A US expat who had been saving up to pay for her Australian visa has lost $3,000 after making a simple mistake at Woolworths.
Melanie Albert, originally from Austin, Texas, received an email from her boss on her day off asking for her phone number so they could send her a WhatsApp message.
The email appeared to be sent from her new work’s email address and it contained both the first and last name of her boss, news.com.au reported.
Ms Albert who recently started working as an assistant manager at a popular Sydney restaurant, received a WhatsApp message only minutes after she provided her number, asking how her day was.
Ms Albert, who has been living in Sydney since 2019, wrote that it was her day off and that she was going to yoga.
The man she thought was the owner of the restaurant group asked her to do a favour for him and pop into a nearby Coles or Woolworths.
After replying that she was 10 minutes away from her local Woolworths store, her ‘boss’ requested that she go immediately and text him when she got there.
After messaging him to tell him that she had arrived, the WhatsApp sender asked what Apple gift card denominations were for sale.
Melanie Albert, 34, was scammed out of her savings she needed to apply for an Australian visa when her current one expires in October
The expat was tricked into believing her new boss wanted a favour from her – but it was scammer wanting her to purchase Apple gift cards (pictured the Whatsapp message Ms Albert received)
Once she messaged the information, he wrote: ‘Kindly purchase one of the $500 and you will be reimbursed back on it.’
After Ms Albert brought the gift card, her ‘boss’ told her to send him a photo of the activation code.
Her then requested her to buy two more Apple gift cards.
Ms Albert purchased the cards, thinking she would be reimbursed.
But by this stage, the American had spent half her savings that she had put aside for her visa application.
With lawyers fees, her visa will cost $11,000 – but she needs to apply as her visa expires in October.
It was when the expat was asked to again purchase even more cards, she called the number in case she was getting scammed.
But her ‘boss’ didn’t answer, instead sending messages that they were busy in ‘meetings’ and that she will be reimbursed ‘as soon as I am done here’.
Ms Albert felt reassured, and was happy to buy more $100 and $200 cards, totalling $1,500.
All up, $3,000 was spent at the checkout within minutes.
‘I was like, “oh s**t this is all the money I have” but in my head I was getting reimbursed so, it was OK,’ she recalled.
The woman was messaged on WhatsApp by a person she believed was her boss. They told her to go to Coles or Woolworths and purchase Apple gift cards – and to send them their activation codes (pictured a Woolworths store)
Ms Albert sent through the details of the latest card purchases – only to be asked to buy another $2,000 worth of the Apple gift cards.
When the assistant manager told her ‘boss’ she only had $91 left in her account, they sent an emoji and stopped messaging the 34-year-old.
Panicked, she called her restaurant’s group operations manager who confirmed her worst fears that she had been scammed.
It was then she checked the original email again and this time noticed the letter ‘e’ in the word office was missing from the address, which made the 34-year-old feel like ‘a huge idiot’.
‘You always expect it to be an old person falling for it [a scam]. For me it was shocking I didn’t pick up on it,’ Ms Albert said.
‘What happened made me feel down about myself … scammers are getting smarter.’
Even though the American went to the police station to file a report on the same day, she was informed the scammers could have been from anywhere in the world.
The scammer told her she needed to upload a picture of the activation codes for the gift cards (pictured)
To make matters worse, her claim to recoup her $3,000 back from her bank was ‘unsuccessful’ because she was the one who made the purchases in store.
The assistant manager has set up a GoFundMe page to help get some of her savings back, which has raised almost $1,500 so far.
She can currently neither afford to stay in Australia or return to the US.
‘The scammers managed to drain me completely dry across my debit and savings account,’ she wrote.
‘Now with the scammers taking everything I had I am back at rock bottom and have no idea what to do.
‘At this point this [GoFundMe] is the only thing I can think of to help me out of the darkest place I have been in.
‘I’m coming to you with my tail between my legs and tears in my eyes.’
Daily Mail Australia contacted Woolworths for comment.
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