Behind the Surge
Freight fraud is surging because it’s a low-risk, high-reward mechanism for criminals. Root causes include sophisticated cyber tactics (like impersonation/double brokering) that exploit digitalization, combined with under-resourced law enforcement. Thieves are smarter than ever, targeting easily sold, high-value goods. The digitized supply chain has become their preferred hunting ground. LOU AMO , President, Truck Brokerage, RXO
What’s accelerating this surge is the widening disconnect between rapid industry digitization and slower, outdated security practices. Digital tools have made freight ow faster, but they’ve also created new entry points for exploitation. Criminals now impersonate legitimate carriers, forge documents, manipulate corporate records, and use remote-access tools to watch operations in real time. NOLAN DRAGON Sales Team Lead, Tive
Industry experts share their thoughts on what is driving the escalation of freight fraud and theft:
Because the industry is both highly digital and highly fragmented, it’s easier than ever for thieves to appear legitimate online while hiding behind fake identities and shell entities. Market volatility, tight capacity cycles, and pressure on margins create conditions where vetting shortcuts are taken, and fraudsters exploit blind spots between brokers, carriers, and shippers. MICHELE McGINNIS CEO, Mikargo247
Freight fraud is rising due to the higher value and compactness of modern shipments, making them attractive targets. Criminals increasingly use advanced AI to forge identities, documents, and digital assets, often outpacing detection systems. Limited data quality, system gaps, and fragmented oversight further exacerbate the problem.
MILAN LUKETIC , CTO, Birdseye Security Solutions
Beyond frontline vetting, Caney stressed the importance of back-of ce safeguards. These include sending rate con rmations only to trusted providers, avoiding load number exchanges unless initiated by staff, and auditing all payments against veri ed carriers and unaltered proofs of delivery. Leveraging Technology for Detection Technology also plays a key role in cargo theft and fraud deterrence. “As bad actors become more sophisticated and backed by substantial nancial resources, shippers, third-party logistics providers, and brokers need to bolster their fraud prevention strategies with investment in advanced technology and systems to monitor and verify carrier legitimacy—both pre- and post- tender—including advanced veri cation processes, real-time tracking systems,
and arti cial intelligence to identify and ag suspicious activity,” says Andrew Wimer, senior director, operations and professional services, Descartes. “The rst step is to implement layered visibility,” adds Tive’s Dragon. “Criminal groups thrive by exploiting small blind spots in tracking, communication, and veri cation. Layered visibility closes those gaps by integrating real-time data, physical security signals, and continuous monitoring into one uni ed picture of a shipment’s behavior.” By combining live tracking with constant monitoring, companies gain continuous awareness of a load’s location, movement patterns, door openings, route deviations, and stop durations. When these signals work together, any abnormal behavior triggers an immediate alert. “That early detection breaks the predictable patterns bad actors rely on and gives teams the chance to
intervene before a theft occurs, instead of trying to retrace a missing shipment after the fact,” Dragon says. Wimer advises a protection plan that includes enforcing two-factor authentication; using geolocation and image veri cation to validate carriers, vehicles, and drivers; and extending fraud monitoring into phone and email work ows to detect impersonation before transactions occur. He also recommends shippers strengthen pre-tender screening with deeper visibility into carrier history, assets, and compliance, while using post-tender performance data—such as tracking compliance and on-time delivery—to continuously re ne carrier vetting and manage risk by exception. From Reactive to Predictive Not surprisingly, AI is also playing an important and emerging role in the new approach to combatting supply
February 2026 • Inbound Logistics 33
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