Freight fraud and cargo theft in 2026.

What is freight fraud?

Freight fraud is any scheme that uses deception to steal a load, or the payment for moving it. The FBI calls the cargo side of it strategic cargo theft: nobody breaks a lock, because someone is tricked into handing the freight over. Five schemes come up again and again:

• Double brokering. A load is quietly re-brokered to another carrier, often by someone impersonating an established carrier who then collects the payment. What double brokering is, and whether it is illegal.
• Carrier identity theft. A criminal takes over a real carrier's FMCSA account, or poses as the carrier with a look-alike email address or phone number. How it works.
• Fictitious pickups. A driver arrives under a legitimate carrier's name and leaves with the load. Strategic cargo theft.
• Chameleon carriers. A carrier with a bad record re-registers under a new name and a new USDOT number. How to spot one.
• Phishing. Fake load postings, broker emails and FMCSA sign-in pages built to collect credentials. What FMCSA changed in 2026.

Source: FBI, Cargo Theft, read 29 September 2026.

What is strategic cargo theft?

Strategic cargo theft is theft by deception rather than force. One common form is the fictitious pickup: a driver arrives under a legitimate carrier's name, with paperwork to match, and the shipper loads the truck. CargoNet counted 158 of them in the second quarter of 2026, against 165 a year earlier, in a quarter when reported incidents overall fell 26%.

The setup usually starts online. The FBI's 2026 alert says that since at least 2024 criminals have been getting into brokers' and carriers' systems "typically via spoofed emails, fake URLs, and compromised carrier accounts," posting fake loads on load boards "sometimes in the tens of thousands," and then double-brokering the load. CargoNet's second-quarter report adds a variation: criminals acquiring established, reputable carriers and booking loads under their authority with no intent to deliver.

Sources: FBI IC3, PSA260430; CargoNet, Q2 2026, both read 29 September 2026.

How carrier identity theft and account hijacking work

FMCSA's own Federal Register notice on Motus lists the problem plainly: "identity theft, hijacking FMCSA motor carrier accounts, selling of motor carrier numbers, personal identification numbers, and fraudulent or fake initial registrations," adding that some of it "may be perpetrated by foreign actors."

The FBI describes the step that makes a hijacked identity convincing: "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." The phone numbers used are often internet (VoIP) numbers, or numbers used only for a short time.

So the phone number on a carrier's FMCSA record is evidence, not proof. If it changed recently, or it doesn't match the number in your own records, confirm through a second channel before you tender.

The registration record shows the other end of the pattern. In FMCSA's legacy files, last updated 14 May 2026, 3,528 of 379,060 carriers with active authority shared a telephone number with a carrier whose authority had been revoked, and 472 registered new authority at a revoked carrier's contact details under a different name -- 99 of them within 30 days of the revocation. None of that is proof of anything on its own; each is a fact FMCSA published, and a question worth asking. How to verify a dispatcher walks through the phone check.

Sources: 91 FR 23144 (29 April 2026); FBI IC3, PSA260430; CarrierScrub, Q3 2026 fraud signals report.

Double brokering

Brokering interstate freight without broker authority is illegal under 49 U.S.C. § 14916, but "double brokering" itself is an industry term: a load quietly re-brokered to another carrier, usually by someone impersonating an established carrier who collects the payment and leaves the hauling carrier unpaid. Double brokering, explained covers the law, the penalties and how to check a dispatcher.

Chameleon carriers

A chameleon carrier is a company that reopens under a new name and USDOT number to shed a bad record; the regulation's word is "reincarnated." Under 49 CFR 386.73, FMCSA can treat the new company as a continuation of the old one. How to spot a chameleon carrier from the registration.

What the FMCSA record can and can't tell you

Two things happened on 14 May 2026. The Supreme Court decided Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, holding that federal law does not preempt a state negligent-hiring claim against a freight broker -- so how a broker chose a carrier can be tried in court. And FMCSA stopped updating the legacy open-data files that many carrier lookups still read.

FMCSA's current records are its Motus datasets, updated daily, but they do not yet include every carrier; the legacy files hold every carrier but were frozen that day. A lookup that reads the legacy file at face value can show insurance that has since been cancelled, or authority that has since been revoked. Every CarrierScrub result says which record it read and that record's date.

An Active status is a snapshot with a date. Read the date.

Four carriers that all read Active on SAFER shows what a status alone leaves out.

How brokers can prevent freight fraud

1. Check the record, not just the status. Operating authority, insurance on file against the amount required, and any revocation served but not yet in effect, each with the date of the record behind it. Run a check.
2. Call back on the number in the carrier's FMCSA registration, not the one in the email. If that number changed recently or doesn't match your own records, verify through a second channel. The FBI's advice: "Independently verify shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods" and "Implement multi-channel verification."
3. Look harder at new registrations. Check when the authority was granted, and whether the carrier shares a phone number or address with a revoked one. Chameleon carriers.
4. Match the pickup to the booking. The truck, the driver and the paperwork should all name the carrier you booked.
5. Re-check before you pay and before the next load. An authority can be revoked, or a policy cancelled, after you book.
6. Keep records. The FBI also advises documenting each carrier's Department of Transportation and Motor Carrier numbers.

The full checklist, in order, is in how to vet a carrier. A list of carriers can be checked at once with batch upload.

FBI advice quoted from PSA260430, read 29 September 2026.

What to do if you've been hit

Report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, and to police where the freight was taken. A complaint about a carrier or broker goes to FMCSA through its consumer complaint process. If your own carrier account or USDOT number was taken over, contact FMCSA through Motus. TIA members can also use TIA's Post-Fraud Incident Checklist.