My family was scammed out of a $15K Carnival Cruise — here’s how I’m fighting to get it back

A woman went viral sharing how her family was scammed out of her $15,000 Carnival Cruise. She claims that the cruise line won’t refund her or admit fault but has changed its website and policy.

Tiffany Banks was stunned when she realized that the trip she had been planning for a year was canceled without her knowledge and only a day before her family’s flight to catch the boat, she explained in a series of TikToks.

She shared that although the company won’t refund her money or “admit guilt” directly to her, they’ve updated their website and policy to better protect customers from having the same issue — which she insists is “admitting guilt without having to admit guilt.”

“Unfortunately, this guest failed to heed well-documented and very common travel safety and security advice,” a representative from Carnival told The Post.

The Kentucky woman was supposed to board the Carnival Celebration ship with her husband and their four kids to stay in the $12,000 Excel Presidential Suite — the ship’s largest room — and enjoy a whole schedule of excursions.

She claims she discovered that her vacation, which had been paid in full, was a wash after receiving a cancellation confirmation about an off-ship excursion, and she called to investigate.

That was when she learned that her trip had been canceled through the cruise line’s online system, which Banks insisted was not her doing.

Carnival allegedly told her the room they had booked was now reserved by another customer and offered the family two interior rooms — the cheapest on the ship — instead, but the mom denied the change feeling it was an inadequate replacement.

She also said that Carnival refused to offer a full refund; their cancellation policy states that no money will be returned within 15 days of the cruise date.

The family flew to Miami and tried to board the ship anyway, hoping for a last-minute solution, but were forced to watch the ship sail off without them, Banks said in a teary follow-up video.

A few days later, Carnival called Banks back to explain that she was the “victim of a form of identity theft” — but that there was no security breach on Carnival’s part, according to a recording of the call she shared on TikTok.

That was when she learned that she and her husband had accidentally shared their cruise booking reference number when posting a screenshot of an email with the countdown to their vacation on Facebook a few weeks out, she continued in a recent clip.

The same day they posted the booking number on Facebook, someone created an online Carnival account and added the number to their profile.

Then, 48 hours before the cruise sail date, the person canceled the family’s entire cabin booking, the Carnival rep told Banks in the recording.

Banks said Carnival told her that it believes the IP address of the person who canceled was in British Columbia but it was unable to get the identity of the fraudster.

The company offered her future cruise credit for $10,404 contingent on the mom posting on social media “something to the effect of Carnival has now resolved the issue.”

But Banks said she wasn’t interested and questioned the ease with which someone was able to take over her booking with no verification process.

“We’re not sailing with Carnival ever again,” she said.

Banks claims that the attorney general of Florida has reached out to her as she’s now begun looking into taking legal action against Carnival claiming that she’s fighting for everyone who’s been “screwed” over by Carnival

“This is no longer just about me,” Banks said in a video. “This is me now wanting to really make a company change their policies and do what is right.”

“I would love for this to be a class action because big corporations should not be allowed to just take people’s money.”

In her most recent update, she claimed that people have messaged her and let her know that Carnival has updated their website and emailed people reminding them not to share their booking number in bold letters.

A move she believes is practically an admission of guilt.

“With a busy summer travel season underway, we are reminding our guests about several things to make their travel go smoothly,” a representative from Carnival told The Post.