3 cruise scams you need to be wary of
As we live in the Information Era, it is as important as ever to keep a watchful eye out for dangerous scams. Here are three cruise scams you need to be wary of.
1. The letter scam
The most common cruise scam are letters that are sent to people’s homes gifting them a “free” cruise. The letters often contain an official cruise line logo to make it look legitimate. Common cruise lines that are illegitimately used in these letters include Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.
If you receive one of these letters, it is important to see who it is from. Generally, these letters are from travel agencies that will charge you a significant fee for your “free” cruise. They will make you pay a booking fee, port taxes/fees and then try to upgrade you from an inside stateroom. By the time you have finished paying all these add-ons, you will find that this trip is definitely not free!
2. The telephone scam
Another common cruise scam is a call telling you that you have won a free cruise. After announcing the news, they will then ask for a valid credit card number to book in the cruise. Obviously, you should never share your credit card details over the phone to someone you don’t know. If something is too good to be true, the chances are they are probably taking you for a ride.
3. The Facebook scam
These scams are growing increasingly popular on Facebook as many users get caught up in sharing posts without validating the source. The scams create a Facebook account in the name of a cruise line such as Disney or Royal Caribbean and say that if you share a post, you will go into the running to win a free cruise. However, if you click on the page, you will find out that it is not the official account of the cruise. To confirm if it is an official account, look for the blue tick next to their name. These scammers try to get people to share the post so that they can create a large Facebook page and fill user’s newsfeeds with products they are trying to sell.
Have you ever seen any of these scams? If so, share your experience in the comments below.