Freight Fraud in 2026: How Carriers Lose Loads and Payments
Freight fraud reaches carriers five ways: fake brokers, double brokering, payment redirects, fictitious pickups and account takeovers. How to stop each.
Want this handled for you? See our managed security for trucking companies.
Freight fraud is any scheme where someone uses a fake or stolen identity to take a load, a payment, or both. This guide covers the five ways it reaches a small carrier: a fake broker who never pays, double brokering, a redirected payment, a fictitious pickup in your company's name, and a taken-over email or load board account. None of them needs a truck. Verisk CargoNet estimated cargo theft losses in the US and Canada at nearly $725 million in 2025, a 60% increase from 2024, while the number of incidents stayed about the same (Verisk CargoNet, January 2026).
This guide is the overview. Each scheme below links to our deeper field report, and the checklist further down is what we set up for carriers through our managed cybersecurity for trucking companies.
Would your inbox catch a fake "new bank details" email?
Get a free Cyber Risk Score for your company and see where fraud could get in.
What is freight fraud?
FMCSA's definition is short: "Fraud and identity theft occurs when entities use another motor carrier's assigned USDOT number, when not authorized to do so, or when someone acts as a broker and is not registered with FMCSA." FMCSA also calls these criminal acts (FMCSA, page updated April 2025).
The FBI groups the deceptive side under strategic cargo theft. Its current list of trends includes identity theft, fictitious pick-ups, account takeovers, double brokering scams and fraudulent carriers (FBI, Cargo Theft). People also search for this as "trucking fraud". It is the same problem.
The 5 types of freight fraud carriers face
| Scheme | What the carrier loses | Warning sign | The check that stops it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fake or impersonated broker | The haul. You deliver and nobody pays | Rate far above market, free email address, domain one letter off | Call the phone number listed in SAFER, not the one on the rate con |
| Double brokering | Full or partial pay, and sometimes your MC number's reputation | You are asked to present yourself as a different carrier, or told it is a "blind load" | Ask in writing who pays the freight and whether the load will be re-tendered |
| Payment redirect (business email compromise) | A settlement or factoring payment | "Updated banking details" by email, with a push to act fast | Call back on a number you already had; two people approve any bank change |
| Fictitious pickup in your name | The load, plus trust with brokers who think you stole it | Brokers calling about loads you never booked | Keep your SAFER phone number visible and correct; alert insurer, load boards and factoring |
| Email or load board account takeover | Your identity, used to book or post loads | Password reset emails, logins from new places | Multi-factor authentication on email and every load board |
The first two run on fake paperwork. Our report on double brokering and broker impersonation walks through both, with federal cases and penalties. Payment redirects are covered step by step in ACH redirect and BEC fraud against freight payments. The last two can happen together, and how hacked load board accounts are used to steal real freight shows how a stolen login turns into a stolen trailer.
How big is freight fraud right now?
There is no single federal count of freight fraud. The closest numbers come from two places.
- ★Cargo theft. Verisk CargoNet put US and Canada cargo theft losses at nearly $725 million in 2025, up 60% from 2024, with incident numbers stable (Verisk CargoNet, January 2026). The number of thefts did not jump. The value of each one did.
- ★Payment fraud. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 24,768 business email compromise complaints with about $3.05 billion in reported losses in 2025, up from 21,442 complaints and about $2.77 billion in 2024 (FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report). IC3 does not split this by industry, so the trucking share is unknown.
Across all cybercrime, IC3 received 1,008,597 complaints and $20.877 billion in reported losses in 2025, a 26% increase from 2024 (FBI IC3, 2025).
What freight fraud looks like on a Friday afternoon
This is an illustrative example, not a real case.
It is Friday at 3:40 p.m. A dispatcher at a 12-truck carrier has two emails open. One is a rate con for a dry van load paying well above the lane's usual rate. The broker wants it picked up tonight. The other looks like it comes from the carrier's factoring company: "We changed banks. Please confirm the new account for this week's settlement."
She does two things. She looks up the broker's MC number in SAFER and calls the number listed there. The real broker says it never posted that load. Then she calls the factoring company on the number saved in the office phone, not the one in the email. Nobody there sent a bank change.
Ten minutes, two phone calls. Had she skipped them, the truck would have hauled a load nobody would pay for, and the week's settlement could have gone to a stranger. Urgency and a rate that looks too good are the parts to distrust.
Freight fraud prevention checklist for small carriers
Before you book a load:
- ★Look up the broker in FMCSA's SAFER system and call the phone number listed there. FMCSA advises not to contract if SAFER shows no phone number until you can confirm the deal.
- ★Stop if the rate far exceeds the market, the broker is quick to offer more, or you are told it is a blind load. These are FMCSA's own stop signs.
- ★Check the domain on every email. One extra letter or a free email service is enough reason to call.
- ★Examine documents. FMCSA notes that even insurance certificates can be fraudulent.
Before money moves:
- ★No bank detail change is accepted by email alone. Call back on a number you already had.
- ★Two people approve any change to where settlements or factoring payments go.
Protect your own identity:
- ★Keep your company phone number visible and correct in SAFER, so brokers can reach the real you.
- ★Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, load boards and your factoring portal.
- ★Use a separate login for each dispatcher. In our experience, shared logins make it hard to see who did what after an incident.
Want help putting these in place? Our trucking cybersecurity guide covers the full set of controls.
What to do in the first 24 hours
- 1.Call your bank first if money moved. The FBI says "time is of the essence" and tells victims to contact their financial institution right away and request a recall of the funds. In 2025, IC3's Recovery Asset Team froze $679,013,183 across 3,900 incidents, a 58% success rate (FBI IC3 2025).
- 2.File at ic3.gov. IC3 asks victims to file regardless of the amount lost.
- 3.Report to FMCSA. File in the National Consumer Complaint Database at nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov, or call the FMCSA Contact Center at 1-800-832-5660. You can also report to the DOT Office of Inspector General hotline at (800) 424-9071 (FMCSA).
- 4.If freight was stolen, file a police report and call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), as the FBI advises.
- 5.Warn your partners. FMCSA recommends telling your insurance company, all load boards and factoring companies that your company information is being used fraudulently.
One thing not to do: hold the load. FMCSA states that holding loads hostage until you get paid is illegal. If you hauled a fraudulently brokered load, FMCSA says to find out who is paying the freight and ask to be put in touch with their brokerage.
See where fraud could get into your company
In our experience, fraud like this starts with an inbox or a login. A free Cyber Risk Score shows where your company is exposed.