For carriers and brokers
Cargo Theft Watch
Easy to understand cargo and freight fraud alerts for carriers and brokers.
A field guide, not a crime show.
Cargo Theft Watch is for small carriers, owner-operators, and freight brokers who need to know if a load or a broker is worth the risk. Short patterns. A checklist you can run from the cab. Real numbers with their sources. No badges, no sirens, no official seal.
- Pattern libraryHow the 21 common freight frauds actually run, in words that are easy to understand, with sources.
- Legit checklist18 questions before you book a load or send a truck.
- Theft trackerReal numbers from CargoNet’s public releases, every one linked to its source.
- Tools directoryFree government lookups, and what to do with the page once it loads.
Before you dispatch or release a load
- Look it up. Check the carrier or broker by MC or USDOT number in FMCSA’s SAFER and Licensing & Insurance records.
- Call back on the phone number in the official record, not the one in the email or text.
- Verify on a second channel before you hand over freight or change payment details.
- Slow down if you are being rushed. Pressure is part of the scheme.
Already hit?
Freight gone, money sent, identity used. Work down the list in order.
Why it matters
Nearly $725 million in 2025.
Cargo theft losses in the U.S. and Canada reached nearly $725 million in 2025, up 60% from 2024, according to CargoNet’s public analysis. The FBI says the increase was driven in part by cyber-enabled strategic cargo theft.
Sources: CargoNet / Verisk 2025 annual analysis; FBI IC3 public service announcement I-043026-PSA. These are reported incidents, so the real number is likely higher. See the tracker for the latest quarters.
From the library
Carrier identity theft and impersonation
A real carrier ID (MC) number, a wrong email, and a truck that isn’t on the insurance.
The rate confirmation uses a carrier that really exists. The legal name is close. The email is off by a letter, a hyphen, or a free inbox. The phone in the email is not the phone on the FMCSA record. CargoNet says criminal networks now mostly impersonate real carriers and brokers, and the FBI describes criminals changing a carrier’s FMCSA contact and insurance details so verification calls go to them.
What to do. Open the company snapshot and call the phone number on that record, not the one in the message. Read the legal name out loud and compare it to the rate confirmation. If they don’t match, don’t dispatch. Check your own FMCSA record regularly for contact or insurance changes you didn’t make.
See this pattern with its sourcesLatest in the news
Recent cargo theft stories
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California · Fake pickups and impersonation
$500,000 SIG Sauer shipment stolen in fictitious pickup, two arrested in California
FreightWaves ·
Los Angeles County sheriff’s cargo detectives arrested two men and recovered a full load of firearm parts and accessories taken from a Torrance warehouse in a fictitious pickup.
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California · Rail theft
9 tied to Sinaloa Cartel arrested in San Bernardino train thefts
NBC Los Angeles ·
San Bernardino County deputies say a search warrant tied to a long-running probe of BNSF train burglaries led to nine arrests and about $333,000 in recovered retail goods.
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California · Rail theft
20-Year-Old Arrested in $54,000 Train Cargo Theft — Cops Find 350 Boxes of Hot Wheels
Freight Wire ·
Colton police stopped a pickup leaving the rail line before dawn and recovered 350 boxes of toy cars taken from BNSF containers.
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Connecticut / California · Charges and court
Feds charge driver in alleged $12M cargo theft scheme built on hijacked carrier identities
FreightWaves ·
A federal indictment in Connecticut alleges a group took over established trucking companies, booked real loads through brokers and never delivered at least 24 of them.
Links to outside outlets, not endorsements. Updated regularly.
Weekly alert
One email. The pattern that showed up this week, and the check that would have caught it. No product pitches.