Freight fraud is evolving faster than traditional controls. Identity misuse, digital impersonation, phishing, double brokering, and cargo theft increasingly exploit gaps between systems, partners, and modes, it is rarely individual mistakes.
This Best Practices page invites carriers, brokers, shippers, technology providers, and logistics professionals to help inform a shared set of practices that may influence future National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc.® (NMFTA)™ guidance, tools, and standards.
These practices are not requirements, but they represent the collective direction of the industry. By contributing real-world experience and insights, stakeholders help ensure what comes next is practical, credible, and built for how freight actually moves.
Why Freight Fraud Requires a Shared Approach
Today’s freight fraud schemes rarely rely on a single tactic. Criminal networks combine identity misuse with phishing, social engineering, double brokering, document manipulation, and system access abuse—often moving across modes and partners before fraud is detected.
Criminals exploit weak identity signals, inconsistent data, manual workflows, fragmented verification processes, and human trust assumptions across the freight ecosystem.
As the industry’s standards body, NMFTA works across classification, identity verification, cybersecurity, and digital standards, placing it in a unique position to observe patterns and elevate proven practices at a holistic, de-siloed level.
This page reflects those observations and will evolve as the industry evolves.
How to Use These Best Practices
Review practices relevant to your role;
Identify what you already do, and where gaps exist;
Understand how different fraud tactics, including identity misuse, phishing, double brokering, and cyber-enabled cargo theft, often intersect across a single shipment lifecycle;
Share what works, what doesn’t, and why; and
Help NMFTA understand operational realities by answering this one question.
Best Practices by Role
These practices are organized by responsibility, not company size or technology stack.
Executives & Owners
- Recognize freight fraud as a blended operational, cyber, and financial risk, not a single-point control problem;
- Treat identity verification as a core business control—not an admin task;
- Align fraud prevention across operations, IT, and partners; and
- Support standardized verification signals across networks, e.g. SCAC ID Verification.
Why It Matters
Fraud prevention decisions made at the executive level directly influence how consistently teams and partners follow secure processes.
Operations & Dispatch Teams
- Verify carrier identity before tender acceptance;
- Use consistent red flags for suspicious pickups or changes;
- Document escalation paths when something feels “off”. When in doubt, pick up the phone and call the person to verify the shipment and/or identity; and
- Be alert to social engineering tactics, phishing attempts, and urgent last-minute changes that bypass normal processes.
Why It Matters
Operational teams are often the first to spot fraud, but only if they’re empowered with clear data points and processes.
IT & Security Teams
- Reduce reliance on manual identity checks;
- Integrate verified identity data into workflows; and
- Treat freight fraud as a blended cyber and operational organizational risk, where system access, human behavior, and data integrity intersect.
Why It Matters
Fraud increasingly exploits digital systems. Identity assurance and data integrity are foundational defenses.
Best Practices by Industry Segment
Brokers & Intermediaries
- Standardize carrier verification processes;
- Implement controls to detect and prevent double brokering and unauthorized carrier substitution;
- Avoid one-off or manual trust decisions; and
- Share verified signals across internal teams.
Why It Matters
Intermediaries sit at a critical trust junction—small inconsistencies can be exploited at scale.
Technology Providers
- Support standardized identity and verification signals;
- Ensure to carefully and thoroughly vet all third-party vendors.(NMFTA Cyber Vendor Risk Assessment Framework)
- Reduce proprietary-only trust mechanisms; and
- Design fraud prevention into workflows, not add-ons.
Why It Matters
Technology shapes industry behavior. Interoperable trust signals reduce friction and risk for everyone.
Railroad
- Verify rail carrier identity at every handoff;
- Lock down rail documentation and release authority;
- Monitor yards, sidings, and interchange points;
- Watch for anomalies in rail movement data;
- Limit and audit third-party access; and
- Train teams to recognize social engineering tactics.
Why It Matters
Rail fraud exploits complexity and handoffs—without strong verification and visibility, stolen freight can disappear across long distances before anyone realizes there’s a problem.
Intermodal
- Verify all parties across modal transitions;
- Protect container and chassis integrity;
- Scrutinize drayage and appointment requests;
- Control access to intermodal systems and portals;
- Track dwell time and exception patterns; and
- Establish a clear escalation playbook.
Why It Matters
Intermodal fraud thrives in the gaps between modes—strong identity controls and shared visibility close those gaps before fraudsters exploit them.
Common Freight Fraud Tactics Observed Across the Industry
- While tactics evolve, many fraud incidents share common patterns. These best practices are informed by industry observations related to:
- Identity misuse and impersonation;
- Phishing and social engineering targeting operations teams;
- Double brokering and unauthorized carrier substitution;
- Document manipulation and false credentials; and
- Cyber-enabled cargo theft and system access abuse.
Understanding how these tactics intersect is key to preventing fraud before losses occur.
Help Shape What Comes Next
This page is actively informing future NMFTA guidance and potential standards for freight fraud prevention. Your operational insight matters.
We’re not asking if you agree; we’re asking what works in the real world.
Help share what standards come next by answering this one question. We want to know:
How NMFTA Supports Freight Fraud Prevention
These best practices connect directly to NMFTA programs designed to strengthen trust, verification, and data integrity across the freight ecosystem.
SCAC Verified™
Strengthening carrier identity signals
Cybersecurity Resources
Addressing cyber-enabled cargo theft
Classification and ClassIT+™
Reducing misinterpretation and disputes
Digital API Standards
Enabling shared, machine-readable trust
Want to Contribute on a Greater Scale?
Freight fraud doesn’t get solved by one company (or one mode) acting alone. NMFTA is building the Freight Fraud Prevention Hub in collaboration with carriers, shippers, railroads, brokers, technology providers, and industry experts to create a shared ecosystem of trusted resources and best practices.
The Freight Fraud Prevention Hub Partner Program is your opportunity to get involved beyond feedback—by contributing expertise, insights, education, tools, or real-world experience that help raise the bar for the entire industry in preventing fraud before it starts. When every part of the supply chain participates, the guidance becomes stronger, more practical, and more impactful for everyone.
These best practices are informational and non-binding. They reflect current industry observations and may evolve as new threats, technologies, and standards emerge.