InCruises has received a pyramid scheme fraud warning from Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK).

UOKIK avoids using the term “pyramid scheme”, instead referring to inCruises as a “consortium system”, “syndicated scheme” and “Argentinian system”.

InCruises’ described business model however is unmistakably a pyramid scheme.

A constant flow of new money is essential for the program to function. Our findings show that most people participate passively – by paying fees – rather than actively – by going on cruises.

On top of this, withdrawal from the program means financial losses.

According to the contract with InCruises International, a consumer who cancels his or her membership has no chance of recovering the money paid – the Cruise Dollars accumulated in his or her account are forfeited.

If, on the other hand, someone stops contributing, their membership is suspended. He has one year to unlock it – but he must make up all outstanding payments and return to regular subscription payments.

If he fails to do so, he loses all the Cruise Dollars he has collected.

This finding is in line with BehindMLM’s last published inCruises review (August 2022).

Speaking on inCruises’ pyramid scheme, UOKIK President Tomasz Chrostny stated;

We have a suspicion that InCruises International operates in a consortium system, also known as Argentinian system.

It is prohibited by law and is regarded as an unfair practice. In the past, these activities have ended up with severe losses for consumers.

In this case, the scheme may consist of managing the money collected from program participants to finance cruises.

It is important to remember that the benefits for participants in consortium systems are financed by the contributions of others, and usually after a certain time the money starts to run out and the system collapses.

UOKIK claims that, due to the pyramid nature of inCruises, that if every member actually booked a cruise, inCruises would collapse.

UOKIK’s inCruises pyramid scheme warning was issued on July 7th, 2022.

Whatever inCruises recruitment was occuring in Poland has since collapsed.

As of February 2023, SimilarWeb tracks top sources of traffic to inCruises’ website as Kazakhstan (20%), Ukraine (17%), Italy (12%) and Spain (9%).

 

Update 5th April 2023 – InCruises has a response, in which it attempts to downplay UOKiK’s pyramid scheme warning.