Talk about getting taken for a ride.
Alec Baldwin and his family have been left red-faced and a little annoyed after booking what they thought was a legitimate ticket for a boat cruise around the Statue of Liberty while staying in New York.
However, the Hollywood actor and his wife Hilaria were instead scammed by scalpers, who convinced them to buy tickets — which were for a bus ride to New Jersey rather than the cruise.
Taking to Instagram, Baldwin revealed he and his family were directed by the scammers to an unauthorised bus stop on West Street just north of Battery Park and were told to get on a shuttle bus to New Jersey instead.
“We paid, then we read the tickets,” he wrote on the post.
“No one ever mentioned New F***ing Jersey!”
Baldwin, who paid $US40 ($A60) for each ticket, advised his followers to take the Staten Island Ferry instead of seeking out a ticket like he did.
His post received thousands of likes, with many questioning how “Two sharp, savvy NYers” fell victim to such a well-known scam.
“Gotta read the fine print!,” one person wrote.
“It reads liberty park right on the ticket! Maybe not so savvy!”
Others sympathised with Baldwin and his family after falling for the same scam previously.
“My family and I got scammed this summer by a ticket broker,” one person wrote.
“We had family here from Europe who were super excited to experience New York and it was a nightmare. Feeling your pain.”
According to the New York Daily News, the ticket would have taken the Baldwin family on a trip through the Holland Tunnel and to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, where they would have had to wait for a vessel named Queen of Hearts.
Scalpers target tourists who are unaware of the location differences as they advertise the ticket as a one-hour tour, but riders typically end up spending at least three hours on the journey that doesn’t take them to the Statue of Liberty.
Hundreds of tourists are scammed into buying similar tickets for harbour cruises around New York for between $35 to $40.
Despite signs indicating illegal vendors are unable to sell cruise tickets around Battery Park, many ignore the warnings and continue to do so anyway.
