USDOT PIN

Whoever holds a carrier's PIN could change its registration, including the phone and email that brokers and factors call to verify it. That made the PIN a phishing target. In 2024, FMCSA warned about fake emails carrying MCS-150 and MCSA-5889 forms that asked carriers for their Social Security number and USDOT PIN, and OOIDA told members that FMCSA will never ask for a PIN on a manual form.

FMCSA's 2026 Motus notice lists the selling of personal identification numbers, alongside hijacked carrier accounts, among the fraud it is working to reduce. In Motus, access runs through a Login.gov account tied to the company official, with identity verification when users first sign in.

For a factor, the trail of a phished PIN is a recent MCS-150 update with new contact details on an otherwise established carrier. If the carrier's owner, reached at a long-standing number, says nothing changed, treat the record as compromised.