Keith Brown works in trucking. He's a vice president at GMH Trans, which halls

halls cargo from the northeast all around the country.

What do you like about trucking?

The job itself, I like the fast-paced, it's always something new, you know, you think you've seen it all, and then you haven't.

In 2022, Keith came upon something new that he didn't like.

He got a call from a trucker. This trucker was confused because GMH's name was on the paperwork for the trucker's load,

but GMH wasn't the company that had hired him.

So he Googled us, found a phone number, called me, and, you know, basically asked, you know, how he ended up with our load through this third party.

And that's when we kind of started digging.

Keith discovered that a criminal operation had intercepted some of GMH's loads.

He tried to catch them and then the scammers retaliated by

impersonating GMH and harassing its customers.

That was extremely disruptive. We would run into different customers of ours that we've worked with for 10, 15 years.

All of a sudden said they couldn't work with us.

What kind of cost did that have for your business?

I had upwards of a hundred thousand easily.

Trucking companies like GMH have been falling victim to this crime. Freight fraud costs

at least $500 million in payments annually, according to an industry group. For Keith, this fraud would turn him

into a vigilante who has taken it upon himself to try to stop these criminals in their tracks.

Welcome to the Journal,

our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Leimbaw, It's Friday, April 19th.

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