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Cruise Ship Employment Scam Warning

On average, there are about 130 applicants for each cruise ship job. This huge demand for jobs is being misused by fraudsters who advertise non-existent jobs only to get money from desperate job seekers.

Please read our main article about cruise ship employment scams for more information.

Scammers changed the tactics recently. They do not invent new company names but rather pretend to represent some of the companies well known within the cruise industry. Victims include companies such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, P&O Cruises, Cruise Critic, even ourselves.

Cruise Ship Employment Scam Warning

Whenever you communicate with anyone about cruise ship employment, please make sure they do not send you emails from free email providers such as Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. Professional recruiters never use free email addresses.

We get a lot of emails from people who have been scammed. Alex is one of them:

I live in South Africa and applied for a position at MSC Cruise Liners on 14 September. I have since been offered a position at MSC. The contract was signed by me and sent back to them. I also completed Visa forms and sent it back to them.

I have paid various amounts of money via money gram to the United Nations office in Guinea. Everytime I think everything is finalised, I have to pay another amount. They told me to pay for my Visa which I did, I then had to pay for the courier service to get my Visa to me. They said they paid an amount of $2500 for my flight ticket over to the United Nations and that I must pay the balance of $620.

The problem I have is that I'm not sure whether these people from MSC are real or not. I approached them in the beginning, they did not send me a mail or text.

The person I've been dealing with in Sydney Australia is a person by the name of Jennifer Watford from MSC HR and Justyna Nowakowska who is apparently the Ambassador for Australia in Guinea. They are demanding I pay this last money or else my flight ticket cannot be booked.

Too many things bother me about this situation I find myself in. Documents they've sent me have spelling mistakes and even when they send me e-mails, their language is not very good, this coming from somebody in Australia.

I didn't have any interview, I was just offered the job. I just need to know whether this is in fact legitimate or nor. They said I must fly to Australia next Friday. I cannot resign my present job if I'm not sure.

Alex approached the fraudsters by responding to their online advertisement. Their correspondence was written using unprofessional language, offered him a job without a proper interview, and asked him to send money via MoneyGram. These are classic signs of a classic scam.

If you have been scammed, please report it to your local Police. Unfortunately the chance of you ever getting your money back is very slim though. Always do a research before you send your money. Better be safe than sorry.