Thieves Hit the Vape Truck, Steal $1 Million Price of E-Cigs

A digital hack is believed to have just lately led to a bodily hijacking. A bunch of cybercriminals reportedly gained entry to a logistics firm’s methods and used it to establish deliberate shipments, then preempted at the least a type of deliveries to make off with about $1.4 million price of vapes.

The entire scenario began when a delivery agency referred to as Nolan Transport Group received hit by hackers, who have been in a position to see messages about upcoming transactions the corporate was set to be concerned with. Armed with that info, they reportedly focused Fifty Bar, an organization that makes flavored smoking merchandise, vapes, and e-cigarettes.

The California-based firm had a cargo scheduled to exit on a Saturday, just for it to be abruptly rescheduled after their regular driver stopped responding to messages, per Bloomberg. The brand new driver confirmed up on Monday with a receipt for the cargo, which was verification sufficient that issues have been on the extent. The truck filled with 78,000 vapes was purported to be destined for Austin, Texas, but it surely by no means arrived. In actual fact, the Austin-based agency by no means even heard from the supply driver.

They did hear from somebody, although: an unknown vendor out of New York Metropolis who, according to Bloomberg, was providing a inventory of product extraordinarily just like the one which by no means arrived, besides at a cheaper price. Regardless of piecing collectively how the hijacking occurred, the corporate nonetheless apparently has no leads on who has its items, and is now anxious that its merchandise will flood into states through darkish markets relatively than the above-board technique that it has constructed its enterprise on.

The vape makers aren’t the one ones who’ve seen their shipments go up in smoke. The Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau just lately reported that cargo theft losses elevated by 27% in 2024 and are predicted to rise by about 22% in 2025. A not-insignificant driver of that enhance appears to be hacks. In November, safety agency Proofpoint published a report on how cybercriminals have began to focus on cargo corporations, in the end making off with hundreds of thousands of bodily items.

Proofpoint’s analysis recognized at the least three teams finishing up assaults like this, who it believes doubtless promote the stolen items on-line or abroad. Within the final two months, there was an uptick in these assaults, with at the least 20 campaigns documented. So in case your Christmas presents go lacking this 12 months, know that it’s in all probability not the Grinch who’s accountable.