There is no escaping the fact that with cruise ship jobs in high demand, the incidence of related scams increases. Many unfortunate victims have paid hard-earned money to criminals masquerading as overseas recruitment companies in the hope of landing a job on board.
Cruise ship companies themselves are being impersonated by these unscrupulous elements in a bid to hook job hopefuls with a renowned name. As soon as they become aware of this, the cruise line companies add these fraudsters’ names to a long list of cruise ship jobs scams to help applicants.
But since there is no way of listing every fraudster on the hunt, there are a few things you can look out for to identify possible cruise ship jobs scams.
CLUES FROM FRAUDSTERS
Read all communication properly
Cruise ship companies and their overseas recruitment agencies are filled with professionals who are good at what they do, particularly the HR department. Emails, calls, advertisements and any other means of communication will display impeccable language skills. Letters from fraud companies and their websites, if any, generally show poor English with spelling and grammar mistakes. They also have low-quality images.
Emails generally come from free websites, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, etc. Cruise ship companies and their overseas recruitment agencies have their own internal email accounts.
The offer sounds like a steal
Often, to get you hooked, cruise ship jobs scam artists will offer you an immediate job posting, just as soon as you send money to them. Cruise ship companies follow certain procedures and overseas recruitment agencies never ask applicants for job consideration fees, advance payments for uniforms or medical expenses. Any offer that assures you a job on payment of money is probably a scam.
Legal fees
Many cruise ship jobs scams involve asking prospective crew for ‘fees for the immigration lawyer’ or ‘fees for Green Cards’. Neither of these is required by a cruise crew member when working on board. There are separate requirements for seafarers.
Scam artists can ask for a scanned copy of your passport as well as lawyer’s fees in US dollars, Euros or other currencies. Any personal information you hand over is at the risk of being misused.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Stay up-to-date
Read cruise news regularly to know of new scams and ways to identify them. Look through the websites of cruise ship companies to know in what way scam artists have recently used their name. Many of these companies, such as Royal Caribbean International and its sister companies (Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises), send out warnings about fraudsters, their email addresses, websites and names. Get on their mailing list to stay on top of things.
Apply through the right channels
When you are ready to apply for a job, look for the right places to apply. If you see an advertisement in the newspaper, it helps to cross-check whether the cruise recruitment agency is real by accessing their website online and calling their office if needed.
Cruise ship companies generally have a list of authorised overseas recruitment agencies through which they permit job applications to be routed. Either apply directly to the company or through a legitimate recruitment agency.