6 NEW Cruise Scams & Tricks To Avoid In 2025

People Keep Falling For These 6 NEW Cruise Scams & Tricks

I’ve been contacted recently by way too many cruise passengers that have been caught out by new cruise scams that have emerged recently, including one a good friend stumbled upon on his latest cruise – and one using me to scam cruisers like you!

As scammers are so crafty, it is easy to fall prey. In fact, McAfee,the cybersecurity company, say last year almost 30% of travellers say they fell for a travel scam.

So, welcome aboard, I’m Gary Bembridge, with the latest cruise scams you need to watch out for – and importantly what to do make sure you are not a victim.

Not Who They Seem

Cruising has taken off big time. Demand is huge and fares are ramping up. So of course, all of us are looking for great deals and offers. Scammers know this and are setting up fake travel agent sites and pages with mouth-watering cruise offers and promoting them on social media.

Here’s a typical example I have seen.

A group of Florida residents were scammed into paying hundreds of dollars for a three-night Royal Caribbean vacation sailing from Port Canaveral to The Bahamas.

Rochelle Price and Nyeasha Lambert from the group told local media outlets how they saw an amazing deal on Facebook for the cruise.

The fake agent had them pay a $100 deposit via CashApp, and the rest of the $523 fare in installments also via CashApp. They were given fake reservation numbers but when they tried to check in at the port, they were turned away as there were no such bookings.

There are a growing number of fake cruise agent accounts on social media offering deals. What can you do to avoid them while still being able to grab a great deal from genuine agents you may not have heard of?

Those potential cruisers who were scammed made three easily avoided mistakes.

1. First, they did not do any research on the agent. If looking at offers from an unfamiliar or new to you agent or company, you should search for online reviews and look at authoritative review sites like Trustpilot. That should flag issues.
2. Second, they paid the fake agent via a cash transfer app and not with a credit card. That should have been a red flag. Real agents should be able to take cards, and credit card companies will have done some screening, and if the supplier is fake or fraudulent you can get your money back from the Credit Card company as they are required to do that.
3. And thirdly, the minute you get sent a reservation code, log in with it on the cruise line site and check it is a valid reservation. As soon as you pay a deposit, you should get a booking reference. Go and check it as this will immediately flag if there is something wrong.

That group scammed did not do any of those, and if they had they may have not been left out of pocket and without a cruise.

There is another online scam that you must watch out for, as this year it will be something I expect many cruisers will be caught out by.

Adding Hurdles

Many of you will know if you are travelling to or on a cruise that calls into countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia you are required to apply online for an eVisa, such as the USA ESTA and Canadian ETA, before going.

Now with the UK having launched one (called an ETA) and the EU also launching one called an ETIAS during 2025, many more cruise passengers, including many who have never had to apply for one before, are going to have to get them online if going to or cruising there.

The scammers know this and are already active by launching sites targeting those travellers.

If you search online about applying for one of these eVisas, you likely will find many sites appear in the search results.

To avoid getting scammed or ripped off, make sure you only are using the official government one for that country. So, look for things like sites ending in .gov for example.

• USA: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta
• UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta
• Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/eta.html

The spam sites charge you fees on top of the eVisa fee and do not make it easier or add any value at all.

Even if they do submit your details and get it for you, they also have harvested loads of sensitive personal information including your passport details, home address, phone number, email, date of birth, credit card details, and so on which will make cloning your ID or defrauding you rather easy.

These online eVisas are simple to apply for and get on the official site. You do not need a third party.

But if you do need a full visa, for example as I do for an upcoming cruise calling into China, then it may be worth considering using a third-party visa specialist.

They can make it easier by ensuring you have all the required documentation, letters, copies, have completed the sometimes-complex application form correctly and then they take all that and your passport to the local embassy to get it for you.

I have used a company like CIBT Visas, which many cruise lines recommend. Even they tell us to sort out our those simpler eVisas for countries that require them by the way!

Once you have successfully got on board and are cruising without being caught out by those new scams, there are some new ones to be ready for here though too.

Picture Not So Perfect

In the past I spoke about a series of in-port scams to be ready for, and I will link to that video at the end of this, but I want to talk about a new one that a friend of mine let me know about when people on his cruise fell for it this past summer in Rome.

He was on a tour which passed a young guy at the side of a road near the Colosseum. He had a display of Watercolour paintings and next to it was a paint set suggesting he had painted them. My friend, Graham, was suspicious as the paint set looked like it had never been used.

Some of the group though bought two of the pictures for €30, that’s about US$30.

Later that day Graham spotted another supposed roadside artist selling the same pictures with an unused paint set as a prop. He suspected then that they must be prints not paintings, which was confirmed when he came across the exact same ones in a nearby souvenir shop being sold for €3 (about US$3) each.

Remember if you’re buying anything in the street always be cautious, and work on the assumption that it may not be all it claims to be, even if they are supposedly handmade crafts.

I mentioned that Graham was on an excursion when he came across this scam, that reminded me of a growing port excursion scam and one that a couple on my last cruise fell for.

Costly Money Saving Excursion

This one seemed to be an issue mostly in busy Caribbean and Mediterranean ports, but a couple on my recent cruise that called into ports on the Mexican Riviera got trapped too.

On researching this scam for this, I discovered a new article had appeared on the “The Points Guy”, a large and well-known travel advice website, warning about the growth of this one.

They spoke about how significant numbers of seriously out-of-pocket cruisers had been contacting them coming home from cruises affected by this one.

This is how it works. People at the cruise ports, often at stands, offer a free day pass to a beautiful resort with transfers, drinks and food included in return for attending a presentation once there.

However, after plying cruisers with drinks, they pull them into a travel club presentation. It’s hard sell, with the promise of large discounts on everything from flights, hotels, amenities and attractions with a hefty up-front buy-in and monthly fees.

Caught up in the buzz and drink, many sign the contract to join the travel club. Only once back on the ship fully realising how much it will cost them, and how restrictive they can be, as they soberly reflect on it.

Unlike countries like the USA and UK, the laws in those countries do not have “cooling off” periods and so they are locked in for years with the provider having their financial details.

So before accepting a day pass for anywhere, fully understand what your obligation is in exchange. And be extremely cautious if you go to any of these with the presentations and refuse to sign anything on the day and say that you’ll come back to them. There’s no such thing as a free resort pass in reality!

Having warned you about some rather costly scams, I would like to share one that should not cost you too much if you fall for it – but one you need to watch out for.

Again, it’s a reminder that anything claiming to be free likely has a cost to it. And this is one I hope you can duck.

Ducking The Scam

It literally is a cruise duck scam.

On many cruises the trend of taking and hiding rubber ducks on board has become quite a big thing.

Wherever something’s popular, scammers move in.

I am seeing scammers posting on social media, often in Facebook cruise and roll call groups pictures of stocks of ducks of all types, including some seemingly homemade, lamenting how either the cruise they were planning to take them on got cancelled or they can no longer go.

They then invite people to Direct Message them and offer to send the ducks in return for the cost of postage, which is often surprisingly high.

Of course, people sending money via the requested cash transfer App never receive anything.

From comments online in groups and on sites dedicated to the cruise duck phenomenon, it looks like the scammers have made a tidy sum from this one.

The next scam involves me specifically, although it also affects many other content creators.

I Am Scamming You!

I’ve received a flurry of messages over the last few weeks of people asking me why I’m endorsing what appears to be rather suspect activities, or whether I’ve given permission for my image to be used.

They have sent me links to ads running across social media and websites which have my images culled from my channels and website, where I seem to be promoting products or offering cruise tips that link to aggressive affiliate linked articles.

Currently, the main one running says how I love to travel and am always looking for great deals and links to an article I’ve supposedly written entitled “Unsold Cruise Cabins Cost Almost Nothing for Seniors, Find Out Why”. But once clicked on, it’s an article pushing affiliate links for credit cards. Affiliate links pay commission if people click and buy a product.

So, if you ever see me or any other creators in an ad or paid-for post, have a look at the link before clicking and see if it goes to one of our own sites, or if it has in the post upfront a declaration that it is an ad or sponsored post before clicking.

We are required to declare such content, while scammers do not think to use that.

While I don’t promote many things, I do promote The Cruise Maps, because I love their framed maps generated using satellite technology, and you will always see if I am promoting them the #AD at the start of the post.

As an aside, if you ever want one of the The Cruise Maps amazing maps of your actual cruise, use the link TheCruiseMaps.com/TFT and get 10% off.

I mentioned at the start I have covered all the main cruise scams you must watch out for, why not join me over in this video where I run through them starting with one that catches more people than most. See you over there.