The FBI is investigating after $400,000 in Costco Lobster was stolen en route to two Midwest states.
Supply chain executives believe a fraudster impersonating a legitimate truck driver vanished with nearly half a million in live lobsters earlier this month destined for Minnesota and Illinois Costco stores from suppliers in Massachusetts.
The sophisticated cargo hijacking involved spoofed emails and burner phones. It followed a similar theft of high- value crab just days earlier.
Rexing Companies, an Indiana-based freight company, was tasked with transporting the spendy seafood. The fake drivers used fake ID's to pose as the real truck drivers.
“This theft wasn’t random. It followed a pattern we’re seeing more and more, where criminals impersonate legitimate carriers using spoofed emails and burner phones to hijack high-value freight while it’s in transit,” Dylan Rexing, the president of the shipping company, told NBC News.
The incident has prompted industry-wide calls for retailers to adopt stricter security protocols.
So far there have been no arrests in the case. Costco has yet to comment on the theft.