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AI and supply chain complexity are raising cargo theft risks
Crawford & Crawford says generative AI could help fraudsters access freight platforms, analyze routing data, and generate convincing communications and documentation.
Cyber-enabled criminals are increasingly targeting high-value cargo without physically hijacking trucks, using artificial intelligence and more complex supply chains to divert shipments, according to Insurance Business.
Valorie Steinbeck, practice director of marine and logistics at Crawford & Crawford, said generative AI could further increase the sophistication and scale of cargo fraud by helping criminals access freight platforms, analyze freight information, or produce convincing communications and documentation, while geopolitical instability and rapid changes to routes also add friction and complexity.
Steinbeck noted that each additional participant, platform, and handoff in a supply chain creates more potential entry points, especially during periods when companies are rapidly onboarding new carriers and suppliers and shifting operations. She added that fraudsters are manipulating digital systems to assign, release, and transport freight, using tactics such as identity theft, fake motor carriers, email spoofing, fraudulent pickup instructions, and diversion of legitimate loads.
The shift toward “strategic” cargo theft is also changing claims investigations, because warehouses and shippers may release cargo to criminals when the identification, insurance documentation, and pickup instructions appear legitimate. Steinbeck said adjusters are increasingly dealing with schemes involving stolen or misappropriated US Department of Transportation numbers, altered insurance certificates, fake driver credentials, and email addresses designed to imitate real businesses.