October 13, 2010
Yacht crew on the look out for a new job might jump at a job offer in their morning e-mail.
But be cautious, said Stacy Geddis, owner of Crew 4 Yachts in Ft. Lauderdale. Several crew she’s working with have received fraudulent job offers via e-mail from a company named SeaBourn Yacht Group in the United Kingdom.
“Crew need to be cautious and aware of solicitations for employment by e-mail,” Geddis said. “There are several versions currently circulating the Internet.”
Applicants are being asked for personal information and are sometimes being asked to pay a recruiting fee. Positions offered in the e-mails are for every career in yachting including engineer, captain, stew, deckhand, first mate, stewardess and chef. Many e-mails offer “coverage of transportation expenses, accommodation, feeding and a month training on arrival.”
Some of the contact names are Capt. Alex Cole, Capt. Lee Smith and Capt. Wilson Scott.
A legitimate company named The Yachts of Seabourn, which is unaffiliated with the scam, is aware of the e-mails and has posted information on its Web site to clarify that someone is falsely using versions of its company name.
“I can confirm that any and all job offers that your readers receive from different captains are part of a scam that has been going around for the past month,” said Gabor Varga, the recruitment specialist of fleet personnel at The Yachts of Seabourn. “Our captains do not have the authority to make any decisions recruitment-wise and we do not offer employment without a face-to-face meet with all of our candidates.”
If an agency or individual requests fees, they are not affiliated with The Yachts of Seabourn Varga said. The incident can be reported to the company via e-mail at seabourn.jobs@seabourn.co.uk.
E-mail spam and scams are nothing new to the yachting industry. The Triton has published several stories about similar scams including “Job-seekers beware: e-mail scams target crew” (April 2009, page A1) and “Captain warns of a job scam that came to him by Internet”(Nov. 2008).
About the Author
Comments
Thanks!
I received a couple of these emails the other day & was a little suspicious. I looked up the company & found that they were a very real, legitimate cruise company. But after a reply from the "company" with a job offer that was WAY too good to be true, I did some investigating for myself. After a quick Google search I came across this article & my suspicions were confirmed. Thanks for the article & I hope nobody fell for this scam!