Chameleon carriers. Ghost offices. Shell companies. What do they all have in common? Identity fraud.
Freight fraud is not new, but the methods employed by bad actors keep evolving. It’s the same circle of actions each time: thieves posing as a legitimate carrier take off with a freight load of goods. Next, they reincorporate under a new name to shed a questionable safety record or any identifying factors from the previous job. That “business address” they use? It turns out to be a mailbox at a mail carrier or shipping service store that’s never even seen one of the carrier’s trucks.
The Fraud Problem Is Bigger Than One Bad Actor
Recent headlines make the scale of the problem of freight fraud hard to ignore. Investigators recently found that hundreds of trucking companies were registering with virtual addresses and P.O. boxes instead of real, physical locations. For example, one address listed in a Signal Hill, California office building alone had nearly 700 companies listed as operating out of the same address, with roughly 500 of them sharing a single phone number and email. In Dallas, TX, 20 separate carriers listed their federal paperwork as a mailbox service that does nothing but handle mail. Fraud experts have publicly criticized Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for not moving fast enough to shutter these fake addresses, even after being alerted to them.
It isn’t just addresses. Just this year, the FMCSA issued a warning about an aggressive phishing campaign in which scammers impersonated FMCSA and U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) officials over email, pushing convincing-looking documents designed to steal sensitive information or extract illegal payments from carriers. And federal prosecutors have continued to bring cases against operators running illegal trucking companies under false pretenses, including obstructing FMCSA directly.
These may be different methods, but the outcome is the same: it is still too easy to fake an identity in freight.
Industry Is Shifting from Investigation to Prevention
The astonishing numbers behind freight fraud explain why the industry’s attitude is changing. Cargo theft losses climbed to roughly $725 million in 2025, which is a 60% jump over the year prior—the average loss per theft is also rising. The Transportation Intermediaries Association’s (TIA) State of the Fraud in the Industry report, released in April 2025, found that unlawful brokerage (fraudsters posing as legitimate brokers to steal loads or payments) is now the single most common fraud tactic companies report, cited by 34% of respondents, with 83% saying they’d faced three different types of fraud in just six months. The pattern repeats, demonstrating that criminals don’t have to break locks, they just have to forge credentials and walk right through the front door.
Such criminal tactics are forcing an industry-wide shift in strategy. For years, the industry’s default response to fraud was reactive. It was unfathomable that this type of fraud would or could become commonplace, so the model was to investigate individual cases as they occurred, which was always assumed to be a brazen if entirely occasional breach. That model was never intended to deal with organized crime networks hitting the system all at once with manufactured fake credentials.
In response, the industry is moving to get ahead of the problem instead of constantly reacting to it. Rather than only investigating fraud after freight disappears, more of the effort has shifted toward preventing fraud before a load ever gets tendered. This means putting vetting measures in place to ensure that there isn’t room for criminals to dash away with stolen goods or payments. For example, a proposed piece of legislation called the SAFER Transport Act introduced by Senator Todd Young in February 2026 aimed at fighting against “fictitious pickups, double brokering scams, and hostage loads to steal shipments without detection.”
Other preventative strategies include carrier-vetting tools that cross-reference regulatory data using the FMCSA’s MOTUS system, which incorporates identity and business verification to strengthen fraud prevention.
In short, the industry is turning to sophisticated identity verification as a first line of defense. And NMFTA is leading the way with SCAC Verified™.
By combining identity verification that includes matching a live photo to a government-issued ID with Standard Carrier Alpha Code® (SCAC)® issuance and renewal requirements, SCAC Verified ties SCAC to a real, verifiable person at the moments that matter most: onboarding, tendering, and pickup.
What SCAC Verified Actually Checks
Effective February 26, 2026, identity verification is required for non-Class 8 carriers when applying for or renewing or reinstating a SCAC. This requirement is part of the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc.® (NMFTA)® phased approach to strengthening trust and reducing freight fraud, particularly impersonation and misuse of carrier identities.
At a high level, the SCAC ID verification touchpoints include the following:
- Physical address requirement: This requires the carrier to provide a real, physical location.
- Government ID verification: To confirm that an individual is who they say they are, SCAC Verified verifies the legitimacy of a government-issued ID. To learn more about what kinds of IDs are accepted, see our Help Center to learn more about Types of Identification Accepted for SCAC ID Verification.
- Biometric matching: Biometric matching confirms that the individual applying for a SCAC matches the information listed on their government ID.
- Annual renewals: SCAC requires an annual renewal process that now ties ID verification to the process to ensure that verification is not a one-time checkbox, but something that is routinely reconfirmed.
Together, these fraud prevention measures mean that for applicable non-Class 8 carriers, a SCAC can carry a status indicating that a real individual has completed NMFTA’s identity-verification process and that the associated SCAC has met NMFTA’s physical address requirements.
With SCAC Verified, you can quickly look up a SCAC and see the following identifiers associated with it:
- Search the SCAC directory by Code
- Company Name
- MC Number
- DOT Number
- If the SCAC is active or inactive
- If the verification is via SCAC Verified
- If the verification is via FMCSA data
- If the verification is via Government ID and biometric matching
Getting Started Is Quick and Easy
SCAC Verified is designed to help stop impersonation, double brokering, and fictitious pickups, before they happen. By leveraging SCAC, an established carrier identifier that the industry already depends on, SCAC Verified creates a shared signal of trust allowing you to:
- Confirm carrier identity using a code the entire industry already recognizes;
- Reduce exposure to identity-based fraud without adding friction; and
- Align teams around one consistent signal.
Ready to stop fraud before it starts? Visit SCAC Verified to learn more. For step-by-step guidance, check out the Help Center.
