Notice of assignment fraud: a checklist before you change where money goes

The most expensive email in freight is the one that changes where a payment goes. A fake notice of assignment, a “letter of release” or a new remit-to address can send a carrier’s pay to someone else. This is the checklist to run before any payment detail changes.

What a notice of assignment is

When a carrier factors its invoices, the factoring company sends the broker or shipper a notice of assignment (NOA). It says: pay us, not the carrier. Once a valid NOA is on file, paying anyone else may not count as paying at all, and you can end up paying the same invoice twice.

That is what makes it a target. A notice that looks official, arriving at the right moment, moves real money.

How it is faked

• A fake NOA from a domain one letter off a real factoring company’s.
• A fake letter of release saying the carrier has left its factor, followed by new bank details.
• A remit-to change on an “updated” carrier packet, sent from a look-alike of the carrier’s domain.
• A real mailbox, taken over, asking for a bank change in a thread you already trust.

Common tells: urgency (“before Friday’s run”), a reason not to call (“phones are down”), a bank account in a name that is neither the carrier nor the factor, and a PDF that has been edited after it was made. How look-alike domains are built.

Checklist for brokers and shippers

1. Treat every NOA, release letter and bank change as unverified until it is confirmed outside email.
2. Call the carrier at the number on the FMCSA record or in your own file. Not a number in the email.
3. Call the factoring company at a number you found yourself, on a website you typed in. Confirm the NOA and the account.
4. Switching factors? Ask for the letter of release from the current factor, and confirm it with that factor by phone.
5. Check that the names line up. The account holder should be the carrier or the factor named on the NOA.
6. Read the sender’s domain letter by letter, and check when it was registered.
7. Look at the document. Mismatched fonts, a blurry logo, an address that differs from the factor’s website.
8. Two people approve any change to payment details. Write down who verified it, how, and when.
9. Confirm the change back to the carrier’s known contact. If they didn’t ask for it, you just caught it.

Checklist for carriers

1. Tell your brokers how changes will come, for example only by phone from your known number.
2. Watch that payments land. Chase any invoice marked paid that you didn’t receive, the same day.
3. Lock down your email. Two-step sign-in, and check for forwarding rules you didn’t set. Rules that forward or hide email are a common sign of a taken-over mailbox.
4. Change factors properly: release letter from the old factor, new NOA from the new one, and a phone call to each broker.
5. A broker asking about a bank change you didn’t make means someone is using your name or your mailbox. Change passwords, check your FMCSA record, and tell your factor.

If money already went to the wrong account

Call your bank immediately and ask for a recall; speed matters. Then tell the carrier and the factoring company, keep every email with its full headers, and report it at ic3.gov.

Where Mail Guard fits

LaneScout Mail Guard checks every new email in every mailbox your company protects. Bank and remit-to changes, factoring notices and fee requests get a label in Gmail and a note that says to call the number you already have before anything changes. It also flags a sender that is new to your company or a near-copy of one you know, replies sent to a new address, and rate cons, invoices or packets edited in an online PDF editor.

Bank account numbers are never stored, and Mail Guard never sends, deletes or moves email.

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