Freight Fraud Awareness Day is held each October to get brokers, shippers and carriers talking about the scams moving through the freight business. For a small carrier, the useful part is practical: know the schemes in use now, check the person behind every load, keep your paperwork, and know where to report when something goes wrong.

What is Freight Fraud Awareness Day?

Freight Fraud Awareness Day is an industry campaign held every October. It started in 2024, and its organizers use it to share how freight scams work so more people recognize them. Its focus is strategic cargo theft, stolen company identities, deceptive pickups and double brokering.

None of those are new. What has changed is how they are done. Most of them now start with an email, a phone call or a login, not a truck. That is why this page is about habits a carrier can build into every booking, not just one day a year.

What freight scams are carriers seeing right now?

The scams hitting carriers now mostly work by pretending to be someone you trust. Criminals pose as real brokers, steal real carriers' identities, take over email accounts, re-broker loads they had no right to, and pick up freight under false names. The FBI, FMCSA and the industry's own theft data describe the same schemes again and again:

  • Broker impersonation. Someone uses a real broker's name and MC number, with an email domain that is one letter off.
  • Carrier identity theft. Someone books loads under your company's name and authority, sometimes after changing your contact details in FMCSA's records. Read what to do if someone is using your MC number.
  • Phishing that leads to account takeover. The FBI has warned about emails that look like they come from brokers, with links that install remote-access software. More on that in cyber cargo theft.
  • Double brokering. A load gets re-tendered without authority, and the carrier who hauls it never gets paid. See double brokering vs. co-brokering.
  • Fictitious pickups. A thief poses as the carrier and drives away with the freight.
  • Last-minute changes. A new delivery address after pickup, or new payment instructions after delivery.
  • Faked voices. Criminals now use AI-generated voices to sound like a person you know, according to the FBI.

Does a real MC number prove you're dealing with the real company?

No. A real, active MC number only proves the company exists. It does not prove the person emailing or calling you works there. FMCSA's fraud guidance points out that the real broker may be a victim too, and the FBI has warned that criminals change a carrier's contact and insurance details with FMCSA.

So the question is never just "Is this MC number active?" It is "Am I talking to the people who actually run that company?" You answer that by checking contact details against official records yourself, not against whatever is in the email signature.

What checks stop most freight scams?

Most scams fall apart when a carrier checks the person, not just the paperwork. Look the company up yourself, call back on the official number, compare the email domain, and confirm any change by phone. None of this takes more than a few minutes, and it catches most impersonators before a load moves:

  1. Look the company up on FMCSA's SAFER system yourself. Don't use a link someone sent you.
  2. Call back on the phone number listed there. FMCSA says that if the number doesn't match, call the SAFER number. Be careful if SAFER shows no phone number at all.
  3. Compare the email domain letter by letter with the company's real website.
  4. Don't open setup packets or "rate confirmation" links you weren't expecting.
  5. Confirm any change to payment instructions or delivery address by calling a number you already had.
  6. Walk away from blind loads, requests to haul under a different carrier's name, or rates far above market. FMCSA lists all three as warning signs.
  7. Get every change in writing and keep it.
Dispatcher at a small trucking office calling a broker back on a phone number she looked up herself
A callback on a number you looked up yourself is the simplest check there is.

Our free guide on freight broker scams goes through these checks in more detail.

What should a carrier do after freight fraud?

Stop, save everything, and report it. Don't delete emails, don't edit screenshots, and don't keep talking to the other party to "sort it out." Write down a timeline while it is fresh. Then notify your insurer, the load boards you use and your factoring company, as FMCSA recommends.

Records to keep:

  • Rate confirmations, the broker-carrier agreement, bills of lading and proof of delivery
  • Full email addresses and the original emails, not forwards
  • Phone numbers, call logs and text messages
  • Any payment or address change instructions
  • Photos of the truck, trailer, driver and paperwork at pickup and delivery

FMCSA's fraud page also tells carriers that holding loads hostage until you get paid is illegal. If you are caught in a fraudulently brokered load, find out who is actually paying for the freight before you decide anything. If you aren't sure, ask an attorney.

Where do I report freight fraud?

Report freight fraud in more than one place, because each one does a different job. Cybercrime goes to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. Stolen cargo goes to local police. Broker problems and identity theft can go to FMCSA's Complaint Center. A private complaint with us gets your facts organized and investigated.

  • FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov, for phishing, account takeover and online fraud
  • Local police: for stolen freight, and ask for a report number
  • FMCSA Complaint Center: complaint.fmcsa.dot.gov, which takes complaints against property brokers and registration-related fraud and identity theft
  • FMCSA Contact Center: 1-800-832-5660
  • Federal Trade Commission: reportfraud.ftc.gov
  • FreightBrokerComplaint.com: file a free, private complaint

Filing with us does not file a report with FMCSA, the FBI or the police for you. Our guide to how to file a complaint against a freight broker explains which route fits which problem.

Where does FreightBrokerComplaint.com fit?

We take a carrier's complaint, look at the evidence, and contact the broker named in it for its side and its paperwork. Every complaint starts as an unverified allegation, and we don't publish accusations. If the case needs a lawyer, we connect the carrier with a transportation attorney through the National Transportation Attorney Network.

Small trucking companies that want help setting up their authority, compliance and back office the right way can talk with Logistical Forwarding Solutions. People learning the freight business from the broker or dispatch side can study at Freight University.