Scammers targeting shipping firms in the Strait of Hormuz

Looks like scammers are taking advantage of the blockade in the Middle East to line their pockets. It’s a pretty clever scheme to trick shipping companies trying to navigate through the Strait. There’s talk that at least one boat that got shot at while attempting to cross on Saturday fell for this scam, possibly paying up thinking they secured safe passage from the Iranian authorities.

Scammers are wise. They go for something that is lasted. Iran said he wants to accept yuan and stable coins like USDT, and later said he will accept bitcoin. That is enough for scammers to begin doing their work to scam ships that want to pass through the Strait. I think everything that should be done about the payment, there should be contact with the Iranian government before paying anything, or there should be investigation first to know if it scammer or not. The money that would be paid is huge and it can reach $2 million per ship. Why would scammers not try to impersonate. People should expect this.

I know something like this was bound to happen and that people would want to use the situation at the Strait of Hormuz to scam others. But those paying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz forgot that the US blocked same place? Even if they paid to legitimate Iranian authorities,  they will not still pass due to the blockade.  I think it is either desperation or lack of inquiries that will make them fall for this costly scam that exposed them to such level of risk.

Any shipping company that fall for this scam should have themselves to blame because it’s very easy to detect, I don’t think Iranian government will directly contact any shipping company first on the ground of clearing them for passage through the strait. If the Iranian government said they were going to accept bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for passage, they will also release ann official channels of contacting them. So any shipping company that’s willing to do business with them should contact them on their own and not rely on anyone contacting them claiming to be the representative of the Iranian government.

It is very hard to believe that a ship carrying billions of dollars of oil (and ship itself might be worth hundreds of millions) would fall in such scheme. They have insurance and lots of other stuff which will make impossible to even try to cross the strait without warranties

Scammers don't have emotions; they can use any event to scam people. They can use wars, death, sufferings and other evil situations as a means of stealing from people. These major shipping firms should be able to establish contacts with Iranian authorities. Thye shouldnt just give money to random people or orgainsations which are claiming to be representative of the Iranian governemnt.

The story has some validity, Indian tanker named Sanmar Herald might be the scam victim, they might not announce that publicly for the reasons you mentioned regarding legal and insurance reasons. Tanker Trackers who is a maritime intelligence firm released an audio clip of the communication between the said ship and the Iranian Navy and that is how the scam news got leaked.

The infiltration of scams everywhere has reached a truly gigantic scale. The scammers have become very brazen. This is possible only when their activities are not hindered. I wouldn't be surprised if aliens came to Earth one day and requested a place to land a spaceship, then scammers would call them, let's say, on behalf of the world government and offer to transfer money in cryptocurrency to a "special account" to pay for "space parking."

This is another example to show that scammers are really very well informed with the news and have an idea of what is happening around the world so that they can always tailor their existing strategy in line with the news to be more convincing. If shipping companies can be deceived, ask yourself how about you an individual Imagine you are a target of a scam group, do you think that you have enough information already at hand to ensure that you do not become a victim or you will become another victim to a sorry situation. We should be as informed as scammers are and be on top of the news happening around the world so that we do not become victims to an old scam technique tailored in line with a current event.

True scammers don't care about the situation at all be it crisis, war, disaster they will look for all means to deceive people and the people without knowing will fall victim to them. In this kind id situation the truth is that companies should get verify properly before sending out money or make deals with anyone no matter how urgent the situation is or looks like,due diligence still matters alot. It's much better to delay a little bit than to lose everything to scammers or fake contacts

No, it is not a smart move. It is never a smart move to be engaged with fraud and in this case they could have gotten people killed if it's true. That being said, you can see places like India have dedicated (and illegal) scam operations hidden all over and operating on an industrial scale, who are always adapting to trends in order to abuse and take advantage of people. You have to understand you are swimming in a world of sharks who all want to take a bite out of your bank account. Even the smartest people can sometimes be tricked if the right set of circumstances, timing and wording come together - it often takes mere seconds to send your money then realize it might have been better to validate in other ways. You always have to be on guard, especially when it comes to financial matters.

The scam itself is clever. And more interestingly, it could not have been six months ago. It is completely an environment product, formed by the particular mix of sanctions architecture, crypto infrastructure, and military chaos. Take away any of those and this type of fraud fails. It demands them all at the same time. That is quite considerable. The MARISKS warning states that these messages are not issued by Iranian authorities, but such like obscures the bigger picture? Iranian officials ARE imposing crypto tolls. The IRGC IS demanding Bitcoin. It has a five-tier system of ranking the friendliness that decides the amount of payment. The UK's OFSI already warned that paying these tolls probably violates sanctions regardless. Thus the lawful form of the scammers activity is also unlawful according to international law. And the shipping companies are in the middle of all this. Can not pass the strait without bribing somebody. Is unable to pay without risking the possibility of breaking the law. Don't know whether they are paying a real or a fake one. Impossible to reroute, which would add weeks and millions of fuel. Impossible to remain anchored indefinitely as crews are getting worse. All alternatives are bad. What better verification can be offered to this? Conflict undermines communication infrastructure in the region. Formal sea routes are congested. The fog of war is no longer merely a military notion - it is an information notion, and fraud thrives in fog. Wartime counterfeit currency to counterfeit UN peacekeeping invoices. The medium changes but the logic doesn't. The crews of those ships do not care about all this though. They care about getting home.

First heard that they were going to allow ships through the strait after they had paid a toll in Yuan or bitcoin. But then after hearing that these scammers are asking for these payments in Tether got me thinking of they could possibly of made a mistake in the chain they sent the USDT on as it can easily be done on BSC instead of ETH. As many who had used Tether can attest too using that for their cryptocurrency payments can completely screw it up by sending it on the ethereum network instead of the Binance chain. There was a radio distress call which was called out from an Indian vessel that was currently being fired upon by Iranian warships stating that they were allowed to pass after they had made such payments. https://x.com/FatManTerra/status/2046540165833777160 Sources that I have read about this headline when they were first released: https://cointelegraph.com/news/fraudsters-pose-iranian-authorities-crypto-stranded-ships-hormuz https://decrypt.co/365010/iran-scammers-demand-bitcoin-usdt-for-transit-through-strait-of-hormuz-report https://www.theblock.co/post/398233/scammers-demand-crypto-clearance-fees-from-ships-near-strait-of-hormuz-report

I can't understand how fraudsters can sail freely in the Strait of Hormuz, as far as I know, pirates don't even dare to approach the Strait of Hormuz, how fraudsters play there, this is a little strange if I am an expert/insider playing, if not Iran, of course the US and Israel. As far as I know, ships that sail in the Strait of Hormuz, not wooden ships or passenger transport, on average ships entering the Strait of Hormuz route are equipped with sophisticated detection equipment, so how can fraudsters get away with carrying out their fraudulent actions against shipping there, this is strange.

These shipping companies have their own verification systems to ensure that requests made to them are legitimate from the authorities. They certainly wouldn't simply believe a single message without first verifying it, they must have mechanisms in place to prevent them from being so easily deceived. However, the attempted scams that occurred during this blockade raise concerns that scammers will resort to any means necessary to exploit the desperate situation of ships attempting to escape the Strait of Hormuz.

If scamners could take pension savings of old people, I don't think there is less of what they can do to take what they need from victims. During Covid 19 relief funds, many scammers used credit informations of people that never claimed on time to take their shares, this is to tell you that scammers can do the worst if it comes to anything they want. This Strait of Hormuz isn't different from what is happening in the world, it's an opportunity for them. However, with the recent developments of paying Bitcoin for ship passage, has there been any credible reports of any ship that has sail and paid Bitcoin officially to the Iranian government? If there is one, there are journerlist that will be dying to have that reported so the rest of the world will know but I have only seen where it was reported, no action yet and that makes me wonder how this particular reported scam was possible; how do you stop a ship that is that big with barrels of oils? Are they privates or what?

No Iranian authority has confirmed the imposition of any duty for passage in the Strait of Hormuz. However, it would be top secret, since Iran is under severe economic sanctions and a military blockade. Such information would be hidden from the general public because it could be used for propaganda by enemies. Scammers don't need to see the possibility of people falling victim; they just keep trying. Some news outlets reported that the scam message was sent to different shipping companies. Which means these scammers were just trying their luck or fishing for victims.

To dangerous for companies will pay attention with those message they receive without verifying if it really came from Iran. Since this is will not cost them huge money loss, but also there's life will be endanger if it really happens that they thought they have clearance to pass but in reality they are not and their ship has been attacked by Iran. So better for companies to be vigilant and try to verify if the real source came from those said countries. Scammers don't have soul and they don't care what will happen to the ship also the crew working as long as they can possibly stole huge money from their target companies.

If there is one do scammers do, it is to take prompt advantage of the desperation of their victims by advancing on them before they know it is a scam they would have been ditched. If this was true, I do not blame the ship owners for not been too attentive to verify before making any payments. Every ship wants to cross the Strait of Hormuz to their destination cause the risk of stay on sea afloat for over weeks with no surety of when all this chaos will stop, can not be equated with money that is demanded for safe passage, and assessing both risks in their continued anchoring on the sea, any ship in this condition won't reason verification of the real source of message before making transactions. Now on they all will be vigilant by this news.

Ofcourse scammers will try to take advantage of any changes in an organized settings to defraud those that are not well informed so I'm not very surprised that they have scammed a shipping vessel, it is their job and they know everything about impersonation and forgery. But I'm surprised that a shipping company with their supposed knowledge about freight logistics would fall for scams when it comes to making payments to pas through the strait. Perhaps the oil ship management were greedy and wanted to cut cost and fell into the hands of scammers because I assume that the Iranian authority in charge must have clear guidelines for receiving payments. If you're not greedy and you follow due process scammers cannot get you except it's the authority's officials that diverted the funds then it wouldn't be the shipping company's fault.