WIred reports that two Russian Immigrants have been charged with computer, mail and wire fraud for a brokering scam that involved hacking into a DOT web site.


For more than three years, Nicholas Lakes and Viachelav Berkovich are said to have repeatedly hacked www.Safersys.org, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's system that maintains a list of licensed interstate trucking companies and brokers. They would temporarily change the contact information for a legitimate trucking company to their own, then advertise cargo on Web-based load boards. There, the two would reportedly broker the load out to an owner-operator or other trucking company.

Once the cargo was delivered, the men pocketed the funds; the trucker who actually transported the load was left empty-handed, according to the charges, and would find that the company they thought they had contracted with didn't know a thing about it.

The men allegedly pulled in nearly $500,000 in the scheme, according to the WIred report.