Holiday heist diverts $1M in toys on 3 different trucks in new type of scam

A high-tech toy company fell victim to an elaborate heist that took three truckloads of holiday merchandise worth more than $1 million — the latest example of a new type of scam that threatens to plague businesses nationwide, The Post has learned.

In mid-October, London-based Flycatcher was gearing up to ship 12,600 Smart Sketchers — a toy projector that helps kids learn to draw and which retails for $108 — out of a warehouse in North Las Vegas to a Walmart distribution center in Atlanta.

But the three trucks hired to deliver the toys ahead of the crucial Black Friday weekend never made it to their destination — with the warehouse, truckers and a logistics company all ensnared in a complex scam that diverted two of the shipments to Los Angeles.

The fate of the third shipment is still unknown, although Flycatcher believes it may have been rerouted to New York City.

That’s partly because in recent weeks Flycatcher discovered Smart Sketchers being sold at deep discounts from a third-party seller on Amazon that’s based in Brooklyn — forcing Flycatcher to mark down its own goods to compete, said Shay Chen, Flycatcher’s owner and founder.

“We can’t afford what’s happening,” Chen told The Post. “We are losing so much money in the middle of the holidays.”

Flycatcher on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in US federal court in Manhattan against 14 online retailers allegedly selling stolen Smart Sketchers despite receiving cease-and-desist letters. Four of the sellers are in New York City, with the rest in California, Oregon and New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Flycatcher is still piecing together details on how the crooks made off with its goods after reporting the incident to Las Vegas police and the FBI, according to Chen.

According to police reports, Shipfusion, a warehouse operator that serves e-commerce companies including Flycatcher, tapped US Logistics, a major shipping broker based in Cincinnati, to coordinate the Smart Sketcher shipments out of its warehouse in North Las Vegas in mid-October.

Things took a wrong turn, however, after US Logistics offered the job to trucking firms. The broker accepted bids that purportedly were from two legitimate firms — but which instead turned out to be thieves impersonating the two companies, according to police reports.

One of the legitimate trucking firms was Chicago-based Orest Express, whose co-owner Ihor Motkalyuk said US Logistics contacted him last month to confirm whether his company had completed a drop-off to a California warehouse — to which, it turns out, Flycatcher’s toys had been diverted by crooks.

“We told them that we never did this load and that someone must have pretended to be us,” Motkalyuk said. 

Sophisticated crime rings are a growing problem for the trucking industry — and it’s partly because of inadequate policing both at a local and national level, Motkalyuk added. 

“Scammers are stealing freight and identities and it’s really bad,” he said. “They are getting bolder and they are not afraid because they are not getting caught.”

Flycatcher’s contact at US Logistics, John Howell, declined to comment to The Post. Shipfusion did not respond to requests for comment. The North Las Vegas Police Department declined to comment on an “active investigation.” The FBI also declined to comment.

So-called “strategic theft” — where legitimate businesses are tricked into helping steal freight — is exploding, up 1,445% this year from 2022 levels, according to CargoNet. The fraud now accounts for 33% of all cargo theft — up from between 5% to 10% before 2022, according to the theft prevention and recovery network.

The epidemic is being fueled by organized crime groups across 20 countries, according to Scott Cornell, a crime and theft specialist at Travelers. While he had no direct involvement in the Flycatcher investigation, Cornell said the crooks likely executed a “double-brokering” scam.

“It always starts with identity theft where the scammer poses as a legitimate trucking company and submits a quote or bid to a broker. If they get through the vetting process they will then pretend to be a broker and they will go to a trucker and offer a good rate. That legitimate trucking company has no idea they are involved in a theft,” Cornell said.

In the Flycatcher fraud, the other legitimate trucking firm whose name was used by the scammers was San Antonio-based Basse Truck Line. Its owner, Dylan Basse, said he was unaware of the mess until he was contacted by The Post. Nevertheless, he confirmed that someone has been using his business name and identification number over the past month.

“They are using fictitious emails with a slight variation on our emails to book jobs with various brokers,” Basse said.

Indeed, Basse Truck Line showed up on the invoice for one of the Flycatcher shipments that ended up in LA. It was delivered by Omar Siguenza, owner of LA-based World Route Transline, who got swept into the scam when he responded to a post on a job site, agreeing to $700 to transport the toys 270 miles from Las Vegas to South Gate, Calif. in Los Angeles County.

While driving he spoke multiple times with the fraudster, agreeing to an increased fee of $1,000 in exchange for dropping off the goods nearly 12 hours later than the agreed-upon time. But Siguenza was never paid for the Oct. 18 trip.

“I thought I was talking to a broker, but it was the scammer,” Siguenza said. “I’ve been doing this for 38 years and this has never happened to me before.” 

When he submitted a request for payment, Siguenza learned he’d been duped, with Basse Truck Line telling his bill collector that it was never involved in the job. That’s despite Basse’s name appearing on the invoice presented to Siguenza when he picked up the goods in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Flycatcher has been scrambling to track down outfits selling its goods on Amazon and Walmart’s third-party sales platform. Those include sellers in Sacramento and San Diego, as well as Brooklyn-based Ozmos LLC, which listed Smart Sketchers for as little as $84.

“The first sellers popped up on Amazon on Nov. 6 and they were selling at a 25% discount to what we were selling it at,” Chen said.

Flycatcher purchased its own toys from the sellers to learn their locations. The sellers continued to sell the goods, despite cease-and-desist letters from Flycatcher’s lawyer.

Chen notified Amazon on Nov. 7 and received an automatic response that Amazon was investigating the matter. It was only late last month, after The Post contacted Amazon – that the web giant shut down the sellers’ stores. 

Nevertheless, “New sellers pop up every few days,” Chen lamented.

Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. Online retailers named in the federal suit, including Ozmos in Brooklyn and EYG Deals in Fresh Meadows, Queens, could not be reached for comment.

A couple of days after Siguenza delivered the Smart Sketchers, he tried to retrieve the goods with his son by driving in his car to the warehouse in South Gate — which was only five or so miles from his Los Angeles home.

“We spoke with the manager of the building and showed him the [bill of goods receipt] and he told us the freight was gone,” Siguenza said.

To add insult to injury, US Logistics is now threatening to sue Siguenza for $361,872, according to a letter to his insurance company.

“This would be devastating,” the trucker told The Post, adding that his cargo insurance only covers him for $100,000.