Top 5 Red Flags in Vessel Vetting and Tracking

The ripple effects of ongoing wars, expanding sanctions, and shifting geopolitical alliances are creating unprecedented challenges for shipping companies, regulators, and financial institutions. 

The Russia-Ukraine conflict remains a key disruptor of global trade routes, while heightened tensions in the Red Sea, South China Sea, and Persian Gulf pose new security threats. As sanctions regimes tighten, bad actors are evolving – leveraging advanced deception shipping practices (DSPs) to evade detection. 

This whitepaper highlights five critical red flags in vessel behavior that signal possible engagement in deceptive shipping practices. From uneconomic voyages to suspicious ship-to-ship (STS) patterns, understanding these warning signs is key to protecting your business, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining the integrity of global trade.

Maritime deception is no longer limited to simple evasive tactics. Today’s bad actors operate with increasing sophistication, leveraging advanced data manipulation, identity fraud, and real-time coordination to obscure illicit operations. These DSPs are designed to bypass regulations, evade sanctions, and exploit the vulnerabilities of outdated compliance systems.

From falsified ownership records and manipulated tracking data to suspicious STS meetings and location (GNSS) manipulation, deceptive shipping practices continue to evolve. Tactics such as zombie vessels – where scrapped ships’ identities are repurposed for illicit operations – and AIS handshakes, which involve decoy vessels to mask movements, are becoming more common. The industry also faces new challenges in identity laundering, where vessels systematically alter or assume new identities to evade detection.

As deceptive tactics evolve and become more advanced, the risks for the maritime industry grow. Traditional compliance measures are no longer enough to keep up with evolving threats. Bad actors continuously adapt, exploiting regulatory loopholes and technological blind spots to evade detection.

Regulatory bodies and compliance teams face an uphill battle. With the rise of geopolitical conflicts, traditional risk detection methods, such as sanctions list screening and simple AIS tracking, are no longer enough. Deceptive shipping practices have become more sophisticated, making it crucial to move beyond basic monitoring and adopt advanced risk assessment strategies.

From unexpected route deviations to hidden cargo transfers, vessels engaging in illicit activities leave behind critical clues. Understanding these risk factors, and having the right technology to detect them, allows maritime stakeholders to safeguard operations, maintain compliance, and mitigate exposure to financial and reputational damage.

Let’s explore some of the most pressing red flags that require closer scrutiny.

Suspicious routing patterns – unexpected detours, erratic course changes, or inefficiencies – often point to smuggling, sanctions evasion, or fraudulent cargo transfers. While weather or port congestion can justify some deviations, prolonged uneconomic voyages warrant closer scrutiny. Ships that deviate from expected routes, take unnecessary detours, or suddenly alter course mid-voyage often indicate efforts to disguise the vessel’s real aim.

By ensuring visibility and explainability into the vessel timeline and voyage milestones, maritime stakeholders can track each voyage stage with clarity, eliminating blind spots that could lead to losing control over their cargo or ship. Understanding voyage patterns in real-time enables organizations to assess risks effectively and take preemptive action.

A sudden disappearance from AIS tracking is often a deliberate move by vessels engaging in illicit activity. While occasional signal loss can occur due to technical issues, extended or repeated gaps in transmission in or around sanctioned regimes or high risk areas, are a well-known hallmark of deceptive shipping practices.

Dark activities are frequently associated with unauthorized STS meetings, illegal cargo movements, or attempts to obscure a vessel’s movements in restricted waters. In some cases, vessels experience legitimate gaps in AIS transmission, making it difficult to distinguish between signal loss and intentional dark activity. 

The right technology can flag sanctioned-related dark activities – such as undisclosed visits to sanctioned ports, meetings with sanctioned vessels, and loading of sanctioned cargo – while filtering out false positives caused by routine disruptions. The ability to detect, contextualize, and investigate these transmission gaps is crucial in identifying deceptive behavior without unnecessary noise caused by false positives.

Ship-to-ship meetings are a standard part of maritime trade, but when they occur in non-traditional locations or under unusual circumstances, they often signal high-risk activity. Bad actors use STS meetings to disguise the origin or destination of cargo, particularly in cases involving sanctioned commodities. However, illicit STS meetings have become even harder to track as deceptive players deploy additional tactics to obscure their movements.

Unusual STS activity – such as meetings occurring in remote areas, between vessels with a history of suspicious behavior, or under the cover of dark activity – should be treated as a red flag. In many cases, these covert operations go beyond simple ship-to-ship meetings. Some engage in dark STS meetings, deliberately disabling AIS signals to avoid detection during high-risk cargo exchanges, or take part in multiple STS meetings.

Cross-referencing STS meetings with historical vessel behavior, ownership records, and regional risk indicators can help uncover hidden connections. 

A vessel’s draft, or how deep it sits in the water, provides key insights into cargo load and transfer activities. A significant change in the draft without an accompanying port call or recorded STS meeting is an indicator of potential deception. 

Such inconsistencies may suggest unauthorized cargo transfers at sea, falsified cargo documentation, or the use of location (GNSS) manipulation to obscure port calls and STS activities. By monitoring real-time draft data and comparing it with declared transactions, maritime organizations can detect illicit movements before they escalate into regulatory or security violations.

Ownership transparency is a fundamental component of vessel risk assessment. Yet, bad actors frequently exploit complex corporate structures, single-vessel entities, and frequent flag changes to obscure true ownership. Vessels that undergo frequent ownership transitions or are linked to jurisdictions with weak regulatory oversight present a higher risk profile.

Beyond concealing vessel ownership, evaders often use shell companies and multiple layers of ownership and management to obscure the ultimate beneficial owner of cargo or commodities. This tactic makes it difficult to trace accountability and allows sanctioned or high-risk entities to continue operating under different names.

By tracing ownership history, monitoring flag-hopping behavior, and identifying hidden connections between shell companies, maritime stakeholders can mitigate exposure to illicit networks. Understanding the broader ownership landscape allows organizations to avoid engaging with high-risk entities and maintain regulatory compliance.

As maritime risks evolve, organizations must move beyond traditional monitoring and adopt AI-driven, proactive risk management. Sanctions, deceptive shipping practices, and geopolitical shifts demand more than reactive responses – they require intelligence that uncovers hidden threats before they escalate. Without the right tools, businesses risk financial losses, regulatory penalties, and supply chain disruptions.

Windward offers MAI Expert™, the industry’s first maritime Gen AI agent, to optimize global trade and risk management, automate screening and investigations, and enhance operational efficiency. With a configurable approach through Organization Defined Risk, businesses can tailor risk thresholds to their needs. Powered by MAI Expert™, Early Detection enables organizations to proactively identify emerging threats before they impact operations.

By leveraging AI to automate investigations and strengthen compliance, Windward empowers organizations to minimize financial, legal, and reputational exposure. In an era of increasing complexity, those who embrace AI-driven decision-making can stay ahead of evolving risks, protect their supply chains, and navigate global trade with confidence.