Email pretending to be FMCSA targets carriers

A fraudulent email posing as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been seen circulating. This new attempt at phishing looks very convincing using the FMCSA’s header. The email requests that you submit your Certificate of Insurance and driver’s licence.

An image of the email is shown here:

While blanked out for privacy reasons, the above email also includes the carriers DOT number as well as MC number. The email is also addressed to the individual it was sent to further lending to the feel of authenticity. Remember: scammers will try to make the email look as authentic as possible to gain your trust.

Attached to the email is Form MSCA-5889 to be filled out. However, the form is missing several of the pages that are normally included.

Ways to spot scam emails

Another tip for spotting fraudulent emails is looking at the sending email address. In this case it seems legit as it came from safety@fmcsa.gov. But a quick look at the FMCSA website quickly tells us that the FMCSA uses email addresses that end in @dot.gov. not @ fmcsa.gov.

We have since contacted the FMCSA and confirmed beyond just our observations that this indeed is not coming from one of their offices. Be sure to share this information with anyone who may benefit. Let’s make it harder for scammers to profit off our industry!

Scams are often targeted at the commercial trucking industry. Another recent scam targeted new carriers and their new entrant audits. Read our blog Scam targeting new carriers and their new entrant audits