The journey around the world that has not yet sailed

“Throwing your current lifestyle at sea!” The Victoria Cruises (VCL) is advertising line, which dates back to the first reasonable residential trip in the world.

Cabines usually reach 3,840 USD (2,858 pounds) monthly for a three -year trip to 115 countries, and travelers from all over the world have the option to do the path as long as they wish.

For the Australians Dennis and Tarina Won from Perth, excited about the possibility of a house in the sea, it was not possible to announce on Facebook to come better because they planned to retire them.

Three years later, the ship has not yet sailed. In fact, they and other cruise residents have found that VCL does not even have a rental contract on the ship that is announced.

Wawns is only two dozens of people waiting for VCL to recover their deposits, and I have learned BBC.

The other potential residents told the BBC that they sold their homes, restored the cats and put their property in storage. One of the women said she put her sick dog, believing that she would go away for years.

Another couple had to move to the retirement community due to advanced ages and health failure. They can no longer adhere to a residential journey that may sail or not sail.

“People who have put a deposit for this trip have been sold with a dream … and it has not turned into anything less than a nightmare,” said Adam Gibizer, who runs a consumer defense company. “What a disgusting VCL did.”

The affected people contacted the company, some have made legal issues, while others have submitted consumer complaints to government agencies. One even wrote to the FBI.

VCL BBC told it still needs more customers before a ship is rented and thus continues to announce the trip.

The company said that the customers were familiar with the condition of occupancy when booking, and the company denies targeting or hurting anyone, adding that it advised some customers not to sell homes to pay the deposits.

Many of those who subscribed to hope for sailing at all, or recovering their money.

Tarina, 64, said that in May 2022, she and Dinis began thinking about their future and what could look like when they encountered the residential journey. The couple feels that they did due care.

Tarina said that the company has a good and detailed website, and they also spoke to a man from the company “answered all the questions”, and joined a group on Facebook consisting of other “residents”.

“We did some examination, and we thought everything was above the painting,” she said.

Within a month, they took a US $ 10,000 deposit step (7,450 pounds). The bank transfer was shown by the BBC.

But weeks before they sailed in May 2023, the VCL postponed the date of departure.

In an e -mail displayed by the BBC, VCL said that the trip did not reach nearly 80 % – which the company said it needs to rent a ship.

When VCL was postponed twice, the couple began to believe that something had ended.

Then one of his resident colleague continued, saying: “I have dug a little. Go out.”

The promise of marketing VCL is a fully marine flight that can include 1,350 guests, with swimming pools, tennis courts and Italian restaurant.

“We have a beautiful and worthy ship in the sea, which is the former Holland American Vendam, and it is now majestic,” wrote a representative of the United States at VCL on the company’s Facebook page.

But the BBC learned that when calling it by some potential population, the company that owns the ship denied any connection to the VCL.

Although it has not yet rented a ship, the company said it continued to announce cruises and collect deposits in order to reach the necessary occupancy rate.

“If we signed the rental agreement at the beginning of 2024, we would have been to pay about $ 18 million for nothing,” VCL said in an email to the BBC.

She also admitted that there were 132 cancelors, and she said she had made 38 complaints, but she did not find anything that justified recovery.

VCL also denied that there are any “victims”, and said that 38 customers have asked for the recovered amounts that they could not accept, they are not entitled to obtain one.

The company added that the recovered amounts were blocked for administrative reasons, the loss of banking or incorrect details, the failure to return the termination management agreements within the final dates, and the money laundering checks.

He was to leave the VCL trip on July 26, 2025, according to its website. But again failed to sail.

“Despite the delay, we encouraged a sudden flow of new interest in recent weeks – a strong indication that our common dream is very alive,” says VCL.

Graham Whitaker, a former journalist in Australia, estimates that VCL has acquired millions of intervention money.

“It has become dirty because we started finding degrees and attracted more people who have never been returned, who asked for their money, and those who lied.”

When he paid the passengers more strongly – they ask about the recovered amounts, and talk to the media about the case – they were threatened with legal procedures. The BBC has seen dozens of these emails.

“The threats and harassment become serious for some,” Witkker said.

VCL justified the threat of the legal procedure in his e -mail to the BBC.

“Yes, we will take legal measures against anyone trying to settle their complaints on social media,” he said.

The company’s records that were reviewed by the BBC offer a network of Shell companies registered at the same address in Budapest, while others are no longer trading.

The company is also registered in Florence, Italy, but as a specialized sentence for food, beverage and tobacco.

In Hungary, VIKTória Takács-Lollram was included as a founder, while her 79-year-old mother is registered as CEO.

Another company under the title of the same title is registered by Ibn Viktória, Marcel Herold, who has been named as VCL Vice President on his website.

In Hungary, VCL was registered in 2017 under a different name as a counseling company for accounting and taxes.

This was changed to VCL in 2022, with the addition of “water transportation assistance services” and “water transportation rental”.

In 2023, new activities were added: “car rental”, “lending machines and other equipment”.

As of January 1, 2025, its main activity is listed as “the transfer of passengers by sea.”

Tax deposits indicate more than $ 253,000 of unpaid taxes.

A couple won a case in Hungary, which led to the changes of the VCL contract, but the implementation stopped when VCL transferred his base to Italy.

VCL admitted that it changed the contracts after signing customers, and that the new conditions will be applied retroactively.

“When drafting a contract, lawyers try to include everything. But sometimes life occurs and the contract must be modified. This is what happened in this case.”

“These contracts work in this way for all shipping companies.”

Another couple filed a complaint in the US state of Utah, where the investigation was found that no berth was seized on a specific departure date.

She also found that people who claim to be rented employees on the site did not plan to be on a cruise, and did not receive job offers.

The investigation ruling said that the representative of the United States at VCL encouraged people to participate in the trip.

The investigation found that she sincerely believed that the residential journey will sail, but she agreed to sign a compliance order that prevents her from promoting these travel services in the future.

Despite all this, VCL continues to announce a nautical trip on Facebook and Instagram.

Accounts on the platforms show shiny brochures of the ship, menus and ambushes.

The new “population” is displayed on the plane – many of them are actually widely available online images.

To encourage long residencies, the Maritime Flight Company offers huge discounts, flash sales and money decline.

The alleged victims say they have reported the ads over and over again, but Meta – which has Facebook and Instagram – has refused to attach them.

“It is advisable to allow these platforms to announce the VCL despite the amount of great evidence. They should be responsible for it,” said Adam Gibizer, Consumer Champion.

In a statement, Meta BBC told her advertising criteria prohibits instead of deceptive or misleading ads, including tricks, but she did not find any evidence that the page violates its policies.

VCL denied that he was running a fraud, saying that the affected people were unable to accept that they were not entitled to recover.

“Our company has never disappeared, we have responded to every email, so we are not Phantom.”

Taryna said that the idea of ​​the trip is not very good – some people who subscribed to the VCL Cruise trip were currently traveling around the world with other cruise bans.

However, for her and Dennis, going on another journey like this is no longer anything they can bear.

“It was a dream for us and we really focused on it as a beautiful adventure. It was a shock.”

Additional reports by ORSULYA Polyacsko