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

A digital hack is believed to have lately led to a bodily hijacking. A bunch of cybercriminals reportedly gained entry to a logistics firm’s programs and used it to determine deliberate shipments, then preempted no less than a kind of deliveries to make off with about $1.4 million price of vapes.

The entire scenario began when a transport agency referred to as Nolan Transport Group obtained hit by hackers, who had been in a position to see messages about upcoming transactions the corporate was set to be concerned with. Armed with that data, 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 traditional 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 had been on the extent. The truck stuffed with 78,000 vapes was alleged to be destined for Austin, Texas, however it by no means arrived. The truth is, 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 much like the one which by no means arrived, besides at a lower cost. Regardless of piecing collectively how the hijacking occurred, the corporate nonetheless apparently has no leads on who has its items, and is now apprehensive that its merchandise will flood into states by way of darkish markets reasonably than the above-board methodology 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 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 companies, in the end making off with tens of millions of bodily items.

Proofpoint’s analysis recognized no less than three teams finishing up assaults like this, who it believes seemingly promote the stolen items on-line or abroad. Within the final two months, there was an uptick in these assaults, with no less than 20 campaigns documented. So in case your Christmas presents go lacking this yr, know that it’s most likely not the Grinch who’s guilty.