Fighting fraud requires a multi-layered approach

Freight fraud affects more than just finances. Falling victim to a scam or theft can damage vital business relationships and tarnish reputations. Between monetary losses and loss of trust, just one instance of fraud can cause a carrier to go out of business. 

That’s why Truckstop’s approach includes the most robust tools on the market to act as the first line of defense for carriers and brokers. 

During the May 8 episode of What the Truck?!?, host Timothy Dooner sat down with Truckstop’s senior director of customer success Taryn Daker to discuss the evolving tactics required to combat freight fraud and what Truckstop is doing to protect the trucking industry.

“Truckstop is always looking at ways to better help carriers and brokers,” Daker said. 

By focusing on high-quality carrier inbounds, Truckstop is streamlining the load booking process for both carriers and brokers. The company’s first-to-market Authority Age Filter increases quality inbounds from carriers who meet specific authority age requirements and ensures that loads can be seen by a wider pool of available qualified carriers.

“Many drivers will start the process of negotiating loads with a broker only to find out that they don’t have the correct authority to book a particular load,” Daker said. “Our Authority Age Filter skips that hurdle. We are always trying to make things easier for carriers and remove frustrating barriers while keeping broker processes secure,” she said. 

Daker described a video account wherein an owner-operator discusses being able to get business with only two months of holding an authority. According to Daker, many drivers and brokers are reporting success using the Authority Age Filter. 

When it comes to new tools and tactics for carriers and brokers, Daker says, it’s important to always keep in mind the various kinds of protection necessary to fight ever-increasing sophistication that scammers are utilizing. 

“The way I look at fraud is like an onion,” Daker said. “There are different layers and different tactics brokers should be using to protect themselves from various types of fraud.”

One of those tactics is Truckstop’s Risk Factors.

“This is the only vetting solution that leverages Truckstop’s comprehensive data and advanced intelligence,” Daker said. “It tells you what’s going on with a carrier’s history and what their risk behaviors are.”

Risk Factors can be installed as a Google Chrome extension, which makes it easily accessible, even during a phone call or ongoing negotiation. 

“Brokers are busy, and they juggle a lot of different screens,” Daker said. “The Risk Factors extension overlays right over your browser so if a carrier calls in, you can type in their MC or DOT number, and Truckstop intelligence will let you know if they’re high risk, medium risk, or low risk based on a variety of factors,” Daker said. 

If an email address associated with an account has been recently changed, for instance, Truckstop will take those details into account. “We analyze anything that can be an indicator that someone might not be who they say they are,” Daker said.

With advanced analytics, Truckstop can observe patterns, such as multiple addresses associated with a phone number or suspicious activity with other brokerages, which lets brokers isolate those risk factors to further assess the situation. 

In Truckstop’s Freight Fraud Blog, the company recently published some staggering statistics: in 2024, 65,000 freight thefts were reported, a 40% increase year over year. 

“We saw almost thirteen thousand suspicious account attempts in RMIS, which we successfully blocked,” Daker said. “On our load board, we had almost ten thousand imposters try to create accounts,” she said. 

Truckstop continues to enhance the layers of security and is always developing new ways to identify and stop criminals.

“The one number that really sticks out is that our in-house security team thoroughly investigated seventy thousand different entities in 2024,” Daker said. 

With advanced AI tools, the number of cyberattacks and scamming attempts have increased rapidly. Just as security teams keep developing more robust security, bad actors continue to develop more pernicious methods of attack. 

“Fraudsters are always look for gaps in your system that they can exploit,” Daker said. 

What, then, can carriers or brokers do to better protect themselves?

“One of the best layers of security you can use is working with a trusted partner who is also evolving in technology and tactics,” Daker said. “Even if you’re implementing the best tools, your partners and clients can be potential weak points that bad actors can use to get to you.”

In January 2025, Truckstop customers reported 45% less fraud compared to January 2024. 

“That decrease is due to different tactics that we’re bringing to market, not just any one thing,” Daker said. 

According to Daker, it’s vital for both carriers and brokers to be able to assess potential partners and how they’re evolving with the whole range of tools and tactics as they advance every day.

In 2024, Truckstop also implemented identity verification and multifactor authentication to better secure broker and carrier operations. 

“These kinds of security checks better protect our customers from various types of fraud, and we make an active effort to keep constantly implementing new tactics,” Daker said.

Click here to learn more about Truckstop.

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