Cruise Scam Ruins Trip Of A Lifetime

A group of high school friends who thought they’d be sailing to the Bahamas last week instead watched the ship leave without them thanks to a heartless scam. Worse, some fear that there could be more victims out there who have not yet discovered that the vacations they booked will never actually take place.

How The Teens Got Played

As reported by a CBS affiliate in Chicago, Lakeshia Frazier had helped her daughter and several friends plan for a trip to the Bahamas. The trip was booked back in November through a travel booking service known as Legendary Journeys and, at a cost of around $13,000, supposedly covered the cost of airfare from Chicago to Miami as well as the group’s trip to the Bahamas aboard a Carnival cruise ship. And while the group had no trouble on the first leg of their journey, once they landed in Miami, things quickly went south.

Frazier said that at the port, she and the teens were told by a ticketing agent that it appeared they had been scammed. Sadly, the distressed mom reports that it seemed as if this wasn’t an unfamiliar situation. “They had a situation like that before, where they had a group of people come for a cruise, and they’re not even booked on the cruise,” Frazier reported.

There Could Be More Victims Out There

When the CBS reporters went to the Fort Myers offices of Legendary Journeys, they found that it had been closed since late last year. But Frazier reports that she had been making monthly payments to the company throughout 2018. With nearly 200 complaints reportedly having been filed against the company, the lawyer tasked with selling off the assets in order to pay victims feared the nightmare might not yet be over. Presented with evidence that Frazier had made payments long after Legendary Journeys had closed its doors, he told CBS, “Based on the information you have provided to me, I have reason to believe that someone is fraudulently representing that they are Legendary Journeys and collecting monies.” As a result, he indicated there might well be more victims of the scam.

“It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime,” said Frazier. “But it was a disaster for everyone.”