$200K cargo theft exposes growing fraud schemes in trucking industry
A San Francisco tile showroom lost nearly $200,000 in merchandise after falling victim to a sophisticated cargo fraud scheme that impersonated global engineering firm AECOM, underscoring growing risks for small and midsize shippers amid rising freight theft nationwide.
Claudia Visona, who runs Galleria Tile, a third-generation, women-owned business, said fraudsters posing as AECOM purchasing managers used falsified paperwork, fake logistics companies and standard Net-30 payment terms to move two high-value shipments across the country before disappearing.
“They sent W-9s, credit references — everything checked out,” Visona told FreightWaves. “They had LinkedIn profiles. The website looked real. There was nothing obvious that said this wasn’t legitimate.”
According to Visona, the scammers initially placed a rush order for about 25,000 square feet of porcelain tile, which was shipped to a storage facility in Baltimore. Although uneasy, she said repeated online checks continued to show legitimate information tied to the buyer.
Her concern escalated after she encountered a suspicious automated phone line and hired a private investigator in Maryland to verify the order. The investigator found trucks still delivering to the same storage facility, with drivers claiming they were hauling freight for AECOM. Attempts to confirm the order at AECOM’s actual Baltimore office were unsuccessful.
Despite lingering doubts, Visona said the fraudsters placed a second order — 41,000 square feet of luxury vinyl plank — promising to pay both invoices once the shipment was delivered.
“That’s when everything unraveled,” she said.
When Visona called the buyer and the delivery contact after the second shipment arrived, she said the voices on the phone did not match the identities shown on LinkedIn profiles.
“That was the moment I knew I’d been duped,” Visona said "The combined cost of the stolen materials totaled about $174,000, she said — a devastating loss for a company that employs just three people and sells roughly $150,000 in product per month.But the damage went far beyond the balance sheet.“I don’t trust anyone anymore,” Visona said. “It shattered my view of how these systems work. I was always taught to trust authorities — and they weren’t there when I needed them.”
