The call came from a 301 area code. The woman on the line said she worked in Norwegian Cruise Line's air department and offered to book flights for a large group. The guest split the payment across two cards. Both were compromised within days. A month later, the "agent" called back with good news: the fare had dropped, and she just needed new card numbers. The guest lost nearly $20,000.

An NCL employee shared the story online to warn others. One detail stands out: 301 is a Maryland area code, and the guest had mistaken it for a Miami number. Real NCL employees' direct lines use 305.

It may only be one case, but the pattern repeats across the industry. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have each issued alerts about scammers posing as cruise representatives or the cruise lines themselves. And The scale is large. More than 38 million people are expected to cruise in 2026, up from 29.7 million in 2019, and the FTC recorded $274 million in losses to travel, vacation, and timeshare scams in 2024.

The most common scam starts when you search for your cruise line's customer service number.