The owner of a New York-based company, Bokksu, which makes its money selling interesting and rare Japanese snacks in subscription parcels mailed out to clients, had an estimated $250,000 in rare Kit Kat go missing. The shipment, which was supposed to arrive into the U.S. from Japan and be shipped east to New Jersey went missing in a scam involving identity theft and shell email accounts.
Authorities investigated the crime as a possible part of a disturbing spike in an online-based fraud trend called"strategic theft" or"fictitious pickups," which involves elements of extortion and identity theft. One now-common form of fake pickup scams is called"shipment misdirection," in which the perpetrator impersonates a motor carrier to get an authorization to be the transporter for a shipment. The shipment will then be transported by a legitimate carrier hired to take the load to a place to which the scammers have access. As Taing continued to frantically try to find out where the 55,000 rare Kit Kats had disappeared to, he decided to hire Shane Black of Freight Rate Central in Florida.