Q3 2025 Freight Fraud: How to Protect Against Top Threats This Holiday Season
The second half of 2025 has brought a major shift in freight fraud trends: direct theft has overtaken both compromised emails and ownership-change manipulation as the top source of fraud. Rogue carriers remain a major factor in these theft and pilferage incidents, making it essential for brokers, carriers, and shippers to understand these tactics and how to prevent them.
Q3 2025 Numbers:
Fraud tactics aren’t slowing down. Bad actors are adapting and becoming more strategic, coordinated, and harder to spot. From spoofed communications to stolen identities, Highway has blocked over 1.5 million fraudulent attempts in 2025 and is working around the clock to detect, alert, and block threats before they reach brokers and carriers.
In Q3 alone, Highway intercepted more than 600,000 fraudulent attempts, including:
- 605,728 fraudulent inbound emails blocked
- 62,531 fraudulent phone numbers blocked
- 2,992 identity-related fraud alerts reported
- 149 unauthorized FMCSA contact changes
Each number represents a potential fraud event that never made it through. Nationwide, cargo theft, email hijacking and imitating brokerages to steal loads is happening, and it comes at a price. According to The State of Fraud in the Industry Report by TIA, the average impact of a fraudulent incident can cost organizations more than $200,000.
Top Attack Vectors in Q3 2025
- Direct Theft, Carrier-Involved or “Rogue Carriers”
Direct theft occurs when fraudsters physically take control of a shipment through deception, false identities, or stolen credentials. An emerging form of this threat involves rogue carriers, companies that appear legitimate until they exploit that trust. These carriers often gain access using hijacked MC numbers, falsified information, or by walking away mid-route with the freight. Once they have the load, they vanish, leaving brokers and shippers with major losses.
- Compromised Email Inboxes
When a business email is compromised, it opens the door for fraudsters to pose as familiar contacts, manipulate rate confirmations, or reroute payments and freight. These attackers often analyze existing message threads to imitate tone, timing, and writing style, making their impersonation nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. By the time the deception is discovered, the shipment is often already gone.
- Sold MCs or Ownership Change Abuse
Fraudsters are increasingly targeting legitimate carrier authorities through purchased or falsely transferred MC numbers. By taking over an established identity, they’re able to appear credible to brokers and book freight without suspicion. With official-looking documents and updated FMCSA records, these scams can be nearly impossible to spot without reliable identity verification and continuous oversight.
Year-End Risk Alerts
As holiday volumes peak, so does the risk of theft and fraud. The last quarter of the year is consistently a prime period for opportunistic attacks, with criminals targeting high-value, fast-moving shipments nationwide. The most strategic brokers, carriers, and shippers understand which goods and regions are most at risk, and are better positioned to prevent losses.
Key Areas to Watch
High-Risk Commodities:
- Meat, Seafood, and Frozen Goods
- Consumer Electronics and Premium Retail Items
- Alcohol and Specialty Beverages
Hotspots regions:
- California, Texas, and Florida: Large ports, retail and distribution centers create elevated exposure in theft and fraudulent carrier activity
- Indiana & Midwest: Major hubs like Indianapolis and Greenwood face increased risk due to dense consolidation points and a rise in identity fraud and compromised carrier activity.
What Brokers Need to Know
Highway’s Freight Fraud Index shows that while fraud tactics continue to evolve, most thefts are still entirely preventable. Sticking to the basics of thorough verification, constant vigilance, and clear communication across every stage of the load remains the most effective way to protect freight and prevent losses.
Standards to follow as a Broker:
- Confirm every booking with an outbound call. Treat emails as cues, not proof. Always verify important requests by calling directly.
- Spot-check every contact. Check email domains and phone numbers using a trusted identity platform like Highway before confirming a load.
- Protect rate confirmations by using two-factor authentication and digital acceptance instead of email attachments to secure sensitive load information.
- Watch for unusual account activity. Overbookings, unexpected changes to insurance or ownership, and other anomalies should trigger immediate re-verification.
- Verify delivery directly with your shipper customers.
- Report red flags immediately to your compliance team and Highway. Rapid response can aid recovery.
For a deeper look at trends and insights from Q3 2025, download the Freight Fraud Index..
