Logistics ID Fraud Attempts Spiked 200 Percent in Two Years

Identity fraud attempts in the U.S. cargo and logistics sector surged 213 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to a report from identity verification company IDScan.net.

The 2026 Cargo and Logistics ID Fraud Report analyzed more than 1 million identity verification transactions in processing, manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing operations. Fraudsters will attempt to gain access to supply chains to steal cargo—a single stolen truckload can exceed $500,000 in value. Companies are then on the hook for investigation costs, insurance deductibles, and reputational damage.

The data showed that fraud attempts climbed from 0.53 percent of transactions in 2023 to 1.66 percent in 2024 and 2.15 percent in 2025. The second quarter of 2025 marked the highest quarterly fraud rate ever recorded by IDScan.net, with attempts jumping 75 percent over the historical average.

The growth “isn’t a fluctuation or random spike; it’s a sustained trend driven by organized criminal enterprises that have identified cargo theft as a lucrative, relatively low-risk operation,” the report said.

Multiple converging factors are driving this increased criminal activity, including the volume of high-value goods moving through supply chains because of e-commerce activity; driver shortages that pressure companies to onboard workers quickly and with less verification; and more sophisticated criminal networks that take advantage of better fake ID technology.

“Economic strain, labor shortages, and rising freight volumes have created ideal conditions for organized cargo crime,” according to an IDScan.net press release. “Rapid hiring and reliance on temporary workers leave gaps in vetting and oversight, while retailers move more inventory through an already stretched network to multiply soft targets that exist across warehouses and transit routes. With cargo theft still lacking a unified federal tracking framework, fragmented reporting and limited centralized oversight allow sophisticated crime rings to operate across state lines with minimal visibility and reduced risk of detection.”

The report identified a profile of fraudulent ID users, but critically, that profile is designed to avoid notice. The average age on fake IDs for logistics fraud attempts is 46, and fraudsters are five times more likely to be male than female. A 46-year-old male cargo driver is unlikely to raise suspicion at warehouses or distribution centers, the report said.

Fraudsters chose the U.S. states for their fake IDs based on where criminals obtained identity information, where they manufacture fake IDs, and which states’ security features they feel most confident replicating. In 2025, the most used states were California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Fraud attempts were most common in major logistical hubs, including Los Angeles, California; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City, New York; Toronto, Ontario; and Seattle-Tacoma, Washington.

IDScan.net strongly recommended implementing stringent ID verification procedures along supply chains and logistical operations, both to detect fraud and deter criminals, who often perform reconnaissance to check for lax security before mounting fraud attempts.

“Increasing fraud rates show no signs of reversing,” the report said. “Criminal networks are sophisticated, well-funded, and constantly adapting. The logistics industry will continue to be targeted because it represents opportunity: high-value cargo, multiple access points, and, in some cases, verification processes that haven’t kept pace with the threats.”

The report continued, “Unless the logistics industry makes significant, collective investments in prevention, cargo theft will continue. The factors driving fraud, including e-commerce growth, high cargo values, driver shortages, aren’t going away, and neither are the criminal organizations profiting from theft.”