Cargo theft incidents fell 26% in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, yet the value of stolen loads doubled, according to CargoNet figures cited by Danielle Spinelli, Director of Partnerships at Genlog. The divergence points to a strategic shift by criminal networks away from opportunistic grabs and toward deliberate targeting of high-value freight — a trend that puts premium cargo shippers and the carriers hauling their freight at elevated risk. CargoNet, a division of Verisk that aggregates theft reports from carriers, law enforcement, and insurers, is one of the freight industry's primary benchmarks for theft activity, which is why its quarterly figures are closely watched by shippers and brokers sizing their exposure.

"There's less loads that they're stealing, but they're targeting high-value freight," said Spinelli, who is also known in the industry as the Fraud Girl. "Those who are running high value definitely need to kind of cross their T's, dot their I's, because they're really hunting them right now." Electronics, pharmaceuticals, and other premium loads have long commanded the highest per-incident losses in CargoNet's reporting, and a shift toward fewer-but-bigger thefts concentrates risk on shippers of exactly those goods.

A key driver of the current threat environment is the use of legitimate carrier authorities rather than fabricated ones. Criminals are increasingly exploiting sold or dormant Motor Carrier (MC) numbers — sometimes advertising them openly on social media platforms such as Facebook — to move stolen freight without triggering standard vetting flags. The tactic sits within the broader category of carrier-identity fraud, which the industry has tracked through episodes of double brokering and stolen identities in recent years; because the authority itself is real, conventional digital vetting tools that check registration records often show nothing amiss. Genlog monitors those online postings and correlates them with physical road activity to surface red flags before a load is tendered.

"Because we're able to see them on a physical level, it's not like they can manipulate anything digitally to make them look like they're still operating if they did sell it," Spinelli said. "We're able to really see what is physically changing more than a digital platform can."

Genlog's detection methodology relies on a camera, sensor, and satellite network that the company says covers 99% of active U.S. motor carriers, with data collected over more than three years. The platform flags three primary anomalies: a carrier that has not been observed on the road in the past 7 to 60 days — often an indication of a sold MC; a carrier operating an unfamiliar lane or region; and a carrier running equipment it has not previously been seen hauling. Spinelli noted that the roughly 1% to 2% of carriers Genlog has never observed are, in her view, likely not real operating carriers.

The network's utility extends beyond freight fraud. Spinelli said Genlog assisted law enforcement in tracking a series of trucks running a recurring route from the Mexico border to the Northeast, a pattern that correlated with narcotics flooding local markets. When authorities made a stop based on that intelligence, they seized narcotics, firearms, and cash.

"It's really cool being able to help law enforcement not only with cargo theft, but all the other types of things that are unfortunately being done on a big scale with using tractor-trailers," Spinelli said.

On the regulatory front, Spinelli was skeptical that government action alone will move the needle, citing a shortage of DOT inspectors and limited enforcement capacity. Her caution reflects a broader constraint regulators themselves have acknowledged: FMCSA has flagged freight fraud as a growing concern, but enforcement resources for vetting hundreds of thousands of active carrier authorities are limited. She argued that the private sector — particularly brokers who control carrier onboarding decisions — is better positioned to drive change by collectively deprioritizing carriers that show red flags such as MC-for-sale postings or deteriorating safety ratings.

Spinelli closed with a measured take on liability exposure concerns spreading through the industry, advising carriers and brokers not to overhaul their processes out of fear, but instead to apply the same disciplined vetting philosophy that has already contributed to the declining theft count. She is scheduled to speak at the NMFTA cybersecurity conference in Long Beach and is producing a podcast series featuring multiple vetting platforms to help industry participants understand what each tool offers.

Source: FreightWaves. This article is based on a transcription of the FreightWaves Today interview.