So I got scammed...

File a police report and take them down. Dont let these people continue.

 

Should be pretty easy to find the scammers unless they were paid in bitcoins but seriously doubt that happened and they most likely didn’t think far enough ahead to realize there will be a paper trail

 

Don't be too shocked if it turns out Phoenix isn't involved, and "broker A" has already disbursed a fuel advance or quick pay. The scammer could just as well got the Phoenix dot number off a truck at a truck stop, or just picked one off the new authorities list, and managed to spoof it to "broker A" well enough to grab the load. Then when fake "broker B" offered the load, I take your saying "same phone number" to be what appeared on caller-id, not you calling them back for something. Spoofing caller-id isn't hard.

The scammers are long gone. You'll hopefully get something worked out with "broker A" and their customer, since they were the entry point for the scam.

The only way you can avoid this is calling back a broker using a number listed on some other reliable source, and verifying the load info. Many brokers use a 2-call system to prevent this sort of scam on their end. Choptank is a bigger one that does this. They'll call you back on the number published on your MC record before sending the rate confirmation.

Coincidentally, Overdrive has a fresh article about this linked in their spam email i got a few hours ago.

It's surprisingly common. I avoided one of these by calling back on a listed number. Can't remember exactly what, but something about it made me uneasy. I looked up their office number, called with a phony double check of my pickup number, and they had no such load. They mentioned they'd had a recent problem with this and thanked me for verifying it. I've also blocked a phony unemployment claim from someone that probably got all the pertinents by getting the dot number off one of my trucks at a shipper or truck stop.

 

Let's understand the scheme in order to know how to prevent it from happening to us.

So technically this scam scheme is about getting two things from the original broker:

1. Fuel advance.
2. Quick pay.

In order for this fraud to work a fraudster must have its own carrier authority in order to be able to set up with the original broker AND then obtain credentials of a legitimate brokerage company (preferably with their phone number to cast that number on a victim's phone not to raise his suspensions)

1. The fraudster calls the broker, books a load and requests fuel advance via Comcheck, T-check etc.

2.The fraudster, pretends to be an established brokerage, calls a carrier (a victim) posted on DAT wanting to take that load.
The victim routinely receives the email with the rate con. The rate con looks legitimate with the graphics and layout.

There two weak points however:
- the email domain does not belong to the broker which the fraudster pretends to be.

- the fraudster must ensure that the victim sends the POD to that email.

If the victim notices that email domain is suspicious and the calls the actual brokerage number, the fraud is nipped in the bud.

3. When the unsuspecting victim completes the load, sends the POD by replying to the same email by which the rate con was sent, then the crook sends the POD to the original broker and requests quick pay via Comcheck, T-Check etc.
‐‐------
The scam has weak legs.
If @DUNE-T made one phone call to the brokerage that the crook pretended to be, the affair would have been uncovered.

The crook itself has rather limited window of opportunity - It is a matter of time before their authority is suspended by FMCSA. Besides, they still need to have an active auto liability insurance, which is costly.

I'd actually be shocked at fraudsters' dependency on the naivity level of their victims.
For instance, in order to obtain fuel advance, and quick pay, the original brokerage would write the check as 'incognito' but unfortunately even if they wrote it as payable to, this is all to often omitted when cashed at a truck stop. On the other hand, those crooks have nothing better to do but keep trying.
It is indeed shocking to discover how effortless and easy it can get if all the scam prerequisites are satisfied.

 

The morale of the story is to always call back on the brokerage official number, found on their website or a phone book.

And always see what the email domain looks like.

For instance, typically an established brokerage would seldom have such public domains as @gmail.com, @yahoo.com. @xfinity.net, @cox.com ...etc. but more resembling their business name such as @xpo.com. @jbhunt.com, @coyote.com etc.

Those domains can sometimes be craftly masked by the email sender's name but they always can be found out by looking at email details header.

 

It may be even legitimate because during covid lots of them worked at home and perhaps out of convenience, if nothing else, they were using their private domains but that's unprofessional and should automatically raise a flag.
Long time ago, I almost fell for that, when my bank sent me an email saying that my account was compromised but when I looked at the domain, it was some unknown string of letters.
Or even lately, there was that email that alarmed me because it said that order on Amazon was sent but I and my wife did not order anything. I looked at the domain and it became clear to me that they wanted me to click on the links and fill out the fields with my personal info, perhaps even including my credit card.
Now, that email drew my attention and managed to put me into acting on it and only then I aborted it by sheer intuition. After all, I am a former IT guy.
But if we realize that a swindler sends tens of thousands of those emails, I would not be surprised if the number of victims could amount to a substantial figure - not everyone has to have that suspecting character.