I recently came across a quite shocking scam where someone impersonated Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz, demanding shipping companies pay in Bitcoin or USDT as "toll fees" in exchange for passage permits. I have to say, this USDT scam method is really bold.

The background is as follows. Since the U.S. and Israel took military action against Iran in February, Iran has blocked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, trapping about 20k oil tankers and cargo ships in the Persian Gulf. Shipowners are frantic, and various rumors are flying everywhere.

The scam groups seized this chaos as an opportunity. Greek maritime risk service company MARISKS issued a warning, pointing out that multiple shipping companies have received scam messages. These fake messages claim that by submitting documents and passing an "Iranian security clearance," they will be informed of the specific amount of cryptocurrency to pay, and only after completing the payment can the ships pass through the strait. It really sounds convincing, no wonder some people fell for it.

What’s most worrying is that at least one ship has already fallen into this trap. The shipowners thought they had obtained a passage privilege, but when trying to enter the strait, they were directly shot at with force, becoming innocent victims of this geopolitical crisis.

Why is this USDT scam so easy to succeed? The key is that Iran did indeed propose the idea of collecting tolls via cryptocurrency on April 9. Hamid Hosseini, spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union, even publicly expressed this concept. Because of this "official background," the scammer’s rhetoric sounds so convincing that it’s hard to tell truth from false.

MARISKS has already disclosed details of the scam tactics, hoping to help shipping companies recognize the trap. They emphasize that any such messages are completely scams and are not issued by the Iranian government. In this highly uncertain period, shipowners need to stay alert and not be pushed into the scammers’ trap by momentary despair.