Good reminder not to share your travel info on the internet

[kctwinmommy]

While this was a Carnival cruise, it applies to everything. Airfare bookings, hotel reservations, etc... And while I feel for the woman, it's on her. She's the one who shared it and how is Carnival supposed to know. Plus, they did offer her a $10,000 credit, which she refused.

 

https://nypost.com/2024/05/31/us-news/familys-15k-carnival-cruise-vacation-canceled-without-their-knowledge-after-sharing-booking-number-on-facebook/

Edited June 2 by kctwinmommy

[ontheweb]

13 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

While this was a Carnival cruise, it applies to everything. Airfare bookings, hotel reservations, etc... And while I feel for the woman, it's on her. She's the one who shared it and how is Carnival supposed to know. Plus, they did offer her a $10,000 credit, which she refused.

 

https://nypost.com/2024/05/31/us-news/familys-15k-carnival-cruise-vacation-canceled-without-their-knowledge-after-sharing-booking-number-on-facebook/

I wonder if Carnival tried to investigate whether the person who booked their suite was the one who did the identity theft and cancellation.

 

Since she turned down first 2 inside rooms and then later a $10,000 credit, I wonder if she thinks she is going to get something more.

[klfrodo]

I think this is a good opportunity to educate people on social media as a whole.

We put too much personal information out there to include myself. Albeit I am aware of it and trying to do better. There is a name for it. Something about Open Source Intelligence. I've been on this board since it was an AOL chat room. Over those years, it is likely that I've given out so much information that a rouge actor could piece meal my information and know way too much about me.

Even FB sometimes has those games where you share the name of your first pet, or your first car, or maybe your high school. Well, for most of us, those could be our security questions that some websites ask in case you need to change your password.

So, just be aware and don't give out too much information.

[shof515]

on facebook, you can adjust your settings so only certain people can all of your information,some or none at all. you can also do the same thing for the things you post . people need to learn how to post thing only for the people they want. for some odd annoying reason, the default settings when posting something is Public. i always have mine to various customs list i created so only the people who i actually really really know in real life can see what i post

[Elaine5715]

43 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I wonder if Carnival tried to investigate whether the person who booked their suite was the one who did the identity theft and cancellation.

 

Since she turned down first 2 inside rooms and then later a $10,000 credit, I wonder if she thinks she is going to get something more.

She got famous, sympathy from non cruisers and was holding out for more

Edited June 2 by Elaine5715

[klfrodo]

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

on facebook, you can adjust your settings so only certain people can all of your information,some or none at all.

You are correct and everyone should do this.

There are backdoors to this though. One could look thru your friends list, find a family member, follow the family members posts where they inadvertently talk about you going on vacation or sharing other information about you. Looking thru their pictures to find family gatherings at your house etc.

 

Of course this is worst case scenario, but we all share too much.

[mz-s]

people are so thirsty for attention on social media these days it's really a sad existence

[shof515]

4 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

You are correct and everyone should do this.

There are backdoors to this though. One could look thru your friends list, find a family member, follow the family members posts where they inadvertently talk about you going on vacation or sharing other information about you. Looking thru their pictures to find family gatherings at your house etc.

 

Of course this is worst case scenario, but we all share too much.

 

thats only if you use the facebook generated family list. if you create your own custom family list, only the people you add will be in that list. facebook does not automatically add to custom lists. i never used the suggested generated lists

Edited June 2 by shof515

[jsglow]

Seems to me that Carnival did everything they could to rectify the matter even though it wasn't their fault or responsibility.

[klfrodo]

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

 

thats only if you use the facebook generated family list. if you create your own custom family list, only the people you add will be in that list. facebook does not automatically add to custom lists. i never used the suggested generated lists

Yes

and thanks to you, I just updated and made some changes in my profile security settings.

[mz-s]

28 minutes ago, jsglow said:

Seems to me that Carnival did everything they could to rectify the matter even though it wasn't their fault or responsibility.

 

Carnival could require that everyone creates a PIN to protect their booking. You must provide one when booking over the phone or with a TA, but not on Carnival.com...that simple step could easily have prevented this. I do agree that this was not Carnival's fault but there is something Carnival could do to help in the future.

Edited June 2 by mz-s

[tidecat]

1 minute ago, mz-s said:

 

Carnival could require that everyone creates a PIN to protect their booking. You must provide one when booking over the phone or with a TA, but not on Carnival.com...that simple step could easily have prevented this.

PINs can be compromised too as people tend to use things like birthdates. Requiring two-factor authentication would also be a huge deterrent to something like this happening.

[mz-s]

1 minute ago, tidecat said:

PINs can be compromised too as people tend to use things like birthdates. Requiring two-factor authentication would also be a huge deterrent to something like this happening.

 

Agreed a PIN is not foolproof for sure and yes many people would use a date-based PIN that could be found on their facebook page, but it would be better than the Carnival rep just taking the caller's word for it that they are who they say they are. At least there is some form of password or protection in place.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:

She got famous, sympathy from non cruisers and was holding out for more

Yes, I understand she got her few minutes of fame.

[kctwinmommy]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

on facebook, you can adjust your settings so only certain people can all of your information,some or none at all. you can also do the same thing for the things you post . people need to learn how to post thing only for the people they want. for some odd annoying reason, the default settings when posting something is Public. i always have mine to various customs list i created so only the people who i actually really really know in real life can see what i post

So I did this for our cruise last month. We were going to be gone for a month and not everyone needed to know. And while most of my FB friends are people I know, there's still a few that I've sort of "met" through things from our son. Several years ago I cut down my FB friends and then typically keep it that way. I go through it a few times/year to take a check.

 

But while we were gone, I created an album and like you said, put the settings just to a select few people, like 10-12. Mostly some family members and like 3-4 friends who totally wanted to see my daily posts/pictures. Then when we came home, I changed to settings so all my friends could see it. I also had started posting less about 2 months before our trip, so it wasn't a sudden change when to most of my friends, it looked like I wasn't posting. Surprisingly enough, a friend who I don't talk to very often (her son is my son's best friend) reached out to make sure I was OK because she hadn't seen me post for awhile. LOL! I sent her a message and then she wanted to be added to the album to see it.

 

And like many others said, she got her 10 minutes of fame. I don't think Carnival owes her anything else at this point.

[sgttami]

Amazing what people share sometimes:

 

Posting how long they will be away from home

The airports they are leaving from

Ship names and cabin numbers

 

Click on the profile and there's a family photo in front of their home with the town listed

 

If you want to share your travel experience and photos, do so after it's over...lol

[Elaine5715]

6 minutes ago, sgttami said:

Amazing what people share sometimes:

 

Posting how long they will be away from home

The airports they are leaving from

Ship names and cabin numbers

 

Click on the profile and there's a family photo in front of their home with the town listed

 

If you want to share your travel experience and photos, do so after it's over...lol

Like photos of themselves on a ship with their casino winnings, rob'em now and later

[lazydayz]

I am not sure Carnival did all it could do.  After all, someone from Carnival noticed something was wrong and cancelled all of the booked excursions.  Carnival could have called her and said we noticed some activity on your account and wanted to confirm you intended to cancel.  

 

Luckily for me, I have a great PVP who does all of my bookings.  They all have a PIN associated with them.  And I am fairly certain the PVP would call me if he saw I had cancelled a cruise online.

 

I know Carnival is a huge corporation but it does sometimes reach out to its customers on an individual basis.  We were late arriving for a cruise and they called my husband's phone and asked if we were going to make it.  Luckily, we told them we had just arrived at the port.

 

Fastest check in ever.  We were on the ship in less than five minutes, and just a few minutes after that, the ship was sailing away. 

[aborgman]

1) She was an idiot

 

2) The widespread hospitality industry practice of having functionally no security other than a booking number and last name - is massively outdated... And if your security is bad enough, you open yourself to civil suits for facilitating 3rd party fraud.

[Riemercruisin]

This may be a dumb question. But supposedly there was an identity theft situation where someone from B.C. canceled her cruise. What would be the purpose/gain for anyone to do such a thing?

[lazydayz]

Sometimes people and organizations amaze me.

 

She could have avoided all of this by not posting her boarding pass online.  This was a huge purchase, did she really book it on her computer?  

 

Carnival is getting lots of bad publicity out of this.  Why not just say sorry this happened to you and we will take care of you?  Either give her a full refund in cash or book the exact same suite and ship for a later date?  Instead of creating a happy customer, they caused themselves more headaches.  

[staceyglow]

18 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Sometimes people and organizations amaze me.

 

She could have avoided all of this by not posting her boarding pass online.  This was a huge purchase, did she really book it on her computer?  

 

Carnival is getting lots of bad publicity out of this.  Why not just say sorry this happened to you and we will take care of you?  Either give her a full refund in cash or book the exact same suite and ship for a later date?  Instead of creating a happy customer, they caused themselves more headaches.  

It seems to be that it's the customer that is coming off looking bad in this situation.  She's trying to embarrass Carnival by going public, and it is backfiring.

 

Carnival doesn't owe this woman a thing.  She should have accepted those inside cabins they offered and consider it an expensive lesson learned.

[notscb]

3 hours ago, shof515 said:

people need to learn how to post thing only for the people they want

 

and still never post any sort of confirmation numbers, credit card details, etc. to any social media site ever. someone, even folks you know, will use it.

[Moriah]

When Tony reported on this last week on his podcast, I gave it some thought.  First of all, it seems the woman's husband, in his excitement about the trip, posted details, or perhaps a photo or screenshot proving they had a wonderfully special cabin, or whatnot, and I absolutely agree that posting information about your trip - in this case it was the booking number - is absolutely ridiculously negligent.  However, I also agree with the person above who mentioned that there could be some kind of extra step - such as an email or other communication asking the person "are you sure you want to cancel your cruise?" just to have an extra step safeguard in there.  Someone said that "someone at Carnival noticed and cancelled their shore excursions."  No, actually when you cancel your cruise online, the system will automatically cancel your shore excursions.  Thus the email they got saying their excursions were cancelled. So my question is, if they got an email saying their excursions were canceled, wouldn't they also have gotten one confirming cancellation of the entire booking?  How did they notice one and not the other? And my REAL question: if they had noticed RIGHT AWAY, and called, could they have reinstated their cruise?  Anyway, I guess bottom line, there SHOULD be an extra-step safeguard so there can't be a mistake like this with just one stroke.  I do feel for them, because while yes, it was ridiculous for them to post their information, does this make it "their fault"?  They were STILL victims of a crime, and it's still terrible!  I really don't like to "blame the victim" - we've all put ourselves at risk in various ways, and let's remember they are still the ones who were ripped off. 

Anyway, as Tony says  - it's a "cautionary tale".   He says, and I tend to agree, that these people seemed to be "bragging" on social media about their upcoming cruise, and someone, just to be mean, decided to pull the rug out from under them when they posted their booking number.  Again, they are still the victims, even though posting their booking number was stupid.  I do NOT think Carnival is in any way to blame, and I agree they should have taken whatever they offered, but they seem to lack judgement across the board.  I really don't think they've embarrassed Carnival at all. 

Edited June 2 by Moriah

[Moriah]

And a related subject - for all the years I've been on CC, it never fails that on a roll call thread there is someone posting his or her cabin number on their upcoming cruise.  I sincerely hope this has never led to any mishap, but it certainly has such potential.