12 Rate Con Red Flags You Should Catch Before You Sign

A rate con tells you a lot more than a load number and a rate. It tells you who really sent it. Use the next two minutes to run through this list before you sign anything. Most freight scams trip at least three of these.

The 12 checks

1. Logo at the top. Real brokers have a real logo at the top of the rate con. Pixelated, blurry, or stretched logos that look like a Google Image grab usually are.
2. Header company name vs FMCSA legal name. The name printed at the top of the rate con must match the legal name on FMCSA SAFER for that MC. Trade names without DBA registration are a yellow flag.
3. MC number printed as text. If the only place you see the broker's MC is inside their logo image, OCR can be fooled. Make sure the number is also printed in plain text somewhere on the document.
4. Address that matches FMCSA. Cross-check the address on the rate con header with the address FMCSA has on file. If FMCSA says Dallas, TX and the rate con says a UPS Store in Miami, that is the moment to slow down.
5. Email domain that matches the website. If the broker's website is acmelogistics.com, their email should be name@acmelogistics.com. Free Gmail or Outlook addresses on a rate con are a near-certain scam indicator.
6. Lookalike domain check. Read the email letter by letter. acmelogistics.com vs acme-logistics.com vs acme1ogistics.com (that is a number 1, not a lowercase L). They are not the same domain.
7. Phone number that resolves to a business. Call it. Make sure it goes to a switchboard or a named human who can confirm the load. A voicemail with no greeting is a red flag.
8. Reasonable rate for the lane. Rates 15 to 25 percent above market are a classic double-broker setup.
9. No urgency language. "MUST PICK UP TODAY", "URGENT", and all-caps pressure throughout the document are scam markers. Real brokers do not need to scream.
10. Payment terms that match industry norms. Net 30 is standard. Net 45 with a quick-pay fee under 2 percent is fine. Anything asking you to wire upfront, pay a service charge to "release" the load, or split payment to multiple bank accounts is fraud.
11. Carrier section addressed correctly. Make sure the rate con names YOUR company correctly, with the right MC and DOT. Some scams send the same rate con template to twenty carriers with the wrong identity in the carrier block.
12. Surety bond on file. FMCSA requires brokers to carry a $75,000 BMC-84 or BMC-85 bond. If the bond is missing or expired, the broker cannot legally book the load.

How to use this list

Print it. Tape it to your dispatch monitor. Anyone in your office who handles rate cons should be able to run through these in under two minutes. Three flags is a slow down. Five flags is a hard no.