Freight Fraud: How Double Brokering and Fictitious Pickups Are Targeting the Supply Chain

Freight fraud is no longer a fringe problem confined to a handful of bad actors exploiting an occasional lapse in verification. It has become a well-organized, scaled operation that costs the U.S. supply chain hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and the methods are growing more sophisticated by the quarter.

According to data from Verisk CargoNet, estimated cargo theft losses surged to nearly $725 million in 2025, a 60 percent increase from 2024. Deceptive pickup schemes, which include double brokering and fictitious pickups, jumped 31 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2026 alone, according to supply chain security firm Overhaul. For importers, exporters, and logistics operators moving freight through the Port of Virginia and across Hampton Roads, understanding how these schemes work is the first step toward not becoming a target.

What Is Double Brokering?

Double brokering occurs when a criminal obtains the rights to a shipment, typically by impersonating a legitimate freight broker or carrier, and then re-brokers that load to an actual carrier without the shipper’s knowledge. The real carrier, unaware that anything illegal is happening, picks up the freight and delivers it. The criminal collects payment from the shipper, pays the carrier a fraction of that amount, and keeps the difference, or in more serious cases, arranges for the freight to disappear entirely.

What makes double brokering particularly damaging is that it exploits the trust already built into normal freight transactions. The shipper believes they are working with a vetted partner. The carrier believes they received a legitimate load booking. Neither party is immediately aware that something has gone wrong, and by the time discrepancies surface, the fraudster has moved on.

FreightWaves reporting from early 2026 noted that fraud networks frequently operate through multiple interconnected entities, where one company secures the load, another moves it under a different authority, and a third handles payment. These networks share phone numbers, email domains, and addresses, and investigators have mapped single fraud operations to dozens of shell entities.

What Is a Fictitious Pickup?

A fictitious pickup is exactly what it sounds like. A criminal arrives at a shipper’s facility with forged documentation, including a fake or cloned bill of lading, counterfeit driver credentials, and sometimes a cloned carrier identity complete with a matching MC number and insurance certificate. The dock worker, seeing paperwork that appears legitimate, releases the freight. The truck drives away, and the cargo is gone.

These schemes often involve identity theft at the carrier level. According to Highway’s Q3 2025 Freight Fraud Index, 149 unauthorized FMCSA contact record changes were made in that quarter alone, meaning fraudsters successfully altered the official contact information of legitimate, registered carriers in the federal database. When a broker or shipper called to verify the carrier, they may have been speaking directly to the fraudster.

For port-adjacent freight, fictitious pickups carry elevated risk. Containers released from the terminal after customs clearance move quickly, and the coordination between the terminal, the trucker, and the consignee happens under time pressure. Criminals who understand how port drayage works, including the structure of dispatch, release orders, and gate procedures, are specifically targeting this vulnerability.

How the Most Common Freight Fraud Schemes Compare

The following table summarizes the four most active fraud methods targeting carriers, brokers, and shippers in the current environment.

Why Port-Adjacent Freight Is a Specific Target

Port freight moves on compressed timelines. Demurrage clocks are running, cargo needs to clear customs, and shippers are often communicating with multiple parties simultaneously. That urgency creates pressure that fraudsters exploit deliberately. A shipper who receives a call from someone claiming to represent the booked carrier, asking to confirm pickup details ahead of a last-free-day deadline, may not apply the same scrutiny they would under normal conditions.

High-value cargo categories are also concentrated at ports. Electronics, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage imports, and apparel, all of which rank among the most frequently targeted freight types according to Overhaul’s Q1 2026 Cargo Theft Report, regularly move through facilities like Norfolk International Terminal and Virginia International Gateway. Cargo that can be quickly liquidated is cargo that criminal networks prioritize.

The Trojan Driver Scam, documented by TAPA Americas in April 2026, adds another dimension. Rather than attacking from the outside through forged credentials, criminals embed themselves inside legitimate carrier operations by applying for driver positions. Once hired, they have access to real dispatch instructions, real load assignments, and real equipment. The theft looks organic from the outside because the driver is, in fact, employed by the carrier.

The Federal Response: The SAFER Transport Act

The scale of the problem has reached Congress. On February 26, 2026, U.S. Senator Todd Young introduced the Securing American Freight, Enforcement, and Reliability in Transport Act, known as the SAFER Transport Act. The bill specifically names fictitious pickups, double brokering, and hostage loads as the tactics it is designed to address.

Among the bill’s provisions is the establishment of a Freight Fraud and Theft Advisory Committee under the Secretary of Transportation. The legislation reflects what the industry has been reporting for two years: that existing enforcement mechanisms are not keeping pace with the sophistication and scale of organized cargo crime.

What Shippers and Cargo Owners Can Do Right Now

No technology platform or federal legislation eliminates fraud exposure on its own. The most effective protection comes from consistent practices at the operational level. The following steps are recommended by industry organizations including the National Insurance Crime Bureau, TAPA Americas, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association:

• Verify carrier identity independently. Never rely solely on contact information provided in an email or load confirmation. Look up the carrier directly through FMCSA using the MC number provided, and call the number listed on the FMCSA record, not the number in the email. If the numbers differ, treat it as a red flag.
• Screen for VoIP phone numbers. Fraudulent carrier contacts frequently use VoIP numbers because they can be created quickly and abandoned. Several carrier vetting platforms flag VoIP numbers automatically. Manual checks are also possible through reverse-lookup tools.
• Confirm pickup details through a second channel. If a driver arrives ahead of schedule, with slightly different paperwork, or asks to change the pickup address, do not release the freight until confirmation is received through a separately verified channel. A phone call to a number you dialed, not one provided by the driver, is the minimum standard.
• Work with carriers who do not permit double brokering. Some carriers and brokers have explicit contractual prohibitions on re-brokering loads. Choosing partners with these policies in place and with verifiable operating histories reduces exposure significantly.
• Document the authorization chain. Any re-routing instruction, address change, or carrier substitution should come in writing from the verified cargo owner and no one else. Accepting verbal changes or instructions relayed through dispatch creates gaps that fraudsters are trained to exploit.
• For hazmat drayage and other regulated cargo, apply additional verification at every transfer point. Regulated freight that moves under specific permits and documentation creates a paper trail that, if followed consistently, makes fictitious pickups significantly harder to execute.

Choosing Partners Who Take Cargo Security Seriously

At Century Express Virginia, every driver working a port move is known to the team. The company has operated from the Port of Virginia since 2007, and its driver network reflects the lowest turnover rates in the region. That continuity matters in the current environment. When the same drivers are running the same terminals week after week, anomalies are noticed. Unfamiliar faces, mismatched paperwork, and unusual pickup requests stand out to a team that knows its routes and relationships well.

Fraud in freight is ultimately an identity problem. It thrives where verification is assumed rather than confirmed. Shippers and cargo owners who take carrier verification seriously, maintain tight documentation practices, and work with port-based operators who have deep terminal relationships are in a significantly stronger position than those who do not.

For questions about how Century Express Virginia manages cargo security across its port drayage, refrigerated drayage, and specialized equipment operations, visit the About page or explore the full range of services on the Century Express Virginia website.

Let Century Express Virginia help you navigate the security challenges of port logistics. The team is accessible seven days a week at (757) 494-9200, or reach out through the contact page.