Letter from Princess Credit Department

[trbarton]

I received a letter from Princess in Santa Clarita, Ca from someone in the Credit & Collections department that shows a "Unpaid Booking Balance" of $48 with a hand written note at the bottom. It says "We refunded $48 too much in error. You received a credit of $xxxxx. Please return $48.00 and we do apologize for the inconvenience." No signature but at the bottom it says "Finance Representative" with a phone number. There is a second page with a form for payment that I can fax or mail in with a persons name on it. It also came in a Princess envelope.

 

It's for my May 23rd Alaska cruise on the star.

 

Anybody received a letter like this?

 

Tom:)

[Loonbeam]

Most likely a credit got misapplied and technically you do owe it. You should call to verify authenticity, but its a pretty elaborate ruse for $48.

[DrivesLikeMario]

That's weird!! Never heard of that. :confused: Since it's for an upcoming cruise, they can simply charge your OB account. I'd be on the phone first thing Monday morning asking for that department and that particular rep. or his/her manager. Please let us know what happens.

[waltd]

Did you use a travel agent? If so run it past them. Otherwise I would call Princess on Monday to verify this is correct. Considering you have not been on the cruise yet it sounds strange.

[trbarton]

Yes...I'm contacting my T/A and may also call Princess. I'll post what I find out. I also have posted this on the roll call for our cruise.

 

I agree it does sound strange.

 

Perhaps Pia or Pam may have an idea.

 

Tom:)

[Colo Cruiser]

Tell em you snooze you loose. :D

[jrzebird]

Yes...I'm contacting my T/A and may also call Princess. I'll post what I find out. I also have posted this on the roll call for our cruise.

 

I agree it does sound strange.

 

Perhaps Pia or Pam may have an idea.

 

Tom:)

 

I find it even odder (if there is such a word) that they would contact you, by mail, if you have a TA. Can hardly wait to hear the outcome.

[caribill]

I received a letter from Princess in Santa Clarita, Ca from someone in the Credit & Collections department that shows a "Unpaid Booking Balance" of $48 with a hand written note at the bottom. It says "We refunded $48 too much in error. You received a credit of $xxxxx.

 

Did you actually receive any refund that this could be referring to?

 

Since it said "refund", it would had had to be after final payment as before you made final payment they would just have reduced the amount of final payment.

 

I agree with others who said they should have sent it to your TA who then would have contacted you.

 

Since Princess will normally not discuss payments with you if you are using a TA, why not send them a note saying since you are using a TA you will not discuss payments with them directly?

Edited March 16, 2014 by caribill

[trbarton]

My final statement after making my final payment shows Tax Drop $-42. We'll see what my T/A has to say.

 

Tom:)

[ready2cruzagain]

I would definitely contact your TA. Can't wait to hear the outcome. Just sounds like someone fishing for credit card number to me but hopefully your TA will straighten it out. I am just cautious because never received anything from a cruise line directly when I book through a TA...they always contact the TA as according to policy.

[martij6]

Most likely a credit got misapplied and technically you do owe it. You should call to verify authenticity, but its a pretty elaborate ruse for $48.

 

Pretty interesting technique actually. If the OP were to send a personal check for the $48, and this were a scheme, the recepiant would have the OP's bank routing # and account #. Next thing to happen would be a drained checking account. Or if the credit card info was sent, the information to make online charges would be available.

 

Phishing ideas are pretty creative, and costly, should someone not check the source of the request.

 

Joel

Edited March 16, 2014 by martij6

[hillslife]

That is interesting...can't believe Princess would be sending handwritten letters...sounds like a formal form letter or email should be the norm.

 

So very odd...agree with others about contacting your TA and adding it to your shipboard acct too. Thanks for sharing ...keep us posted . Might be someone using CC to get names and cities of cruisers and scamming them Maybe the $48 is just the staring point for a bigger hit!

 

(I probably watch too much tv!)...but keep us posted. I love a good mystery.

[skynight]

I would ask these questions.

1. If you really received a credit how was it paid? By check? As a credit to your credit card? If Princess did credit your credit card then you would know. Likewise if you received a check.

2. Is the issue really between you and Princess or between Princess and your T.A.? Did Princess pay your T.A.'s commission correctly or did they over pay the commission by $48?* Is this really a commission issue not directly related to you?

3. Is this a scheme, or is it real? If it is real seems like the correspondence from Princess is rather sloppy.

 

*We had an issue once where the TA was overpaid and did not refund the money. We could not print our boarding pass. It took a couple of days to correct it.

[martij6]

I received a letter from Princess in Santa Clarita, Ca from someone in the Credit & Collections department that shows a "Unpaid Booking Balance" of $48 with a hand written note at the bottom. It says "We refunded $48 too much in error. You received a credit of $xxxxx. Please return $48.00 and we do apologize for the inconvenience." No signature but at the bottom it says "Finance Representative" with a phone number. There is a second page with a form for payment that I can fax or mail in with a persons name on it. It also came in a Princess envelope.

 

It's for my May 23rd Alaska cruise on the star.

 

Anybody received a letter like this?

 

Tom:)

 

As others have mentioned, contact your TA to verify the charge. What ever you do, do not call the number on the letter. At the very least, use a known Princess phone number to discuss the charge. The number on the letter could be as bogus as the letter, if it is indeed a scam.

 

Joel

[Loonbeam]

Agreed, but if it was a widespread phishing attack, I think we would have heard of it, postal small scale is a very expensive, inefficient and labor intensive model unless they happen to have a list of future passengers. The idea of Phishing is to fire off a wide net and hopefully fool a very small percentage. (100,000 emails costs next to nothing. 100,000 stamps?)

 

Also, most phishers will avoid postal mail because that makes it a federal mail crime, which is a whole nother level of seriousness because international police are required to cooperate on those by treaty.

 

It's definitely suspicious tho.

 

Pretty interesting technique actually. If the OP were to send a personal check for the $48, and this were a scheme, the recepiant would have the OP's bank routing # and account #. Next thing to happen would be a drained checking account. Or if the credit card info was sent, the information to make online charges would be available.

 

Phishing ideas are pretty creative, and costly, should someone not check the source of the request.

 

Joel

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

There was a case here about a person in a council who worked in finance sent out grants then sent letters saying they had been given to much and had to return small amounts they had set up a false bank account when caught they had £100,000s in the account

 

Bottom line with money trust nobody you do know very well

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

[avcruz]

Is the issue really between you and Princess or between Princess and your T.A.? Did Princess pay your T.A.'s commission correctly or did they over pay the commission by $48?* Is this really a commission issue not directly related to you?

 

*We had an issue once where the TA was overpaid and did not refund the money. We could not print our boarding pass. It took a couple of days to correct it.

 

 

Given that it's only March, and the OP isn't travelling until May, it's doubtful that the TA would have received their commission yet. I believe that TAs only receive their commission after the final penalty period is in effect.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[5326jan]

I wouldn't trust something hand written. I'd either call the cruise line billing deptartment directly or ignore it. I certainly would not give any credit card numbers or banking info!

[tgwabd]

I hope that Princess was not hacked like Target was. What are the odds that she would receive this from somebody that was phishing randomly.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Pretty interesting technique actually. If the OP were to send a personal check for the $48, and this were a scheme, the recepiant would have the OP's bank routing # and account #. Next thing to happen would be a drained checking account. Or if the credit card info was sent, the information to make online charges would be available.

 

Phishing ideas are pretty creative, and costly, should someone not check the source of the request.

 

Joel

 

AND - they'd have that person's home address and full name, his/her spouse or any other signers on the account, the banking institution they use (probably near their home) and a good example of their handwriting to copy.

 

This just sounds really "phishy" to me. Your TA should've gotten notice, not you directly. Keep us posted please.

[rgmacm]

something that no one has mentioned yet is that with the cruise date, IF this is a scam, they know when you would be unavailable for the credit card company to contact to confirm any activity on that card...or for Lifelock et al. to contact....or for your bank to contact.

I agree with the hundreds before me that I would CERTAINLY confirm this with Princess on the phone number YOU KNOW is theirs....don't call the number on the letter... before paying anything.

If it turns out to be legitimate, I'd make a payment over the phone on the Princess phone number...not send it in that envelope.

[Woobstr112G]

I hope that Princess was not hacked like Target was. What are the odds that she would receive this from somebody that was phishing randomly.

 

With the report of only one letter I don't think Princess has been hacked. Probably an inefficient way by an employee to retrieve money that was an over payment. I could be wrong, but I'd put money on the second.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited March 17, 2014 by Woobstr112G

[Sunviking]

Sounds like some kind of scam to me! I've become absolutely paranoid.

[land lover]

Will be intersted to find out what Princess says.

 

Someone mentioned Target...made me think back, I have had fraud on a credit card twice after giving it to Princess...now this was over 5 years ago. But it was a card that I only used for on board spending. I was boarding in foreign ports...so it does happened. Use one card for traveling only.

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes it does sound like a scam.