This freight brokerage fraud scheme is putting trucking companies out of business, left and right. Everyone has heard of double brokering, and while it definitely isn’t a great thing, its when the second, or even third broker for that matter never intended to pay, that really creates turmoil.
This is how it works
So the scammers act like an actual trucking company, and generally even have a carrier side, with active insurance, MC number, DOT number, phone, address, etc. And almost always in another city, if not state, than the brokerage they are going to use to double broker the load. Usually, the two companies will have different ownership, but not always. And many times, one if not both companies will be in a virtual office, UPS Store, or some other mail or package center.
So the carrier side goes on a load board, and gets a load from a legitimate broker, usually that is posting a load for a little bit less than the going rate. That broker is just trying to make a few extra dollars, in the case they can find someone to move the load for that. Sometimes, but not always certainly, that agent that posted the load, when someone contacts them to move the underpriced load, they are excited about the extra profit, and possibly fail to do all their due diligence.
Because most of the time, that carrier side, used by the scam broker to book the load from the legitimate broker, they may have 1 or 10 or 17 trucks listed, but almost always have way too few inspections, if any. Some have speculated that some of these fake carriers are even getting insurance on a truck sitting in a junkyard, to book the loads.
So for this example, lets say the going rate for a lane is $2000, but the agent of the legit broker is posting it for $1750, knowing they can negotiate a little bit and if they get an extra $250 in profit, so be it. So the fake carrier contacts the agent, asks about “quickpay” or a fuel advance, usually, and books the load especially if one or both is available.
Then the fraudulent broker goes into action
The next step is for the scammers to use their brokerage authority to find someone to move the load, so they can get paid. Lots of times you will see a legitimate brokerage posting a specific load for $1750 on one load board, but a broker with a familiar sounding, yet generic name posting it elsewhere for $2250. And its the same load, because their fake carrier side booked it for $1750, with a quickpay option, so they are getting $1662.50 for the load, but they broker it out for $2250 knowing they aren’t going to pay.
That is why they love quickpay or fuel advances, it is because sooner or later they will be caught and have to change companies they are using to perpetuate the fraud, and they want to make sure they get as much as they can, as fast as they can, kind of like a bankrobber.
They may even pay a few bills at a higher rate than they booked a load for, to fool factoring companies, or carrier that can move a bunch of loads, so they can be extended more credit. So pay $500 to steal $50,000.
There are several different things they do technically, even using other peoples paperwork and not having a carrier or brokerage authority, but those seem to get in trouble more often than the traditional double broker scammer.
The brokers listed on this page, have been confirmed to double broker freight. If you find yourself in this situation, where a broker disappears, their is another carriers name listed on the BOL and you need to be paid, get in touch with me, all we do is pursue unpaid freight bills.
