Travel agent explains why scammer cancelled woman's $15,000 cruise vacation after she made brutal mistake on social media

A travel agent has explained why a scammer would cancel a $15,000 cruise after one woman made a devastating mistake on social media.

Mom Tiffany Banks, from Kentucky, had planned a Carnival Cruise vacation with her husband and four children.

But what was expected to be the trip of a lifetime turned into a disaster after Tiffany found out her booking had been cancelled at the last minute.

Tiffany was confused when two days before the trip - which had already been paid in full - she received an email about the cruise, explaining her excursions had been cancelled.

She called the company to find out why this had happened, and was told that she had cancelled the $12,000 reservation for the ship’s largest room, the Excel Presidential Suite, through the online system.

Totally bewildered over what could have happened, Tiffany went into panic mode, wracking her brains trying to figure out what had happened.

Speaking on her TikTok page, @thathippiedoc, she said she and her kids broke down in tears when they discovered what had happened.

“We have nearly $15,000 tied up in for 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," she explained in TikTok videos.

Carnival explained that the room had already been reserved by another customer and although they offered her another room, Banks said she didn't feel it was an adequate replacement.

She also claims the company refused to issue a refund and insisted it was against their cancellation policy.

Hoping for the absolute best, the family flew to Miami anyway hoping to board the ship - but unfortunately it left without them.

It wasn’t until later that Banks discovered she had been a victim of a type of identity theft after she and her husband accidentally shared their cruise booking reference number on Facebook.

The same day that it was posted, someone made a Carnival account and added the number to their profile. Then, two days before the cruise departed, the person cancelled the entire booking.

Ever since Tiffany shared the news, people have been flooding social media with questions about what happened.

Why would a scammer cancel their booking? What would be to gain from doing so?

Well, one travel agent has weighed in on Reddit - and the reason why makes a lot of sense.

They said: "I can shed some light on this. I used to be a travel agent, and had a client who posted his airline reservation on social media.

"Scammers were able to cancel the reservation, and also obtain their phone number. They called the person, pretending to be United, and advised them that the reservation was canceled.

"The person checked online, and sure enough, it was canceled. The scammer told the guy that he could rebook the family on the same flight, but they had to sit in business class, and they had to pay with an Apple gift card."

The travel agent explained they had received a phone call from the man's wife, who was concerned about what had happened.

"I got a call from the guy's wife, who found this suspicious," they continued.

"When she told me, I immediately told her to call her husband, who was already at CVS buying Apple gift cards. While she called her husband to stop him, I called United, explained the situation, and they reinstated the family's booking. Same flight, same price, no extra payment needed.

"Not saying this cruise situation is necessarily the same scam, but just wanted to give an example of an angle scammers can use."

The travel agent explained that a booking number should always be treated as confidential.

"Always treat booking number like a password. Never ever post them on social media," they added.

A Carnival Cruise spokesperson told LADbible Group: "While we are not going to comment on any specific guest complaint or incident, it is never a good idea to post personal information about your travel plans, including a confirmation number for a booking, which could allow a bad actor or identify thief to use that information in inappropriate or even illegal ways."