How to check a carrier’s identity

Write down the exact mismatch

Start with the USDOT or docket, legal name and contact details supplied to you. Open the public record separately. If the name, phone or address differs, identify the field rather than labeling the whole carrier suspicious.

Confirm through an independent route

A sensible operational check is to contact the business using a route established independently of the message being checked. Ask whether the person, load reference and instructions belong to that business. Record when and how you confirmed them.

Do not treat a number copied into a new email signature as independent confirmation. A matching public phone can help locate the company but cannot prove who sent an email.

Separate evidence from judgment

Keep source facts, your observations and unresolved questions in separate notes. For example: “The supplied phone differs from the retrieved census phone” is an observation. “This is fraud” would require evidence beyond that mismatch.

Resolve material uncertainty in your own process

If identity or instructions remain unresolved, use your organization’s escalation process before relying on them. Baseline cannot authenticate a dispatcher or approve a transaction. FMCSA publishes current impersonation alerts; use those official alerts for examples of misleading communications.