SCAC Verified™ by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc.® (NMFTA)®, is a direct answer to one of the less-than-truckload (LTL) trucking’s fastest-growing problems: freight fraud orchestrated by criminals who steal carrier identities to hijack loads, fabricate pickups, and disappear with cargo or payment before anyone realizes.
Unfortunately, small and independent carriers are disproportionately targeted with freight fraud since they are not as protected as big companies with access to legal teams and giant budgets. Standard Carrier Alpha Code® (SCAC)® Verified changes that equation by anchoring every SCAC to a verified, documented identity, making impersonation significantly harder and giving shippers and brokers a reliable way to confirm who they are working with.
Two Ways Criminals Target Small Carriers
Small carriers operate with small administration teams, putting a lot of trust in their broker relationships. Criminals know this, which is why they tend to prefer two strategies of fraud: identity impersonation and double brokering. Let’s break these down.
Identity impersonation happens when a bad actor steals the SCAC or United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) credentials of a legitimate carrier, especially preying on carriers that have recently changed owners. The criminals will book loads under the stolen identity, collect payment or the cargo, and then disappear.
Double brokering is when a fraudulent broker accepts a load, then re-brokers it to an unsuspecting carrier without authorization from the shipper or original broker. The carrier moves the freight in good faith, but payment never arrives because the fraudulent broker has already taken the money and run.
SCAC Verified was designed to prevent both types of schemes.
How SCAC Verified Creates a Defense Layer
SCAC Verified introduces mandatory identity verification to the SCAC process. ID verification and FMCSA Data validation occur during the SCAC apply, renewal, and reinstatement processes. Once completed, SCAC Verified is updated in real time with the applicable status and verification method, ensuring accurate status tracking and reliable identity validation. Those are critical details that help ensure that carriers cannot become compromised by fraudsters.
SCAC Verified also levels the playing field for small carrier fleets. For example, by tethering carrier identity to verified documentation, NMFTA is extending the kind of credential trust validation that large fleets enjoy by default to every size of operation. Meaning, a SCAC verified two-truck family-owned carrier now has the same level of confirmed legitimacy as one from a 500-unit fleet.
“This product adds one more defensive layer to the equation when vetting carriers, which aligns with a best practice in cybersecurity as well,” said Ben Wilkens, director of cybersecurity for NMFTA. “The concept of defense in depth is not about any one control functioning as the only security tool, rather it is about layering multiple defensive tools on top of one another to ensure that all the gaps are covered. SCAC Verified is one of these tools, closing one more gap that the bad actors have historically been able to exploit.”
Protect Yourself Now
According to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), cargo theft and strategic freight fraud schemes cost the American trucking and logistics industry a jaw-dropping $6.6 billion annually—or $18 million per day. A significant portion of that loss falls on the smallest operators that are least likely to be able to recover.
SCAC Verified is a direct response to that injustice. Taking the time to verify an identity is not just an administrative task to be checked off a list, it is an industry-changing, structural design intended to protect the carrier identity ecosystem, making it more trustworthy for everyone who depends on it.
Act now and get started with SCAC Verified to help prevent freight fraud. Powered by the NMFTA, SCAC Verified is the official SCAC lookup tool and the industry’s source of truth for SCAC status and verification method.
