A number of aspiring crew members from Bali have fallen victim to a scam promising employment on cruise ships in exchange for substantial payments, ranging into thousands of US dollars. The victims were lured into transferring money after being deceived by scammers who used social media platforms to carry out the fraud. The scammers created cloned social media accounts resembling PT Ratu Oceania Raya, a legitimate recruiting agency for several cruise lines.
I Nengah Yasa Adi Susanto, a director at PT Ratu Oceania Raya, accompanied the victims to file a report at the police station in Bali. He explained that the victims were promised jobs on cruise ships with seemingly simple requirements.
"The victims never met the perpetrators face to face. It was all through social media. Some transferred money multiple times, with amounts ranging from $500 to $3,000," Adi Susanto said at the Bali Police headquarters.
Adi Susanto revealed that there are currently eight young Balinese victims of this scam. He expressed that his company, PT Ratu Oceania Raya, has suffered damage to its reputation due to the scam.
"Our company is severely affected because we are a legal entity with proper licensing. Meanwhile, the perpetrators falsely used our company's name," he added.
The victims' legal representative explained that the scammers cloned the social media accounts of PT Ratu Oceania Raya and redirected them to a WhatsApp group where they requested money transfers.
"The scammers made their account appear as if it was the official account of PT Ratu Oceania Raya," he explained. "Victims were enticed through this fake account, which was used to deceive them because it resembled the genuine account of PT Ratu Oceania Raya."
Authorities are investigating the scam, and PT Ratu Oceania Raya is cooperating fully to help bring the perpetrators to justice and restore the company's good name.
The internet is an increasingly popular place for scamming people. In the past few years, we have received several messages about people who were scammed with promises of jobs on cruise ships, including:
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