OFAC issued an alert warning of designation and penalty risks for providing services to vessels using false flags to evade Iran sanctions. It encourages insurers, trade-finance providers and other maritime service providers to conduct enhanced due diligence where flag claims appear false, including unknown flags, conflicting maritime identity codes or unverifiable registration documents. OFAC also urges affected countries to investigate fraudulent registries and report them to the International Maritime Organization so maritime databases reflect false flagging.