A California mother was scammed out of a Carnival cruise she’d planned with her kids a year ago, and initially lost $900 after falling prey to a scammer, according to a new report.
Castaic resident Brittany Payne had planned to travel to Ensenada, Mexico, over Mother’s Day weekend, but her plans were devastated when her Carnival reservation was canceled just days beforehand, leaving her in tears.
The seasickness scam began when she called what she thought was Carnival’s number to inquire about a cabin upgrade and spoke with someone claiming to be a company representative. According to NBC 4 LA.
“We have been informed that you have an outstanding balance of $294 for your upcoming cruise,” the so-called representative told her. “If that amount is not paid, you will not be able to board the cruise.”
She paid the “deck fee” and hung up, but quickly became suspicious and called another number for Carnival, this time with a representative on the other end who told her the “deck fee” did not exist.
“She said, ‘No, it was a scam,'” Payne told NBC 4 LA this week. “I’m not going to charge you for the decking. Go ahead and dispute it with the bank.”
She disputed the charge and got her money back, but that wasn’t the worst.
“I got an email notification on my phone. It said: ‘Cruise cancelled’. My heart sank,” the shocked mother told the station.
Payne told the outlet that Carnival told her someone had logged into her account and canceled her trip, and she suspects a fake representative who asked for her reservation number was behind the cancellation.
“I was crying. I said, ‘Please, this is Mother’s Day weekend with my kids,'” she said.
But the cruise line was unable to help her: her cabin had already been rebooked and the ship was full, so Payne was left stranded at home.
The mother also lost the entire $900 room fare because Carnival policy requires cancellations to be made within 15 days of the cruise, but she received a refund after NBC 4 LA contacted the company.
“The only way I could come up with $900 for my children’s trip was through installments and taking out a loan. It was a lot of money for me,” she told the local station.
The Post has reached out to Carnival for comment.
“Unfortunately, scammers target travelers,” a company representative said in a statement to NBC4, without providing details about Payne’s case.
Payne, who is planning to go on a cruise with her children later this summer, warned others to be wary of cybercriminals.
“No one is safe from these scams, and they’re getting more and more sophisticated,” she said.
A Kentucky family found themselves in a similar situation in May, when their $15,000 Carnival cruise was canceled just two days before the cruise was due to depart.
The couple posted a screenshot of an email counting down to their cruise departure and accidentally shared their booking number on social media, after someone subsequently used it to cancel their family’s trip.
