American expat scammed after $3,000 mistake at Woolworths checkout

An American expat who had saved money for her Australian visa 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 job email address and contained both her boss’s first and last name, news.com.au reported.

Ms Albert, who recently started as an assistant manager at a popular Sydney restaurant, received a WhatsApp message within minutes of giving her phone number asking how her day had been.

Ms Albert, who has lived in Sydney since 2019, wrote that it was her day off and she was going to yoga.

The man she thought was the owner of the restaurant group asked her to do him a favour and go to a nearby Coles or Woolworths.

After she replied that she was only 10 minutes away from her nearest Woolworths store, her ‘boss’ asked her to go straight away and to text him when she got there.

After she messaged him that she had arrived, the sender on the Whatsapp app asked what Apple gift cards were available for sale.

After she sent the information, he wrote, “Buy one of the $500 and you will get your money back.”

After Mrs. Albert brought the gift card, her “boss” told her to send him a picture of the activation code.

He then asked her to buy two more Apple gift cards.

Mrs. Albert bought the tickets under the assumption that she would receive compensation.

But by that time, the American had already spent half of the savings she had set aside for her visa application.

Including attorney fees, her visa will cost $11,000, but she must apply because her visa expires in October.

When the expat was asked again to purchase more tickets, she called the number fearing she was being scammed.

But her “boss” didn’t respond, instead sending her messages saying they were busy with “meetings” and that she would be reimbursed “as soon as I’m done here.”

Mrs. Albert felt reassured and happily purchased more $100 and $200 cards, for a total of $1,500.

All in all, $3,000 was spent at the cash register within minutes.

“I thought, ‘Oh shit, this is all the money I have,’ but in my head I was getting it back, so it was okay,” she recalls.

Ms. Albert forwarded the details of the last card purchases, but was then asked to purchase another $2,000 in Apple gift cards.

When the assistant manager told her “boss” there was only $91 left in her account, they sent an emoji and stopped messaging the 34-year-old.

In a panic, she called her restaurant’s operations manager, who confirmed her worst fears: she had been scammed.

She then rechecked the original email and noticed that the letter ‘e’ was missing from the address of the word ‘office’, making the 34-year-old feel like ‘a huge idiot’.

You always expect an old man to fall for it [a scam]“I was shocked that I hadn’t noticed it,” said Mrs. Albert.

“What happened made me feel bad about myself… scammers are getting smarter.”

Although the American went to the police station that same day to file a report, she was told that the scammers could come from anywhere in the world.

To make matters worse, her claim to get the $3,000 back from her bank was “unsuccessful” because she was the one who made the purchases at the store.

The assistant manager has a GoFundMe page to get back some of her savings, which has raised nearly $1,500 so far.

She cannot currently afford to stay in Australia or return to the US.

“The scammers have completely emptied my bank and savings accounts,” she wrote.

‘Now that the scammers have taken everything from me, I’m back to rock bottom and have no idea what to do.

At this point this is [GoFundMe] is the only thing I can think of to help me out of the darkest situation I’ve ever been in.

‘I come to you with my tail between my legs and tears in my eyes.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Woolworths for comment.