Consumers Should Be On The Lookout For Deceptive Cruise Line Travel Pitches
Vacation travel scams never seem to go out of style and we may be seeing a new outbreak of this predatory practice.
It starts with a phone call from a telemarketer who claims to be working for a cruise line. The consumer who answers the call is immediately congratulated for winning a “contest” – very likely a contest he or she never entered in the first place. The purported “prize” is an all-expense-paid, 4-day, 3-night cruise to the Bahamas or Mexico. The caller says the cruise is worth $600 per person, and you can travel with a party of up to 16 people – a $9,600 value. This supposedly free cruise offer is good for up to 18 months, and allegedly can be used on any of three major cruise lines: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian. The purported “prize” includes your cruise ship cabin, all you can eat, activities and Las Vegas-style entertainment on board.
What’s the catch? To claim your so-called “prize,” you have to give your credit card number to a complete stranger on the phone and pay a purported “tax” of $93 per person. Since the cabins are double occupancy, that’s a minimum charge of $186 – or $372 for a family of four.
Several aspects of this transaction are suspicious. The callers asking for your credit card number have no good explanation for the alleged $93 “tax”. Is it really a tax, or is it allegedly a source of profit to the cruise line, its travel agent, or the telemarketer? Are there hidden charges despite the promise of an all-expense-paid trip? Can the consumer book a trip when he or she wants to travel? How many people who pay the so-called “tax” never get to take the promised cruise?
If you’ve been deceived by a sham cruise line promotion and/or lost money as a result of a cruise line scam, please contact us to discuss your legal options.