Highway Q3 2025 Freight Fraud Index Shows Direct Thefts Surpassing Email Compromises as Primary Fraud Vector

Highway, the leader in Carrier Identity and proactive fraud prevention for freight brokers, has released its Q3 2025 Freight Fraud Index showing a continued rise in identity-driven attacks targeting brokers and carrier networks. The report reveals that direct thefts have now surpassed compromised emails and ownership-change abuse as the leading fraud vector, with rogue carriers driving a significant share of losses. Despite total theft volumes trending slightly downward from Q2, the frequency and sophistication of fraud attempts continued to climb, serving as a warning sign for brokers, carriers, and shippers as the industry heads into peak season.

During Q3, Highway blocked 605,728 fraudulent email attempts and identified 62,531 fraudulent phone numbers. Brokers reported 2,992 identity alerts, and Highway recorded 149 unauthorized Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration contact changes, reinforcing the persistent manipulation of carrier records. Through the first three quarters of 2025, Highway has blocked 1,453,129 fraudulent email attempts, already exceeding the total of 914,719 for the full year 2024. Michael Grace, VP of Customer Risk Management at Highway, emphasized that while bad actors are evolving, the most effective defenses remain rooted in fundamentals, noting that teams maintaining disciplined verification practices experience dramatically fewer incidents.

Highway's data points to email takeovers and phishing as the primary entry points for identity misuse, with fraud rings often blending into legitimate email threads to intercept rate confirmations, impersonate dispatchers, and redirect payments. Phone-based impersonation is rising as well, with spoofed or Voice over Internet Protocol numbers increasingly used to solicit load details or submit fraudulent contact changes that enable account takeover. Fraud operations continue to originate globally, with the top countries associated with Q3 attempts being India, Serbia, and Pakistan, while domestically, California, Texas, and Florida saw the highest concentration of activity with growing pressure in Indianapolis-area distribution hubs.

Industry data from FreightWaves supports Highway's findings, reporting that in Q2, U.S. cargo theft rose 33% year over year to 525 incidents, with pilferage accounting for a majority of cases. In Mexico, 82% of thefts involved violence, with most incidents occurring while trucks were in transit, followed by thefts from unsecured parking areas. These patterns align with the impersonation and strategic theft techniques behind email thread intrusions, dispatcher spoofing, and payment redirection, underscoring the need for rigorous identity verification from tender through settlement.

As the holiday season approaches, Highway has flagged a higher risk for meat and seafood, frozen foods, consumer electronics, and alcoholic or specialty beverages, particularly on multi-stop routes and at high-volume consolidation points. Highway recommends a simple set of controls including verifying carrier identity and contact changes with a trusted source, requiring multi-factor authentication on all email accounts, delivering rate confirmations only through secure channels, and escalating any unusual login behavior or account changes for re-verification. For more information about the Freight Fraud Index and Highway's Carrier Identity solutions, visit https://highway.com.