Security & fraud awareness

Fraud and Brand Impersonation Awareness

Fraud and brand impersonation are increasingly common across the transportation and logistics industry. Scammers pose as legitimate companies to request payments, obtain sensitive information, or promote false business and employment opportunities.

In some cases they falsely present themselves as Latin American Cargo ("LAC") or an LAC representative, using our company name, logo, employee details or other brand elements without authorization. These approaches arrive by email, websites, social media, messaging applications, phone calls, and fraudulent job or business offers, and they can look convincing.

Report suspected fraud How to verify a message

Verify the sender Confirm independently Report suspicious activity

Essential guidance

In short

Our email domains are @lacship.com and @latinamericancargo.com. Anything else is not direct correspondence from an LAC employee.

We never ask for payment by Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, cryptocurrency or gift cards, and we never charge fees to apply for a job or to access freight.

We never change our banking details by email alone. Confirm any change by calling a number you already have on file.

Report suspected fraud: Send an email to [email protected] or use our contact form.

Start with trusted sources

What are LAC’s official channels?

Direct email correspondence from LAC employees comes from one of these two domains:

@lacship.com

@latinamericancargo.com

Official website

latinamericancargo.com

Main office number

+1 (514) 735-7038

Verified social media

Be cautious of email addresses or websites containing misspellings, extra words, hyphens, numbers or different domain extensions.

Look closely

What do fraudulent LAC domains look like?

Fraudulent email addresses and websites are often designed to look almost identical to legitimate LAC domains. Small changes can be easy to miss, especially when a message appears urgent.

Common techniques include:

Changing, adding or removing letterslacshlp.comlaccship.com

Using a different domain extensionlacship.netlacship.co

Adding words or hyphenslacship-payments.combilling-lacship.com

Hiding the LAC name inside another domainlacship.com.billing-update.net

Using free email accounts[email protected]

Remember

An address containing “lacship” or “latinamericancargo” is not necessarily associated with LAC. When in doubt, do not rely on the appearance of the address alone. Verify the communication using contact information you already have for LAC.

Clear red flags

What will LAC never ask you to do?

LAC will never ask you to:

Send business payments through Cash App, Zelle, Venmo or other personal money-transfer applications
Purchase gift cards, prepaid cards or cryptocurrency
Pay a fee to apply for a job, participate in recruitment, purchase equipment or complete training
Provide passwords, authentication codes or banking credentials through social media or messaging applications
Act on urgent payment or banking changes without giving you an opportunity to verify the request

Know what normal looks like

How do legitimate LAC payments and invoices work?

Knowing what normal looks like is one of the most reliable defenses against payment fraud. With LAC:

Invoice source

Invoices are issued by our team by email and will only ever arrive from an @lacship.com address. An invoice that reaches you from any other domain is not an LAC invoice, however closely it resembles one.

Payment details

Payments are made only to the bank details shown on a formal LAC invoice or, when offered for convenience, through PayCargo using the payment link provided by your verified LAC representative.

PayCargo links

If you receive a PayCargo link unexpectedly or from an address outside our official domains, do not proceed with the payment until you have confirmed it directly with your LAC contact.

Banking changes

LAC’s banking details are never changed by email alone. Treat a request to update our bank account, routing information or remittance address as fraudulent until confirmed by telephone with a known LAC contact, using a number already in your records.

An authentic-looking invoice may still be fraudulent

A convincing document can carry our logo, layout, invoice numbering and an employee’s signature while showing bank account information that is not ours.
The appearance of an invoice is not evidence that it is genuine.

Before paying any invoice, apply the verification steps below — particularly for a first payment, a changed account or an unusually urgent request.

LAC cannot be held liable or responsible for scams or fraud committed by third parties. What we can do is help you recognize suspicious communications, verify legitimate payment instructions and understand where to report potential fraud.

Pause before you act

What warning signs should I look for?

A communication may be fraudulent if:

The sender’s address is a subtle variation of a real one — an added or missing letter, a hyphen, a number, or a different domain extension

The message creates urgency, pressure or secrecy, or discourages you from checking with anyone else

You receive an unexpected request for money, banking details, identification documents or login credentials

You are asked to continue the conversation on WhatsApp, Telegram or another private platform

The message contains unfamiliar links or unexpected attachments

The offer is unusually generous, concerns an opportunity you did not seek, or bypasses a normal business or recruitment process

Fraudulent communications may look entirely professional and may include copied logos, signatures, employee names, invoices and other authentic-looking materials.

View some examples:

Click on the image to enlarge

Brand impersonation

How is LAC’s name and logo misused?

LAC’s name, logo and other brand elements are copied without authorization to promote fraudulent services, job opportunities, payment requests and other scams. This is especially common on social media, where scammers create fake profiles, pages, advertisements and posts that appear to be associated with LAC.

Verify the channel, not the branding.

The presence of LAC’s name, logo, office address or employee details — or a sender’s display name or profile image — does not establish that an account, message or offer is legitimate.

Three-step check

How can I verify a communication from LAC?

Before responding, sharing information or making a payment:

01
Check the complete address

Check the complete email address, not just the display name, and confirm the domain is exactly lacship.com or latinamericancargo.com.
02
Use a trusted contact

Contact LAC using details you already have — not the phone number, link, or email address contained in the suspicious message.
03
Confirm independently

Independently confirm any request involving payments, banking changes, shipment releases or confidential information, even if it appears to come from someone you know.

Common scenarios

Who is being targeted, and how?

Customers, shippers and suppliers

Invoices that closely resemble real ones but show altered bank or remittance details
Emails claiming LAC has “changed banks” and asking you to update payment information
Requests to release a shipment, change a delivery address or waive documentation outside the normal process
Pressure to act before a deadline, often near a weekend or holiday

Job seekers

Fake job postings or recruitment messages using LAC’s name and logo
Interviews or hiring conversations conducted through unofficial email addresses, messaging apps, or social media accounts
Fraudulent job offers requesting payment for application fees, training, permits, or background checks
Requests for banking, identification, or other sensitive personal information before a proper hiring process

LAC publishes its official job opportunities through our LinkedIn company page.

Any job posting found on another website or platform should be treated with caution.

Suspected scam

I think I have been contacted by a scammer. What should I do?

1 Do not respond, click links, open attachments or send money.
2Stop communicating with the sender.
3 Do not delete anything. Preserve screenshots, messages, email headers, links, contact details and payment instructions.
4 Contact your trusted LAC representative through a known email address or phone number.

Report the incident

Send the information to:

[email protected]or through our contact form, selecting the subject “Report Suspected Fraud or Brand Impersonation.”Go to our contact form

The information you provide may help LAC report fraudulent content or accounts to digital platforms, service providers and relevant authorities, and assess whether further action is appropriate.

Time matters

What should I do if I already made a payment or shared information?

Act immediately — speed materially affects whether funds can be recovered.

Contact your bank or payment provider first and ask whether the transaction can be stopped, recalled or disputed.

1
Change any passwords that may have been exposed, and enable multifactor authentication where available.
2
Notify your company’s finance, legal and information-security teams.
3
Report the incident to the appropriate authorities (see below).
4
Submit the available information to LAC.

Country-by-country guidance

Where to report

Canada

Report fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca or 1-888-495-8501. If money or personal information was taken, also contact your local police service.

United States

Report internet-related fraud to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov, and consumer fraud to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Other countries

Contact your national fraud, cybercrime or police authority. When searching online, use official government websites and be cautious of companies offering to recover lost funds for a fee.

What to expect

What can LAC do with my report?

LAC can

LAC reviews each report carefully and takes the actions available to us to help minimize these events — including pursuing the removal of fraudulent accounts, advertisements, domains and content, and alerting customers and authorities where appropriate.

LAC cannot

LAC is not able to respond individually to every report or to investigate cases on your behalf, and cannot recover funds already sent to a third party, reverse a transaction, or act as an intermediary with your bank or with law enforcement. Your bank and the relevant authorities are the correct first contacts for those steps.

Policies

Additional legal information

For more information about the authorized use of LAC’s name, logo, website and digital content, please review our: Brand Use Policy

LAC’s name and logo are trademarks of Latin American Cargo™. Any use without written authorization is prohibited.