Posted on 05/31/2024 9:37:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
A Kentucky family’s $15,000 Carnival Cruise vacation they had been planning for a year was canceled just two days before the ship was set to sail after they accidentally shared their booking number online in a case of identity theft.
Tiffany Banks was devastated to learn that her trip aboard the Carnival Celebration ship with her husband and their four kids was canceled without her knowledge the day before the family was going to fly to Florida to leave on the boat.
Banks said in a series of TikTok videos that she had no idea their vacation, for which they had already paid in full, was trashed until she got an email about off-ship excursion cancellations and called to investigate.
A Carnival customer service representative told her that she had canceled her $12,000 reservation for the ship’s largest room — the Excel Presidential Suite — through the online system.
The mom and nurse practitioner said she went into “a full-blown panic” and she and her four kids were all in tears.
“We have nearly $15,000 tied up in for this vacation including excursions. The room itself was I think $12,000 or $13,000, and then we’ve got a few grand tied up in excursions, and actually with almost $2,000 for flights,” she said in a May 12 TikTok video.
Banks said she never canceled the trip and wondered if it was a system glitch.
Carnival said the room they had booked was now reserved by another customer and offered the family two interior rooms — the cheapest on the ship — instead, but the mom did not feel it was an adequate replacement.
Carnival also refused to offer a full refund as its cancellation policy states that no money will be returned within 15 days of the cruise date.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
NO DATES, ADDRESSES, PHONE NUMBERS OR PASSWORDS...................
She should dispute it with her credit card.
But we know why she posted this on FB. She wanted to brag about the money she was spending on the best room on the cruise ship. Maybe don’t brag so much next time and this won’t happen.
I never divulge trips or photos of my trips until I get back from the trip.
Thieves scan the pages to try to find houses that are unattended while the owners are out of town.
Just so dumb on so many levels! Their house could have been robbed or squatted during their vacation by an actual scammer, rather than this prankster maturely cancelling her trip. I love seeing friends’ trip pics on social media, but never post them in real time, either!
How about:
DON'T USE FACEBOOKNo account? No worries.
Why does Carnival care?
“sharing booking number on Facebook”
Man people are dumb. SMH
On a side note, I’m sure you’ll get some negative comments about cruise ships in general but the offer of inside cabins......those are for suckers IMO.
Once you’ve had a balcony cabin.....there is no going back. 😏
I’m sure Tiffany called and wanted to speak to the manager.
This happens to her.....and then the dingbat heads to Tik Tok to cry.
Hey Lady, quit putting all your business and information online for anyone to see.
Well she got the exposure if that is what she wanted.
Just a little more than she hoped for I’d guess. jmo
“Banks and her husband accidentally shared their cruise booking reference number when posting a screenshot of an email with the countdown to their vacation on Facebook a few weeks out, according to the clip.”
I posted a pictures of all my credit cards and keys on social media, and somehow and for some reason I was the victim of identity theft and burglary.
How can this have happened, and why do the banks claim it is not their fault, why can’t they have better security?
Why would any locksmith cut a key from a photograph ?
lol
“rather than this prankster maturely cancelling her trip”
“Carnival said the room they had booked was now reserved by another customer”
Think about it....What makes you think the “prankster” isn’t the same person that ended up booking it?.....it’s possible
I don’t know now way more people know she spent $15,000 on a trip. I think that’s probably what she wanted more than anything. She is just missing out on the trip part now.
Yes. She should make much of the fact that Carnival sold her room, thus not encurring a full loss. Why should Carnival get paid twice for the same cabin? She should negotiate to pay only what they actually lost.
(Hmm — I wonder if whoever ended up with the cabin is the one who cancelled her reservation, then bought it at a last minute discount.)
That said, an idiot who posts their booking number, etc. on Facebook doesn’t get full sympathy.
1. So did Carnival get and keep the money?
2. Or did the scammer who made the fraudulent cancellation get the get the money/account to swich who’d get the rooms.
3. It aslo sounds like Carnival does not have good enough securoity for their reservation/reservation cancellation services. Merely knowing the booking number is not to me “identification” sufficient for the cancellation. There had to have been other personal data the fraudster had obtained and used.
Yes, I thought about that.
Entirely possible. Even likely. But not easily proven............
Carnival? They should consider themselves lucky
So, bottom line, her credit card information was stolen, and the theft was made easy due to her posting her cruise plan details online? Terrible.
She was offered two other rooms, but turned them down as not adequate for her group.
And now, Carnival Cruise says it’s already too late for her to be refunded. I would be tearing (what’s left of) my hair out! Devastating. All that money. All those fun plans.
But, at some point, she’s going to need to let the worst of the anger go and move on, lesson learned. She will need to show her kids how a grown up deals with profound disappointment.
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