AI-powered freight scams and 'Double Brokering' networks target haulage industry

We’re hearing an alarming AI-enabled freight crime trend hitting the United States.

In a scam based on “double brokering”, the cost to the US trucking industry in non-payments alone is estimated to be around $100 million per year. In the UK it could be compared to the continual re sub-contracting of loads between forwarders and the small haulier who eventually does the load, never gets paid or is unknowingly involved in a more serious freight crime.

Double brokering means that a carrier who is contracted to move the load, reassigns the load to another carrier. This works well when loads move between trusted parties who usually have long standing agreements with each other, or when digital freight platforms only onboard vetted carriers who have a genuine operating licence.

But operators in the USA say technology is now allowing criminals from Europe and beyond to create fake but realistic haulier accounts using genuine companies’ data, and even plan fake tracking records on the freight movement. This is to give the impression that a load has arrived at the original delivery address but has been diverted elswehere and stolen.

They take loads from a shipper who thinks they know who they’re dealing with. The fake company then sells the load to a small haulier, giving them a new set of delivery instructions, where it’s stolen. The haulier delivering the load has no idea they’ve been involved in a complex scam – and often won’t get paid and can be accused of theft.

Law enforcement agencies in the States warn that these networks are growing and are a major threat to shippers and hauliers with freight crime said to be spiraling; the FBI has even opened a new department for cargo theft as the impact on the economy worsens.

A recent high-profile case involved two trailer loads of tequilla ordered from Mexico for delivery in New York. The loads were shipped and cross docked at the border in Texas and picked up by two owner drivers who had contracted the loads through a middleman. Fake tracking and a host of online messages created a delay on arrival, by which time the goods had been diverted to California and stolen. The criminal gang orchestrated this from Armenia…

It could happen here too so we will always urge you to be especially careful in knowing who you are dealing with and be very aware of cybercrime.