Fraud Girl Friday: Vetting Carriers, SOP Pitfalls & Real-World Fraud Lessons (with Melanie Crane)

In this episode of Fraud Girl Friday, host Danielle Spinelli is joined by Melanie Crane of Carrier Assure for an unfiltered, tactical deep dive into freight fraud, carrier vetting, and compliance best practices. Melanie shares her journey from brokerage to carrier risk analytics and breaks down how tools like Carrier Assure are helping teams stay ahead of fraud trends.

Together, they explore real-life incidents—including a tragic crash involving a carrier with hours-of-service violations—and dissect where safety screening is falling short in many SOPs. They talk about overlooked red flags like dispatch email mismatches, brokered-out lanes, and spoofed insurance COIs. The conversation also covers team-load vetting tactics, MC ownership changes, and why conditional safety ratings shouldn’t be ignored.

Packed with hard-learned lessons, practical advice, and even a few horror stories, this episode is a must-listen for brokers, compliance pros, and freight nerds alike. Plus, Danielle floats a bold idea: should carrier sales reps be rewarded for catching fraud?