Cruise Passenger Foolishly Posts Booking Number on Facebook, Then Complains When She Gets Scammed

A file photo of a cruise ship’s pool
Tiffany Banks booked an Excel Presidential Suite a year in advance on  Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras, and a few weeks before her cruise, included her booking reference number in a photo shared on Facebook. With excursions, the cruise would cost $15,000.
The Excel Presidential Suite is “the largest stateroom and [offers the ] best view on the ship –  one practically the same as what the captain sees.”
Early on the day she was set to embark on the cruise, she received an e-mail message from Carnival, confirming the cancellation of her family’s reservation.
Banks contacted customer service, believing the message had been sent in error. At first, a customer-service representative told her that the reservation had been automatically voided by the system, but a manager later told her that an unknown and apparently unauthorized individual who had gleaned the booking reference number from Facebook had logged in and cancelled the voyage.
Although this does bring up questions about Carnival’s security protocols to authenticate those who log into the company’s website, it’s clear that she had thrown caution to the wind when not protecting a credit card number or a booking reference number  worth $15,000 (although it’s not clear what the benefit to the bad actor who cancelled the cruise would be), yet she turned down Carnival’s offer of two interior cabins for the same cruise she had originally booked.
Banks turned down the offer, flew to Miami with her family, and attempted to board, but they were turned away, although this did allow her to see her ship sailing away, something the ship’s passengers can’t say they would be able to experience.
Carnival, which did offer Banks a $10,000 credit towards a future sailing, said in a statement to Frequent Business Traveler and The Travelist that “this guest failed to heed well-documented and very common travel safety and security advice.”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)