Scammers have been issuing fraudulent Crystal Cruises checks throughout the U.S., in a scam that asks the victims to cash the check and then forward the money to a mystery shopper program.
Crystal said that the checks are being issued via mail or popular websites featuring job postings or mystery shopper programs and sweepstakes.
The recipients are being asked to cash in and deposit or send the same amount of money to a third party via Western Union under the guise of a Secret Shopper program.
Crystal said it does not have definitive information as to where that money is being sent.
The cruise line said it does not believe that any of its customers’ personal information was used to generate these checks.
"These checks look identical to, but are not, Crystal Cruises’ corporate checks. These are NOT legitimate checks and this is NOT a Crystal Cruises’ promotion. This is an illegal check scam,” the line said in a statement.
Crystal is attempting to warn the public that the checks are not part of any Crystal Cruises promotion.
Nitsa Lewis, Crystal's vice president of marketing, said that the scam "is affecting consumers more than travel agents, but it seems to be a pretty widespread attack, using the Crystal check to validate the scam. Again, the recipients are random as far as we can tell, and not any of our guests to date."
Anyone who has received such a check is advised to not cash or deposit it, and to email Crystal at [email protected], fax (310) 277-8150 or call (310) 785-9300 and ask to speak to Crystal's fraud-alert department.