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A mother in California was left heartbroken after a scammer apparently got access to her Carnival Cruise Line account and cancelled a Mother’s Day trip she hoped to take with her family.
Brittany Paine had taken out a loan to cover the $900 tickets for her and her family to take a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, over the Mother’s Day holiday, but was crushed when she found out that her booking was cancelled and her cabin rebooked.
“I was in tears. I said, ‘Please, this is Mother’s Day weekend with my kids,’” she told NBC4 Los Angeles.
It seems a call she made a few days before her trip ultimately doomed her vacation.
According to Paine, she called what she believed was a Carnival representative to discuss a cabin upgrade. While they were talking, the alleged representative told her that she had an unpaid “deck fee” of $294, and that she would be barred from boarding if she didn’t make a payment.
She paid the fee, but became suspicious and called the company back at a different number. When she spoke to that Carnival representative, they told her the company would not have charged her a deck fee and that the other individual she talked to had likely scammed her.
Paine disputed the charges with her bank, but that wasn’t the end of her problems. She then received an email from Carnival stating that her cruise had been cancelled.
She believes the scammer may have used the information she provided — including her booking number — to access her account and cancel her trip.
By the time Paine was able to explain what happened to Carnival, her cabin had been rebooked, and her Mother’s Day cruise was ruined.
“To come up with $900 for a trip for my kids, it was only feasible by making payments and taking out a loan. So it was a lot of money for me,” she told NBC4.
Carnival reportedly told Paine that due to her late cancellation she was not eligible for a refund.
After the broadcaster reached out to Carnival, the company relented and refunded her the $900, but it still left her without a vacation for her and her family. The company couldn’t say exactly what happened or how Paine’s account was hacked.
“Nobody is safe from these scams. And they get better and better,” she told the outlet.
Paine is now planning to take another cruise with her children later this summer, this time with a wary eye toward potential scammers.
She isn't the only traveler to be taken advantage of by predators online; another couple had their $15,000 Carnival vacation cancelled just two days before their cruise after they accidentally shared their booking number on social media.
Two days before Tiffany Banks’ family was supposed to embark on their Carnival Celebration voyage, the mom of four from Kentucky received the devastating news that they were no longer registered. Banks, her husband, and their children were meant to fly to Florida the next day to set sail on the trip, which she claims to have paid in full. However, after Banks accidentally shared their booking information online in a post counting down the days to the trip, someone supposedly canceled their reservation.
Banks took to social media to document her fight with Carnival over the booking mishap, revealing after days of discussions that the company had offered her $10,404 in credit towards her next cruise, so long as she posted on social media saying they'd resolved the conflict. She refused the credit and said she'd never book with Carnival again.
Colleen McDaniel, the editor in chief of Cruise Critic, told NBC4 that travelers should avoid posting their vacation details on social media as the information can be used to scam or prank them.
