Vetting a new carrier before the first load

Most brokerages already have a carrier onboarding checklist. The problem is that fraud has moved past it. In its report for the second quarter of 2026, Highway, a carrier identity company, said communication-based attacks (compromised inboxes, spoofed emails, account takeovers and impersonation calls) made up half of the fraud it classified, up from 42.7% the quarter before. Its first-quarter report said carriers with valid MC numbers and clean histories were behind roughly half of the theft incidents it saw. These are one vendor's numbers from its own network, but the direction matches what CargoNet reports: estimated cargo theft losses of $304.6 million in Q2 2026, more than double Q2 2025, even as the number of incidents fell.

The takeaway for a broker: a carrier that looks clean on paper can still be the wrong carrier, or the right carrier with someone else on the phone. The routine below checks the paper and then checks the person.

How the three main schemes work

Double brokering

A company books your load as a carrier, then re-brokers it to another carrier without telling you, usually at a lower rate. The truck that shows up is not the one you vetted. If the middleman never pays, the real hauler comes to you or your shipper for the money, and if something goes wrong with the freight, you are dealing with a carrier you never approved.

Identity theft and borrowed authority

Someone uses a real carrier's name, MC and DOT number, but with their own phone number and email. Variations include taking over the carrier's FMCSA account and changing the contact details on the record, and buying or "changing ownership" of an older authority so the history looks established. Highway counted ownership-change fraud at 25.6% of the thefts reported to it in Q2 2026.

Fictitious pickups

A legitimate carrier is booked, and an impostor shows up at the shipper first, claiming to be that carrier's driver. CargoNet's parent company describes these as thefts by deception using fake IDs or fictitious businesses, also called "fraudulent" or "deceptive" pickups. Load details often leak from a compromised inbox or a load board post. CargoNet counted 158 fictitious pickups in Q2 2026, against 165 a year earlier: a much smaller drop than in other theft types.

1. Authority: status, type and age

Look the carrier up by DOT and MC number on FMCSA's public records. You want active for-hire carrier authority for property, not only broker authority. A company that holds only broker authority should not be hauling your load.

Then look at age, and at what changed. New carriers are under FMCSA's new entrant safety monitoring for 18 months, with a safety audit once they have enough records, generally after at least three months of operation (49 CFR 385.307). Many brokerages set a minimum authority age of their own, and exceptions go to a manager. That is a business rule, not a federal one, and age alone proves little: an older authority is exactly what a fraudster wants to buy or hijack. Pay attention to a recent change of name, address, phone or email, and to an authority that sat quiet for a long time and is suddenly booking loads in a new region.

2. The contact on the record vs the person on the phone

This check catches a lot of identity theft, because the fraudster controls the phone and email they gave you, not the ones on the record. Pull the phone number, address and email from the carrier's FMCSA record and compare them with how the carrier reached you. If the quote came from a different number, do not use it to confirm anything. Call the number on the record and ask for the owner or dispatch: "We have an offer from someone using your MC for a Dallas to Atlanta load tomorrow. Is that you?" FMCSA's own fraud guidance tells people to confirm a company's phone number in SAFER for the same reason.

Dispatch services are normal, especially for owner-operators. A real dispatcher will not mind you calling the carrier on the record number to confirm they work together. Ask for the dispatch agreement or a signed letter from the carrier, and keep it on file.

3. Email: domain, reply-to and lookalikes

A Gmail address is not fraud on its own. Plenty of one-truck operations use one. What matters is whether the address matches the record and the onboarding packet. Look for:

• Lookalike domains: lonestarfrieght.example instead of lonestarfreight.example, or .co instead of .com.
• A reply-to address that differs from the sender.
• A long-standing carrier writing from a new address "because our email is down".
• Requests to send the rate con or pickup number to a different address than the one on file.

Send rate cons and pickup details only to the contact you verified. If your own reps' inboxes get compromised, the same logic protects you: a carrier who asks you to confirm by phone is doing it right.

4. Insurance: verify with the insurance agent, not the PDF

The FMCSA record shows whether the carrier has a liability filing on file. For for-hire carriers of general freight in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more, the federal minimum is $750,000 (49 CFR 387.9). Cargo insurance is a different story: federal cargo filings are required only for household goods carriers (49 CFR 387.303(c)), so for dry van, reefer and flatbed freight, cargo coverage is a contract matter between you and the carrier. You will not see it on the FMCSA record.

A certificate of insurance that reaches you from the carrier has passed through the hands of the party it describes, and a PDF is easy to edit. Insurers say the same thing: certificates that come straight from the insured can be falsified, so confirm coverage with the insurance agent or broker who wrote the policy. Do it this way:

• Find the insurance agent's phone number yourself, from the agency's website or your own records. Do not use the number printed on the certificate.
• Confirm the named insured matches the carrier's legal name, the policy numbers, effective and expiry dates, and the auto and cargo limits.
• Ask whether the policy schedules specific trucks or drivers, and whether cargo coverage excludes your commodity, reefer breakdown or unattended vehicles.
• Ask to be added as a certificate holder so you hear about cancellations.

5. Safety data that tells a story

Look at the carrier's safety rating (most carriers are unrated; Conditional and Unsatisfactory need a decision), out-of-service orders, inspection and crash history, and the number of power units and drivers. Then ask whether the story fits. A carrier registered years ago with zero inspections, a two-truck fleet offering to cover five loads tomorrow, or inspections only in states far from the lanes it says it runs are all reasons to slow down.

6. Red flags in the conversation

• A rate well under the market for the lane, offered fast.
• Pressure to book now, or reluctance to talk on the phone at all.
• Asking for the shipper's name, address or pickup number before sharing an MC.
• A dispatcher who cannot name the driver or say where the truck is empty.
• Requests to change the pickup time, the pickup location or the consignee after booking.
• Asking for a fuel advance before the truck is loaded.
• A known carrier behaving out of character: new number, new email, new bank.

7. Verify at pickup: driver, truck, trailer

Before the truck arrives, get the driver's name and cell number, the tractor number and plate, and the trailer number. Call the driver, not only dispatch. Send these details to the shipper and ask them to check the driver's ID and the equipment numbers before loading. If the carrier uses a tracking app or shares ELD location, confirm the truck is where the driver says it is.

When something does not match (a different driver, a different truck, "the other truck broke down, my cousin is picking up"), the shipper holds the freight and you call the carrier on the number from the record. A real carrier will understand a twenty-minute delay. A thief will not wait.

8. Payment changes: the last place money disappears

A request to change bank details or switch to a new factoring company should get the same care as a new carrier. Confirm it by calling the carrier on the record number, never a number in the email. Verify a notice of assignment with the factoring company directly, and when a carrier moves from one factor to another, ask for a release letter from the first one. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, once you receive a valid notice of assignment, paying the carrier instead of the factor may not discharge what you owe, so you can end up paying twice. A short hold on any payment change, approved by two people, costs little.

The checklist

When something is off

Do not tender, and do not send the pickup number. Tell the real carrier their identity is being used. FMCSA takes reports of registration misrepresentation and identity theft through its National Consumer Complaint Database. If freight was taken, call local police and the shipper's insurer right away. Add every phone number, email and address the fraudster used to your do-not-use list so the next attempt stops at step two.

How Retexa handles this

Before every tender, the agent checks the carrier's authority and insurance, compares the phone and email the quote came from with the FMCSA record and your onboarding packet, and runs your do-not-use list. When anything doesn't match, it stops and brings the carrier to your rep before a rate con or pickup number goes out. See how the carrier check works.