(Credit: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Whether it’s deepfake CEO impersonations, or sophisticated voice cloning, cyber fraud online has come a long, long way from the days of Nigerian prince emails of yesteryear. But instead of your credit card details, they’re increasingly going after truckloads of expensive high-value goods this time.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyber criminals are now impersonating legitimate businesses to hijack freight, steal high-value shipments, and reroute deliveries, causing a surge of what they call strategic cargo theft.
Since at least 2024, cyber threat actors have gained unauthorized access to the computer systems of brokers and carriers, generally via techniques like spoofed emails, fake URLs, and compromised carrier accounts.
According to the agency, these bad actors will pose as legitimate companies with accounts they’ve hacked into, and post fraudulent listings on “load boards”—platforms where deals and shipments are arranged—to deceive shippers, brokers, and carriers into delivering goods to them. These are then redirected from their intended destination and stolen for resale.
Bad actors will try to inject freight carriers’ systems with what are called remote monitoring and management (RMM) applications via malicious links, giving them control of the carriers’ systems. Unwitting drivers will pick up the freight loads before redirecting them to complicit drivers, who illegally resell them. Criminals will also sometimes try to get in touch with a broker to demand a ransom for the location of the stolen goods.
(Credit: Proofpoint)In November 2025, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint released a report on the same topic, adding that hackers were mainly going after trucking and logistics firms, mainly in the food and beverage industry.
Not even the most powerful American companies are invulnerable to cargo theft. In May 2025, CNBC reported that US federal authorities apprehended 13 members of an Armenian crime ring that stole over $83 million in cargo from Amazon, though the technology used wasn’t explicitly mentioned.
The bureau says the problem is occurring on a huge scale. It estimated cargo theft losses in the United States and Canada totaled $725 million in 2025, up 60% year-on-year, while confirmed cargo theft incidents rose 18 percent. Meanwhile, average value per theft rose 36 percent to $273,990, driven by more selective, high-value targets.
The bureau recommends logistics companies take thorough security measures like independently verifying shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods prior to releasing any loads, as well as implementing multi-channel verification for identities. It also recommends companies collect as much data as possible about who they are working with. For example, photos of drivers, licenses, vehicles, license plates, cab numbers, truck numbers, Department of Transportation and Motor Carrier numbers, and contact and communication details.
“Recognize that familiar names or email addresses alone do not confirm authenticity; validate unexpected communications through a two-factor authentication process,” read the warning.