A New York man turns hacked freight emails into a pipeline of stolen seafood and luxury goods.

Court filings describe an operation that blended low tech theft with high tech access: Forbes and a co conspirator allegedly broke into truck load carriers’ email accounts, then used those identities to book legitimate loads of seafood, produce, and designer products. Once the paperwork looked clean and the shipment was loaded, they would simply divert the truck to a friendly buyer instead of the real destination. The Worcester snow crab heist is just the most eye catching example—tens of thousands of pounds of food gone in one move. But DOJ says the same playbook hit blueberry shipments in New Jersey and a cologne load in New York, showing the scale possible when criminals sit inside your inbox. If convicted, Forbes faces up to 10 years for interstate transportation of stolen goods plus up to 5 years for the conspiracy count, along with supervised release and fines that could reach a quarter million dollars.

If you care about how fragile our food and freight systems are to this kind of inside the inbox crime, keep watching this space.

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