Double brokering and carrier identity theft: 10 red flags
Updated 2026-10-25
Double brokering is re-brokering a load without the shipper's or broker's consent. It often comes with identity theft: someone uses a real carrier's name and numbers to take the load, then hands it to whoever is cheapest, or steals it.
Red flags before you book
- The contact email is a free address or a look-alike of the carrier's real domain
- The phone number differs from the one on the provincial or FMCSA record
- The carrier's authority or NSC certificate is only weeks old
- Its record was recently updated with a new address, phone or officer
- It accepts any lane at any rate without questions
- It won't take a call back on the number of record
Red flags after you book
- The remit-to or factoring company changes after the rate confirmation
- The driver or truck on pickup doesn't match what the carrier sent
- Tracking goes quiet or the carrier asks to skip check calls
- A different company asks you for payment
The checks that stop it
Call back on a number from an independent source, compare contact details with the official record, and pay only the remit-to on the record. Chameleon carriers reappear under new names, so look for shared phones, addresses, officers and trucks with carriers that were shut down.
General information, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the province concerned.