Cargo Theft Has Gone International
Content for this blog came from the TIA Livestream Cargo Theft, The Chameleon Effect: How Crime Rings Target Supply Chains
The big picture: Cargo theft in the U.S. has hit record highs, and the criminals behind it look nothing like they did five years ago.
Speaking on a TIA live stream, Scott Cornell, Vice President of Risk & Strategy, Crime and Theft Specialist at Logistiq Insurance Solutions, laid out how the threat has fundamentally transformed since 2020.
By the numbers:
- Cargo theft rose 93% between 2021 and 2024, per CargoNet data
- Strategic theft, meaning crimes that begin with deception, surged 1,475% in that same period
- CargoNet’s latest annual report logged roughly $724 million in reported theft, and Cornell believes that represents roughly one-tenth of actual full truckload losses
What changed: Before 2020, cargo theft was dominated by small, regional crews doing straightforward physical theft near ports and industrial corridors. Strategic theft, whether it’s identity fraud, fictitious pickups, double brokering, was a niche problem at around 3% of all incidents.
Then the pandemic normalized remote work. Criminals noticed.
“They decided to start creating new methods for strategic theft,” Cornell said. “They can be anonymous, they can be remote, they can be involved in the supply chain over a phone, over email.”
Today, organized international rings operating from over two dozen countries run 25 to 30 distinct theft methods. Law enforcement arrests foot soldiers domestically, but as Cornell puts it “the head of the snake is overseas”, and the numbers don’t budge.
Freight brokers as the new front line: Intermediaries were the least prepared for this shift and became primary targets almost overnight.
Cornell flagged two critical mistakes brokers still make:
- Treating delay tactics as legitimate. When a carrier suddenly reports mechanical issues or a flat tire, that’s a red flag, not an inconvenience. “You have to immediately start acting as though there’s something wrong.”
- Over-relying on vetting technology. Carrier-screening platforms help, but Cornell was blunt: “There is no silver bullet out there.” Without strong internal processes as a foundation, technology will fail.
The emerging threat nobody’s talking about: Cornell described what he’s calling the “Trojan driver” method, where criminals embed a crew member as a driver inside a legitimate, reputable trucking company specifically to pass carrier vetting. The planted driver then tips off their crew about valuable loads.
His practical fix for brokers: require that no drivers be assigned to high-target loads unless they’ve been employed with the carrier for a minimum period, something resembling six months to a year.
The bottom line: Cornell’s broader argument is that the industry needs to stop playing whack-a-mole with individual theft methods and instead harden the entire supply chain end-to-end. “Cargo thieves look for the gaps,” he said. “They’re just looking for the weak link”
