A Kentucky family’s cruise vacation they had planned a year in advance was canceled just 48 hours before departure after the mother fell victim to identity theft.
Tiffany Banks, along with her husband and four children, were all planning to set sail on the Carnival Celebration when disaster struck.
The day before their flight to Florida for the cruise, Banks received an email about canceled shore excursions.
Upon calling Carnival to investigate, she was hit with the shocking news – their entire trip, already fully paid for, had been mysteriously cancelled.
In the email, a Carnival representative told her that she had cancelled her $12,000 reservation through their online system. She and her family were supposed to stay in the Excel Presidential Suite, the largest room on the ship.
‘We have nearly $15,000 tied up in 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,’ Banks said in a May 12 TikTok video.
She said her and her children were in tears as she claimed she never canceled the trip, and prayed it was just a system glitch.
The cruise line also informed her that Excel Presidential Suite was taken by another customer, so all they could offer her were two interior rooms (the cheapest on the ship) instead. She denied their proposal as she felt it would not fit her entire family.
Carnival also refused to refund her her money as their cancellation policy states that a refund will not be issued within 15 days of the cruise’s departure date.
In a tearful follow up video, despite a last-ditch effort to board the ship in Miami, the family was heartbroken as they watched it sail away without them.
Stuck with altered plans, they found temporary lodging at an Airbnb in Florida. While the mom documented their disappointment on TikTok, they attempted to salvage their trip.
After receiving backlash from online trolls, accusing her of fabricating the story, she responded, ‘I’m an open book. I talk too much. I give out too much information — that’s just me naturally.’
Days after the ship left port, Carnival reached out to Banks and explained what happened.
Banks said the cruise line claimed she was the victim of ‘identity theft,’ but emphasized there was no data breach on their end.
She revealed that the culprit likely used the booking reference number she unknowingly exposed when she shared a countdown email screenshot on Facebook weeks prior.
The same day she posted her information, a scammer created an account with Carnival and added the booking number to their own profile. Two days before the cruise was to depart, the scammer cancelled the family’s reservation.
Banks said Carnival told her they believe the scammer was from British Columbia based on their IP address, but they could not identify them.
The company offered her a future cruise credit worth $10,404, but with a condition. They wanted Banks to make a social media post ‘saying something along the lines of Carnival having resolved the problem.
Appalled, the mother of four refused their offer, and questioned how someone could take over her reservation that easily if they only had her booking info.
‘We’re not sailing Carnival ever again,’ she said.