Trucking News · Nationwide · November 8, 2026

Truckers: Highway Report Links Cargo Fraud to Compromised Email

By Big Rig Daily Staff

Truckers protecting a carrier's identity face a problem beyond a stolen vehicle: compromised communications can make a fraudulent request look familiar. FreightWaves reports that Highway tied 40.2% of its third-quarter stolen-load reports to compromised communications. These figures describe activity in Highway's network, not all cargo theft nationwide.

The account describes criminals gaining access to carrier email and using recognized addresses to request shipment information. A familiar address can therefore be part of the reported method, without proving that a particular person at a carrier knowingly participated.

Different comparisons in one report

Highway said it blocked 90.3% more fraudulent and spoofed calls than a year earlier. The report also described a 111.4% increase in carrier ownership-change reports from the preceding quarter, to 518 reports.

Those percentages use different comparison periods. The calls figure is year over year, while the ownership-change figure is quarter over quarter. Combining them into a single growth rate would misrepresent the report.

An ownership-change report is also not automatically a proven theft. The figures identify activity the company tracks and the context for identity verification. They do not establish wrongdoing by every carrier whose ownership changed.

A lower stolen-load count can coexist with risk

The account says stolen-load reports within the network fell 28.1% from the previous quarter. That decline does not contradict the reported role of compromised communications. One measure concerns the number of reported losses; another concerns a method associated with a share of those reports.

The distinction matters when truckers compare prevention-company data with a broader claim about the entire industry. A provider can observe an important pattern without its network becoming a complete national sample.

The practical issue described is control of trusted communication channels and knowledge of who operates a carrier. The story does not need an invented alert screen or a specific breach victim to explain why an established name can be misused. Provider qualifications and time periods should travel with the numbers.

FAQ

Does 40.2% describe every stolen load in the country?

No. It is the share tied to compromised communications within Highway's third-quarter stolen-load reports, according to the coverage.

Did every measure rise over the same period?

No. Fraudulent-call blocking was compared with a year earlier, while ownership-change reports and stolen-load reports were compared with the previous quarter.

What information should a carrier verify before treating a familiar email address as proof of an authorized request?

Sources: freightwaves.com.

Related reading: the carrier-identity cargo-theft account explains how fake carrier identities can affect a pickup.

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