{"id":41515,"date":"2026-03-30T11:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/41515\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:21:06","slug":"cargo-thieves-make-a-break-with-413793-kitkat-bars-and-what-it-says-about-freight-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/41515\/","title":{"rendered":"Cargo Thieves Make a Break with 413,793 KitKat Bars \u2014 And What It Says About Freight Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, you read that correctly. As reported<\/a> by The Associated Press this past weekend, \u201cSwiss food giant Nestl\u00e9 says about 12 tons, or 413,793 candy bars, of its KitKat chocolate brand were stolen after leaving its production site in Italy earlier this week for Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n

(I don\u2019t think this is what Nestl\u00e9 had in mind with its \u201cHave a break, have a KitKat\u201d ad campaign<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst we appreciate the criminals\u2019 exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes,\u201d Nestl\u00e9 said in a statement, according to the article.<\/p>\n

Freight fraud is no longer an occasional problem \u2014 it\u2019s becoming systemic. Just last week, we published a guest commentary by Andrew Wimer from Descartes<\/a> on this very topic (\u201cFreight Fraud: Combatting The Growing Threat To Supply Chain Integrity<\/a>\u201d). Here are other posts we have published in the past 2 years that shine a spotlight on freight fraud:<\/p>\n

Here in Boston, in another high-profile case, $400K of lobster was stolen in late December 2025. As reported<\/a> by Alyssa Azzara at Boston 25 News, \u201cless than two weeks before Christmas, $400,000 of lobsters were stolen from Lineage Logistics in Taunton [MA] heading to Costco locations in the Midwest, according to CEO of Rexing Companies Dylan Rexing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from the article:<\/p>\n

Rexing was responsible for hiring a trucking company to get the lobsters to the two Costco locations in Minnesota and Illinois.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fraudster or criminal who was acting as a legitimate trucking company. They went and picked up the load and at that point in time it went missing,\u201d said Chris Burroughs, President and CEO of Transportation Intermediaries Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis theft wasn\u2019t random. It followed a pattern we\u2019re seeing more and more, where criminals impersonate legitimate carriers using spoofed emails and burner phones to hijack high-value freight while it\u2019s in transit,\u201d said Rexing.<\/p>\n

Back to the KitKat case. Two key takeaways for me:<\/p>\n

If it can happen to Nestl\u00e9, it can happen to you too. You would expect a company like Nestl\u00e9 to have strong processes and controls in place \u2014 and maybe they do. But what this highlights is that even large, sophisticated organizations are not immune, especially as fraudsters become more sophisticated and more convincing in impersonating legitimate carriers and partners.<\/p>\n

Freight fraud is not just a North American problem \u2014 it\u2019s a global one. The data coming out of Europe and EMEA reinforces this point. According to the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) EMEA, more than 108,000 supply chain thefts were recorded across over 110 countries in the past two years<\/a>, with reported losses exceeding \u20ac1 billion \u2014 that\u2019s the equivalent of more than \u20ac1.3m every 24 hours. In Germany alone, a full truckload disappears every three days.<\/p>\n

What can you do to minimize the risk of becoming a freight fraud victim?<\/p>\n

I recommend you read the posts linked above for some insights and advice, but here\u2019s a short list of practical things you can do based on these sources:<\/p>\n

1. Strengthen carrier vetting \u2014 before you tender the load<\/p>\n

In many cases, fraudsters don\u2019t break in \u2014 they get invited in by convincingly posing as legitimate carriers. That makes vetting a continuous, multi-layered process of verifying identity, authority, and equipment, not a quick one-time check.<\/p>\n

2. Move from \u201ctrust then verify\u201d to \u201cverify then trust\u201d<\/p>\n

Fraud today is built on impersonation, exploiting the industry\u2019s reliance on relationships and speed. Verification needs to happen upfront, especially when something feels urgent or too good to be true.<\/p>\n

3. Implement real-time visibility and anomaly detection<\/p>\n

Visibility is no longer just about service \u2014 it\u2019s about security. Detecting anomalies like route deviations, tracking gaps, or unexpected changes in shipment details can help stop fraud while it\u2019s happening, not after the loss.<\/p>\n

4. Use risk scoring in load assignment<\/p>\n

Not all carriers present the same level of risk, even if they meet basic requirements. Leading companies are embedding risk into tendering decisions, asking not just \u201cCan they move the load?\u201d but \u201cShould they be trusted to?\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Train your team to spot red flags<\/p>\n

Many fraud incidents hinge on small warning signs that are easy to miss in fast-paced environments. Training teams to recognize those signals \u2014 and empowering them to pause and escalate \u2014 adds a critical human layer of defense.<\/p>\n

Simply put, maybe it\u2019s time to \u201cmake a break\u201d from outdated processes \u2014 before someone else makes a break with your freight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes, you read that correctly. As reported by The Associated Press this past weekend, \u201cSwiss food giant Nestl\u00e9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[23830,24068,7151,199,24069,24070],"class_list":["post-41515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-cargo-theft","tag-freight-fraud","tag-kitkat","tag-nestle","tag-supply-chain-risk-management","tag-trucking"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116317866222647962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}