in the lobby to mask they were parts suppliers. Gangs were holding those places up at gunpoint since it was easy to run away with tens of thousands in product at a dead run.

A big operation could set up a pop-up warehouse, rent a forklift and divert some trucks to their location for half a day and clear out with nobody noticing much. The drivers are used to backing up to a loading door, being unloaded and driving back to the depot so there's nothing to set off somebody's spidey sense. Heck, they might even be offered coffee and a port-a-loo outside provided so drivers could be kept out of the building proper where they could see it was a shell. A pallet gets taken out and handed off to another forklift where it's wheeled into a different truck.

It might be a fair bit of work, but if you are stealing lorry loads of tech that you've hand selected.........