Tax bureau inspectors posing as tourists on Monday swooped in on nearly two dozen vessels conducting the well-known day cruises off the waters of Santorini in order to check for properly issued receipts.

According to media reports and now viral photographs, inspectors from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR or AADE), as the tax bureau is officially known, “greeted” the cruisers as they returned to dock at the quays of Vlichades and Akrotiri.

The day cruisers and hired catamarans are usually packed with visitors enjoying a day’s worth of sailing in Santorini’s renowned Caldera, often capped off with a view of the island’s stunning sunset.

The operation, dubbed “I’ll Take You on a Cruise”, assembled tax bureau inspectors from across Greece, who arrived at the scene incognito. Only when the vessels docked did the latter begin wearing vests with the tax bureau’s insignia and taking out tablets to conduct checks and audits.

In terms of numbers, of the 23 vessels checks, 10 were cited with tax violations, mostly for not issuing receipts or under-reporting receipts, while also taking cash payments from a single customer exceeding 500 euros – something that is only allowed with a bank transfer.

Past years’ revenues were also checked by correlating figures from the myDATA platform.