Over the last couple of months, the PYA's Member Assistance Service (MAS) has received a number of reports from crew who have been approached by scammers offering false jobs onboard yachts. Along with these direct reports, there has also been a number of incidents reported via the Yacht Crew Facebook Groups.

The motive of these scams is not clear, however, the PYA would like to warn crew that these scams might put them at an increased risk of individuals wanting to commit crimes of human trafficking, identity fraud or sexual assault. 

We have provided the details of some of these reports below and put together a survey to gather more information on the prevalence of job scams in the industry.

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What has been reported in 2020?

Majority of the scams reported involve female yacht crew.

Report 1 - False job onboard

We previously released the following report which gave the details of a job scam where a female crew member was recruited for a Stewardess position and asked to board a private plane to join the yacht. In addition to this individual, we received another report where the same scammer tried to recruit a female Chef under the same circumstances.

Report 2 - Sexual assault during a video interview

We received reports that young inexperienced Stewardesses had fallen victim to a false job scam. After applying to a Stewardess position in France advertised on social media, a number of girls were interviewed via a video call by an individual posing as the 'Captain' and asked to let their hair down and put on their bikinis during the interview.

One reported incident included '8 hours of interviewing in 3 sessions, being asked to mess up her hair for him and get undressed'.

Here is a visual of the original job post which appeared on social media:

Report 3 - Inappropriate photos requested for interview

Recently, it was reported via the yachting social media groups that another young girl had applied for a job online and had been asked for photos of herself in her underwear by the interviewer.

'A young girl who applied for a position on social media was asked to send photos of herself in her underwear, as this is how the industry works, according to the company. Luckily she took some advice and was told absolutely NOT. If ever in doubt when applying for positions pls pls pls ask someone. Trust your gut, not all you see Is as it seems. There are some rotten apples out there.'

Here is the visual of the original job advert below:

Report a job scam

If you have been the victim of a job scam and need advice or support, please report your incident to our team via info@pya.org and we can put you in touch with the best support services.