{"id":14853,"date":"2026-04-21T10:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormuz-security-firm-warns\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:42:27","slug":"scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormuz-security-firm-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormuz-security-firm-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemscope=\"\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n                                                                    <picture><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ships_tankers_hormuz_oman_reuters-320x200.jpg?v=1776763331\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ships_tankers_hormuz_oman_reuters-scaled.jpg?v=1776763331\" alt=\"Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ships_tankers_hormuz_oman_reuters-960x600.jpg?v=1776763332\"\/><br \/>\n                        <\/source><\/picture>\n<p>Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, on April 20, 2026. [Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Fraudulent messages promising safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cryptocurrency have been sent to some shipping companies whose vessels are stranded west of the waterway, Greek maritime risk management firm MARISKS has warned.<\/p>\n<p>The US has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then re-imposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly \u2060a fifth of the world\u2019s \u2060oil and liquefied natural gas passed before war broke out in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran, which controls the chokepoint, has proposed tolls \u200bon vessels to safely transit.<\/p>\n<p>MARISKS \u2060on Monday issued an alert warning shipowners that unknown actors, claiming to represent Iranian authorities, had sent some shipping \u2060companies a message demanding transit \u200cfees in cryptocurrencies, \u2060Bitcoin or Tether, for \u201cclearance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese specific messages are a scam,\u201d the firm said, adding the message was not sent by Iranian authorities.<\/p>\n<p>There was \u200bno immediate comment from Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of ships and about 20,000 \u200cseafarers remain stranded in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>On April 18, when Iran briefly opened the strait subject to checks, ships tried to pass but at least two of them, including a \u200btanker, reported that Iranian boats had fired shots at them, forcing the vessels to turn around.<\/p>\n<p>MARISKS said that it believed that at least one of the vessels, \u200cwhich tried \u200bto exit the strait on Saturday and was hit by gunfire, was a victim of the fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters was not \u2060able to verify the information or \u200ctrack companies that had received the message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter providing the documents and assessing \u200byour eligibility by the Iranian Security Services, we will be able to determine the \u200cfee \u2060to be \u2060paid in cryptocurrency (BTC or USDT). Only then will \u200byour vessel be able to transit the strait unimpeded at the pre-agreed \u200btime,\u201d said the message cited by MARISKS.<\/p>\n<p>[Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        var NXFBPixelFunc = function () {\n            document.removeEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n            setTimeout(function () {\n                !function (f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                    if (f.fbq) return;\n                    n = f.fbq = function () {\n                        n.callMethod ?\n                            n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n                    };\n                    if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n                    n.push = n;\n                    n.loaded = !0;\n                    n.version = '2.0';\n                    n.queue = [];\n                    t = b.createElement(e);\n                    t.async = !0;\n                    t.src = v;\n                    s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n                }(window, document, 'script',\n                    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n                fbq('init', '109138906120213');\n                fbq('track', 'PageView');\n            }, 0)\n        };\n        document.addEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/economy\/1301489\/scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormuz-security-firm-warns\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, on April 20, 2026. [Reuters] Fraudulent messages promising safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cryptocurrency have been sent to some shipping companies whose vessels are stranded west of the waterway, Greek maritime risk management firm MARISKS has &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormuz-security-firm-warns\/#more-14853\" aria-label=\"Read more about Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ships_tankers_hormuz_oman_reuters-960x600.jpg?v=1776763332","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}