The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning the public about a recent surge in strategic cargo theft.
On Thursday, April 30, the FBI issued a public service announcement regarding “cyber threat actors increasingly using sophisticated, cyber-enabled tactics to impersonate legitimate businesses to hijack freight, steal high-value shipments and reroute deliveries.”
According to the Bureau, cargo theft losses in 2025 reached an estimated $725 million – a 60% increase over 2024 – with an average loss of $273,990. The FBI said much of that increase has been due to thieves being more selective and targeting high-value loads.
“Since at least 2024, cyber threat actors have gained unauthorized access to the computer systems of brokers and carriers — typically via spoofed emails, fake URLs and compromised carrier accounts,” the FBI said in its announcement. “The cyber actors pose as victim companies and post fraudulent listings on load boards to deceive shippers, brokers and carriers into handing over goods, which are redirected from their intended destination and stolen for resale.”
As far as how to spot a potential bad actor, the FBI is telling carriers to be on the lookout for these warning signs:
- Contact from brokers, dispatchers or carriers about shipments made in a company’s name that were not authorized by the company
- Emails spoofing legitimate company domains using free email providers (for example, dispatch.FBITrucking@[provider].com instead of [email protected])
- Requests to download documents or forms from shortened or spoofed web links
- Emails claiming negative service reviews with links to “review” or “resolve” complaints, which can lead to malicious downloads
- New or unauthorized mailbox rules
- Emails from domains or free service providers mimicking legitimate ones through minor changes, such as:
- Extra punctuation (fb-i.gov)
- Different top-level domains (fbi.com, fbi.us)
- Added prefixes or suffixes (thefbi.gov, fbiemail.gov)
- Misspellings (fbii.gov, fdi.gov)
To combat this type of cargo theft, the FBI recommends that businesses independently verify shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods before releasing any loads, implement multi-channel verification to prevent freight diversion and maintain thorough documentation.
In addition to filing a police report, the Bureau added that carriers who have been victims of a cyber-enabled strategic cargo theft should file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center online here. LL
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