ATA alert: new drivers, students being targeted by scam artists

The Trucker News Services

1/24/2008

The American Trucking Associations has issued a scam alert to student drivers and drivers new to the trucking industry.

Scam artists apparently are preying on truck driving schools and carriers with student training programs, according to a news release by the ATA.

It quoted Sandra Goforth, of Alliance Tractor Trailer Training Center in Arden, N.C., as saying the scam involves a man known only as “Johnny.”

Goforth said when Johnny calls he represents himself as a driver-recruiter for a fictitious carrier of his choosing. He has, however, been known to use the name of a bonafide company, Star Transportation Inc., and perhaps others.

Johnny’s demeanor “is very professional and he sounds very knowledgeable,” the release stated. He has contacted truck driver’s school attendees and graduates after obtaining lists of their names and phone numbers. He then tells them that they have been hired by a certain carrier and somehow manages to convince them to send him money he says will be used to offset training expenses.

Thinking they are doing what is required of them, the students have been known to send Johnny money via Western Union.

Goforth said Johnny has been known to call from a number that she said is a pay phone at a bus station in Savannah, Ga.

On Tuesday, Jan. 22, a Star Transportation Inc. student-driver reportedly was contacted by phone while staying at an off-site facility in Nashville, Tenn. The caller identified himself as Star’s Recruiting Department supervisor. Having never met the Star recruiting supervisor, the student believed the caller was legitimate.

The caller insisted that when the student completed orientation he would immediately be assigned to a truck carrying a load to South Carolina. The student responded by saying that his experience level would not allow him to do that and the conversation abruptly ended.

The next day the student reported the call to Star’s orientation supervisor. Two other students reported receiving the basically the same call.

That same day, the first Star student was contacted by his wife, who said she had received a call from a “Jim Davis,” also of Star, but no such employee exists there. The caller asked for the student’s wife by name and was able to convince her that her husband was on his way to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

“Davis” then told her that her spouse was out of money and that she needed to immediately wire him $200. The money was sent by Western Union in the name of “Star” and that’s how it was received. The caller called from a pay phone. A police report of the incident has been filed.

Star Transportation is alerting their student applicants about the scam. They’re also being told that no one from Star “will ever call them or their families asking for money to be sent anywhere for any reason,” the release stated. “The students are being told that if they receive such a call, they are to report it immediately to Star and law enforcement.

 The same scenario was carried out on the same day with a student at Covenant Transport in Chattanooga, Tenn., the release noted. “We have also learned that Werner Enterprises has been victimized,” it added. “There is great concern as to how the scammer or scammers are obtaining detailed information about students and company representatives.”