Let’s make this simple: the FMCSA does not need your fuel card information. Not your fuel card number. Not your PIN. Not your login. Not the answers to your security questions.

If a website claiming to be the FMCSA asks you to “verify” the fuel or payment system connected to your USDOT or MC number, stop. Do not submit the form. Do not call the number on the message. You are looking at a phishing attempt designed to collect the information someone needs to spend your money, take over your accounts, or steal your identity.

One of the sites we are seeing is:

dot.motuscompanydeck.com

That is not Motus, and it is not an FMCSA website.

The real Motus website ends in .gov

Motus is the FMCSA’s current registration system. Its official address is motus.dot.gov.

The order of the words matters. In a web address, the part immediately before .com or .gov tells you who controls the site:

  • In motus.dot.gov, the site is under dot.gov, an official U.S. Department of Transportation domain.
  • In dot.motuscompanydeck.com, the site is under motuscompanydeck.com, a private .com domain. Putting dot at the beginning does not make it a government site.

The fake address is built to look familiar at a glance. It contains both “dot” and “motus,” and the page may use official-looking colors, seals, warnings, or carrier information pulled from public records. None of that makes it real.

The FMCSA has already warned carriers about bogus Motus applications and links. The agency’s fraud alerts also describe phishing emails that ask carriers to verify a “payment and fuel system” linked to an MC or USDOT number. This is a known tactic, not a legitimate new registration requirement.

What FMCSA needs—and what it does not

FMCSA registration can require business information, authority information, insurance filings, and identity verification. Depending on what you are doing, the legitimate process may involve your legal business name, address, USDOT number, government-issued ID, and other identifying information.

It does not require your fuel card number, fuel card PIN, fuel card account password, bank login, or email password. Those details have nothing to do with maintaining an FMCSA registration.

There is one distinction worth getting right: Login.gov identity verification may ask for your Social Security number, government-issued ID, phone number, and an image of your face. That request is legitimate only when you reached the official Motus site yourself and entered the secure Login.gov process. Do not enter that information into a page reached through an unexpected email or text, and never enter it on a third-party .com site pretending to be Motus.

The safest habit is to ignore the link in the message. Open a new browser window, type motus.dot.gov yourself, and sign in from there.

Red flags that should make you stop

Most FMCSA phishing attempts use the same pressure points:

  • The message says your carrier profile is incomplete, unverified, or about to be deactivated.
  • It demands an immediate “off-cycle update” that you were not expecting.
  • It asks you to verify a payment method, fuel system, or fuel card connected to your USDOT number.
  • The link contains dot, fmcsa, safer, or motus, but the address actually ends in .com, .info, .pro, or another non-government domain.
  • The form asks for several valuable pieces of information at once: an SSN, driver’s license, fuel card, banking information, passwords, or PINs.
  • It creates a deadline so short that you feel you have to act before checking the claim.

Public carrier data makes these messages convincing. A scammer can know your legal name, address, USDOT number, authority status, and insurance details without having any private access to your company. Correct information in the message is not proof that the sender is legitimate.

If you already entered your information

Move quickly, but work through the problem in order.

  1. Call your fuel card issuer using the number on the physical card or a trusted statement. Tell the fraud department what happened. Ask them to freeze or replace the card, revoke online access, reset the PIN and password, and review recent transactions.
  2. Secure the email account connected to your carrier and fuel card. Change its password, sign out other sessions, and turn on multi-factor authentication. If you reused that password anywhere else, change it there too.
  3. Secure your Login.gov account. Go directly to Login.gov rather than using a link from the suspicious message. Review your authentication methods and follow Login.gov’s account-security guidance.
  4. Protect your identity if you submitted an SSN or ID. Start at IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan. Freeze your credit with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion; a freeze is free and makes it harder for someone to open a new account in your name.
  5. Check the accounts that could be reached with the information you gave away. Review fuel purchases, bank activity, email forwarding rules, password-reset messages, and any unfamiliar changes to your carrier accounts.
  6. Save the evidence. Keep the original email or text, the sender’s address, screenshots, the full website address, and a list of everything you submitted. Do not return to the phishing page to collect more evidence.
  7. Report it. File reports with the FTC and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. You can also contact the FMCSA Contact Center or call 1-800-832-5660.

If money has already moved, contact the fuel card company and your bank before doing anything else. The sooner their fraud teams know, the better their chance of stopping additional transactions.

Verify the request before you act

A real compliance obligation does not become less real because you paused long enough to verify it. Do not use the phone number, reply address, or link supplied in a suspicious message. Check your registration by going directly to Motus, use contact information published on an official .gov website, or ask a company you already know and trust.

For more about the real system, read our guide to the transition from URS to Motus. If you need help claiming your company account or completing a legitimate filing, see our Motus service.

And if something claiming to be from FMCSA does not look right, send it to us before you respond. We work with these systems every day. We can tell you whether the request is real—and help you handle the filing if it is.