The unprecedented level of unemployment caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to seek employment opportunities and search for a job. There have been reports in the past month of an increasing number of cruise ship recruitment scams seeking to take advantage of the people during the crisis. Fraudsters are known to create official-looking websites or profiles on social media in order to convince potential victims they are legit. Most often these job offers include application fees to be paid up front without a justification.

The latest job fraud was revealed by the popular cruise website Portal Cruceros who reported that Genting Hong Kong Limited announced a fraudulent job offers were made under its brand name Dream Cruises. 

The fraudsters have used "Dream Cruise Ship Company" account claiming they are recruiting people for the Genting Dream cruise ship. According to the fake job post In order to apply with the company applicants will have to pay for registration fees.

"The impostors used the trade name of the company Dream Cruises and the images, to carry out deceptive activities online through a fraudulent hiring advertisement," said the company.

They also specified that "the Company wishes to clarify that this fake recruitment advertisement is not related to or endorsed by the Company or any member of Dream Cruises and, as such, the Company will not accept any responsibility in relation to said recruitment advertisement or its related activities."

4 people arrested for offering fake cruise ship jobs

Another job scam was announced today by the portal The Star, who reported that Police in Singapore arrested four people for offering fake jobs on a cruise ship. According to the report the fraudsters made their victims believe that by paying $180 to a company registered under one of the suspects, they could get a job on one of the cruise ships anchored in Singapore. The arrested scammers convinced about 30 victims that the jobs were available starting Sept 15.