Scam email from fake RCI agent

[island lady]

Not sure if any of my cruise mates out there has received one...but just wanted to post a "heads up".  Got an email that was a pretty good copy of looking like official RCI email.  Was claiming to be a "Royal Caribbean certified vacation planner" which was asking for final payment (mine is not due until a month from now).  Had misspelling and totally wrong C&A number.  Had my reservation number and sail date correct, but that was all.  Plus did not mention the previous leg that would be due before that one.   

 

Just wanted to post a warning to carefully check any of these emails you may get.  

[cruisegirl1]

thanks - and good catch

M

[Ocean Boy]

How did they get your reservation number? Even someone who trolls these boards would not find that. None of us have any need to post it.

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

How did they get your reservation number? Even someone who trolls these boards would not find that. None of us have any need to post it.

 

Have no idea...that is what makes it scary.  But then again...how does someone steal your identity, or your social security number, or your credit card number?  😮  The email was asking me to call a phone number I don't recognize to give payment info.  Ummm...not!  

 

BTW...I always make final payment online, as I book direct online.  

 

Was not sure if I should post this as a warning or not..but just wanted everyone to check the emails carefully.  

Edited April 24, 2020 by island lady

[Ocean Boy]

Just now, island lady said:

 

Have no idea...that is what makes it scary.  But then again...how does someone steal your identity, or your social security number, or your credit card number?  😮  The email was asking me to call a phone number I don't recognize to give payment info.  Ummm...not!  

 

BTW...I always make final payment online, as I book direct online.  

Same with me.

[coaster]

Work of a recently laid off IT department employee?

[Ourusualbeach]

Knowing how messed up Royals systems are it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually Royal that sent it out.

[diesel1973]

From what I understand RCCL has hired temporary workers to handle the overload. Sounds like they might have a pirate working for them.

[MADflyer]

1 minute ago, diesel1973 said:

From what I understand RCCL has hired temporary workers to handle the overload. Sounds like they might have a pirate working for them.

 

I think RCL and RCI have actually had a severe reduction of staff and have terminated all outside consulting contracts. 

 

There are many possibilities on this email situation. 

 

Companies are being hit with record levels of phishing attempts and with many workers moved to working from home, successful hacking has increased substantially. I have no idea on RCI's situation. 

 

It would not surprise me if they have an automated final payment system and that this could just be some sort of error. 

 

NCL uses the Personal Travel Planner system and mine has always been the exact same name for 12 years now, emails are always generated when I do not answer an automated phone call from them,  then it is always a different person stating to be this named Personal Travel Planner if I do call them back or answer. 

[deepcman]

Care to share the email address of the sender? The fake addresses usually have a small anomoly from the authentic ones. 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, island lady said:

Not sure if any of my cruise mates out there has received one...but just wanted to post a "heads up".  Got an email that was a pretty good copy of looking like official RCI email.  Was claiming to be a "Royal Caribbean certified vacation planner" which was asking for final payment (mine is not due until a month from now).  Had misspelling and totally wrong C&A number.  Had my reservation number and sail date correct, but that was all.  Plus did not mention the previous leg that would be due before that one.   

 

Just wanted to post a warning to carefully check any of these emails you may get.  

Thank you,not received one but will watch carefully.

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

Thanks for the warning, and glad you caught it!

 

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

Not sure if any of my cruise mates out there has received one...but just wanted to post a "heads up".  Got an email that was a pretty good copy of looking like official RCI email.  Was claiming to be a "Royal Caribbean certified vacation planner" which was asking for final payment (mine is not due until a month from now).  Had misspelling and totally wrong C&A number.  Had my reservation number and sail date correct, but that was all.  Plus did not mention the previous leg that would be due before that one.   

 

Just wanted to post a warning to carefully check any of these emails you may get.  

Pat, thanks for the heads up.  

[Billy Baltic]

I get things like this all the time. They’re really convincing and have the RC name. The logo even looks like the real thing. Most of the time they say ‘Buy 1 deluxe drinks package, get one half price’ or ‘30% off drinks packages’ but when I log in the price is still the same. You need to be really careful these days 😎

[Floater4life]

4 hours ago, diesel1973 said:

From what I understand RCCL has hired temporary workers to handle the overload. Sounds like they might have a pirate working for them.

I called RC after they moved their cruise date from May to June 12. We are on a cruise to depart June 13th.  We wanted to look into moving our cruise to July or August.  After I finally got a person on the phone connection was garbled and the person had no idea what to do. Told me to wait until closer to my cruise. I wanted to move it.  She said I have to cancel and rebook.  I said ok...they hung up.  Nice to have a person speak to you but in the end useless. I understand to a degree but I would prefer a call back feature.  I wouldn't care if I wouldn't get a call for days as long as the person calling was a seasoned professional RC employee.  So now I wait.

[bobmacliberty]

Phishing scams have become very sophisticated.  Much harder to spot than the old Nigerian Prince emails.  If you want to see something really scary, which this video of a vishing (voice phishing) call:

 

[Missusdubbya]

1 hour ago, Billy Baltic said:

I get things like this all the time. They’re really convincing and have the RC name. The logo even looks like the real thing. Most of the time they say ‘Buy 1 deluxe drinks package, get one half price’ or ‘30% off drinks packages’ but when I log in the price is still the same. You need to be really careful these days 😎

😁 me too, total scam 😁

 

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Knowing how messed up Royals systems are it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually Royal that sent it out.

I agree

[pcur]

16 hours ago, island lady said:

Not sure if any of my cruise mates out there has received one...but just wanted to post a "heads up".  Got an email that was a pretty good copy of looking like official RCI email.  Was claiming to be a "Royal Caribbean certified vacation planner" which was asking for final payment (mine is not due until a month from now).  Had misspelling and totally wrong C&A number.  Had my reservation number and sail date correct, but that was all.  Plus did not mention the previous leg that would be due before that one.   

 

Just wanted to post a warning to carefully check any of these emails you may get.  

Sounds like a laid off employee sold some reservation data to the bad guys.  If I get any email that sets off my Spidey-sensor, I open and new window and check things out.  Plus, if it's not from Big Box Store Travel, then I spam it into oblivion.

[island lady]

17 hours ago, davekathy said:

Pat, thanks for the heads up.  

 

Thanks...you are most welcome. 🙂   Hesitated to post this thread...as I am sure we are all careful with suspicious emails, phone calls etc.  But since it was cruise related, thought I would give a head's up.  

[kelbell]

Thank you for posting. We do all payments online.  But this gets you

wondering is it best to work with a TA?

[island lady]

1 minute ago, kelbell said:

Thank you for posting. We do all payments online.  But this gets you

wondering is it best to work with a TA?

 

I always pay off my cruises online with RCI website directly.  That is what struck me as odd when I got that email asking me to call in my payment to that phone number (which is not due for three weeks).   90% of my bookings are direct online with RCI, and the rest is with Next Cruise on board.  

[kelbell]

I wonder if RCC ever do call for final payment? All our years of cruising, different

lines, we have never even got a reminder call for final payment.😉.  All scammers go

(you know where) for all the pain the cause ppl.  They are the scum of the earth.....🤬

Good catch, thank you again.

[crusinthrough]

Why not call RC using the number you normally do and verify?  I saw something similar on another site and it mentioned there was additional OBC if the reservation was paid in full (earlier than final payment).  The offer was verified when calling C&A.  

 

I don't think a second reservation would be mentioned if it's an offer.  This is not how RC system works.  Each reservation is separate and receive different offers.  

 

Going forward how things worked in the past may be different than present times.  I wouldn't base decisions on how it was pre cruising shutdown. 

[PTAngel]

On 4/24/2020 at 11:11 AM, island lady said:

Not sure if any of my cruise mates out there has received one...but just wanted to post a "heads up".  Got an email that was a pretty good copy of looking like official RCI email.  Was claiming to be a "Royal Caribbean certified vacation planner" which was asking for final payment (mine is not due until a month from now).  Had misspelling and totally wrong C&A number.  Had my reservation number and sail date correct, but that was all.  Plus did not mention the previous leg that would be due before that one.   

 

Just wanted to post a warning to carefully check any of these emails you may get.  

 

I always pay close attention to spelling & grammar.  That's a sure sign of fraud. These ppl are not very literate.  I delete anything that is not literate.  My thinking is if this is an indication of their quality I don't trust them.

[island lady]

44 minutes ago, PTAngel said:

 

I always pay close attention to spelling & grammar.  That's a sure sign of fraud. These ppl are not very literate.  I delete anything that is not literate.  My thinking is if this is an indication of their quality I don't trust them.

 

Exactly this ^

 

That was one of the big red flags, plus they had my C&A number wrong (not even close), and I did not book through an agent with RCI on the phone.  I have never received an email that wanted me to call with payoff info.