CarrierScrub
What is a fictitious pickup?
A fictitious pickup is a theft in which the thief collects the freight by posing as the carrier the shipper or broker booked. Nothing is forced. The paperwork matches, the gate agent loads the truck, and the load is gone before anyone notices the carrier never existed in the form they thought it did.
It is one kind of what the FBI calls strategic cargo theft, covered in the freight fraud overview. CargoNet classified 158 incidents as fictitious pickups in the second quarter of 2026, against 165 a year earlier, while its total reported incidents fell 26%. So the count is steady, not rising, in a quarter when overall thefts dropped.
Three ways a fictitious pickup happens
The sources describe the same outcome reached three different ways. They matter separately, because each leaves different evidence.
| Variant | How it works | Source |
|---|---|---|
| An impostor carrier | Criminals take over a real carrier's identity: they get into its accounts, change its contact details and insurance on file with FMCSA, and then book loads as that carrier. "To legitimize their access, criminal threat actors change the legitimate carrier's contact information with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and update insurance information." | FBI IC3, PSA260430 |
| A bought or acquired carrier | Criminals acquire an established, reputable motor carrier and book shipments under its authority and reputation, with no intent to deliver. | CargoNet, Q2 2026 |
| An impostor driver | The carrier named on the booking is real. A different person arrives at the gate with fraudulent credentials, after criminals watched email between shipper and carrier to learn when a high-value load would be ready. | FreightWaves, 5 June 2026 |
What an FMCSA record check can and can't show
A carrier lookup reads what the carrier has filed with FMCSA. That evidence is strong for some variants and absent for others.
| Variant | What may show on the FMCSA record | What won't |
|---|---|---|
| An impostor carrier | A recent change of phone number or address; insurance filed or replaced shortly before the booking; a phone number shared with a carrier whose authority was revoked. Each is a dated fact worth a second look. | Nothing, if the criminals changed the record carefully and the change is old enough to look settled. The record can't tell you whose hands are on the account. |
| A bought or acquired carrier | Possibly a change of contact details after years of stability. FMCSA says USDOT and MC numbers cannot be sold, bought or leased, so a sale is not meant to leave a record. | A clean history, long-standing authority and valid insurance: the very qualities the buyer wanted. A check that reads Active reads Active. |
| An impostor driver | Nothing. The carrier named is real and its record is real. | Everything about who is standing at the dock. The record describes the company, not the person. |
A record check narrows the first variant, may flag the second, and does not touch the third. For the third, the control is at the gate.
That is not an argument against checking the record; a stale or thin record is still the cheapest red flag there is. It is an argument against treating an Active status as proof that the truck at your dock belongs to the carrier you booked.
Why checking a person's ID at the gate isn't enough
Jillian Kossman, chief operating officer of the ID-verification vendor IDScan.net, told FreightWaves that most fraudulent IDs are now so well made that they show almost no visible red flags, and that most of the crime happens in advance, when criminals impersonate a legitimate carrier. A vendor has a stake in that view, so read it as one informed opinion rather than a measurement. It does fit the FBI's own advice, which is about confirming the request rather than inspecting the person.
The control that works on all three variants is the same one: confirm the pickup through a channel the criminal doesn't control.
The FBI's alert recommends to "independently verify shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods" and to "implement multi-channel verification."
A pickup checklist for brokers and shippers
- Check the carrier's FMCSA record on the day. Authority, insurance against the required amount, and the date of the record behind them. Run a check.
- Look for recent changes. A new phone number or address, or new insurance on an old carrier, shortly before the booking. Compare the phone number on the record with the one in your own files.
- Call back on a number you already hold, not one in the rate confirmation or the email thread. Do this before the driver is dispatched. How to verify a dispatcher.
- Get the driver's name and truck details ahead of pickup, from that verified contact, and have the dock match them. Make a change of driver at the last minute a reason to stop and call again. This is CarrierScrub's practice advice, not a rule from the sources above.
- Tell the dock what to do when something doesn't match. A written instruction to hold the load and call is worth more than a judgment made under pressure by whoever is on shift.
- Keep the record. Note the carrier's DOT and MC numbers and who you verified with. The FBI advises it, and it is what you will need if a claim follows.
The full order of checks is in how to vet a carrier. If a load has already gone missing, what to do if you've been hit lists where to report it.