iPhone delivery day can be an especially exciting occasion. Sure the wait can be painful, but do you know what’s worse? Having your new iPhone stolen off the porch just seconds after delivery. That’s what was happening across thousands of US households, and now we know how.
Crime ring used custom-built software, bribes, and large network to steal thousands of iPhones
Last November we reported on a strange report that porch pirates were stealing new iPhones immediately after delivery. Seemingly, they had access to AT&T tracking data.
Now, arrests have been made and answers have been revealed.
Esther Fung at The Wall Street Journal writes:
Last month, federal authorities arrested 13 people in connection with what they say was an international crime ring that targeted FedEx deliveries nationwide. […]
The group created software to scrape FedEx tracking numbers and bribed AT&T store employees to get order details and delivery addresses, according to a criminal complaint filed in New Jersey. The group then sent thieves to pick off the packages and bring them back to destinations like the Brooklyn shop.
Fung writes that an AT&T employee in New Jersey used his credentials to track hundreds of customer shipments, sharing photos of customer names, addresses, and FedEx tracking numbers with the criminal group.
That employee also received bonuses of $2,000-2,500 for recruiting other AT&T employees into the scheme.
Top comment by S. Jobs
Easy, ask delivery companies to require a one-time code as proof of delivery (instead of paper signatures) for anything really valuable.
The codes should only be displayed to the end-users on their accounts and should NOT be visible to employees.
Lots of (secure) courier companies already do this around the world.
Finally, the crime ring also paid “runners” who would be given the tracking info and instructions on how to steal the packages immediately after delivery.
Thousands of iPhones were stolen across multiple US states, and Apple Watch and Samsung phones were also targeted per the report.
Overall, it was a complex, multi-faceted crime ring. And it sounds like authorities believe more perpetrators are still out there. For example:
The software was created by Demetrio Reyes Martinez, who is known online as “CookieNerd,” according to the complaint. The 37-year-old wrote code to get around FedEx limits on delivery-data requests and sold it via Telegram with instructions on how to run the program, prosecutors said.
Reyes Martinez, a citizen and resident in the Dominican Republic, is still in the Caribbean nation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, which declined to provide further information on his status.
My big takeaway of the story? Require a signature for all of your valuable deliveries, including and especially iPhones.
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