Your Inbox Isn’t Safe: How Email Spoofing Leads to Cargo Theft

In the freight industry, every load starts with trust. Brokers need to trust that the carrier showing up to pick up a load is the one they assigned. Carriers need to trust that brokers are giving them legitimate freight and shippers trust that the goods will arrive safely and on time.

In recent years, that trust has been increasingly tested. Email compromise, phone fraud, and cargo theft are all on the rise – and much of it stems from one vulnerable point in the load lifecycle: rate confirmation.

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The Problem

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a surge in phishing schemes targeting carriers through email compromise—aimed at stealing credentials, load details, or payment access 

Here’s how this attack vector unfolds:

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• A bad actor gains access to a legitimate carrier’s email inbox (often through clicking a link to a fake website and entering login credentials).
• Now that the bad actor has access to your accounts, they monitor communications, waiting for rate cons to deliver.
• When a broker emails a rate confirmation, the bad actor intercepts it—downloading and deleting it from the inbox—before anyone ever notices.
• Armed with all the shipment details, the fraudster impersonates the carrier, shows up at pickup, and steals the load.

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Most brokers deliver rate confirmations as email attachments. This seems efficient, but it also creates a major risk, potentially becoming a liability.

This fraud vector is hard to trace and can result in major financial loss.

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The Solution

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To help prevent this, we’ve introduced Secure Rate Con Delivery — a new feature that protects sensitive load documents from falling into the wrong hands. 

Instead of emailing sensitive load details as attachments, Highway routes the rate confirmation through a secure portal, accessible only by authorized carrier personnel. Even if an email is compromised, bad actors cannot access the document without passing Highway’s identity verification.

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Key benefits:

• Protects from targeted fraudulent activity
• Instantly notifies you when new rate confirmations arrive
• Provides more control over who receives rate confirmation notifications
• Streamlines the authentication process to access documents
• Maintains efficient communication with brokers through direct reply capabilities

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Why This Matters Now More Than Ever Before

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Cargo theft is no longer just about cutting locks or grabbing freight off trailers—the bad actors are getting smarter, and we’re here to stay one step ahead. The risk doesn’t just live on the road or warehouse, it starts in your inbox.

Secure Rate Con Delivery helps brokers and carriers take back control, giving access to reliable and innovative fraud prevention.

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To learn more about Secure Con Delivery and Highway’s suite of fraud prevention, book a demo here.

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