These questions technically involve a house rule where players don’t have to have the punched crew chips face down on their ships’ deckplates, so I understand if that makes it hard to give definitive answers.
The last few years I’ve noticed a lot of players using full crew cards face down instead of the small crew chips designed to go on a deckplate. What recourse would a player have if their opponent (whether intentionally or unintentionally) had what amounted to a “deke” in this regard, such as a crew chip in a card that didn’t match? (ex: crew from a different set, like Bianco’s Haulers in a face down SCS crew card) Technically the opponent shouldn’t have known what set the crew was from in the first place, but if a player is willingly going to show their cards with set affiliation by crew, it seems like fair game. Essentially, would you consider that a “fair deke” under the house rule circumstances?
A number of other odd permutations are possible as well. Ex: Using a crew chip from the Caribbean set (with the different Pirate/English flag backs) in a Revolution card. Can I ask them if it’s a crew from PotC vs. RV, or am I supposed to ignore the card around the chip because the chip is what should matter?
The square crew chit is the only thing that actually matters to the game, so I guess do your best to ignore whatever card it’s attached to if there’s any chance a player might have switched it out to hide what it might really be.
If it becomes a problem, it’s well within the rights of the person organizing an event to require all players use the correct cards and/or not use the cards at all for indicating where crew are placed.