Alana Catherine Petridis allegedly scams dozens of women on Facebook to pay off dealer

An alleged social media scammer has claimed she fleeced dozens of women on Facebook marketplace so she could pay off her drug dealer.

An alleged social media swindler, who it is claimed fleeced thousands of dollars from bargain hunting fashionistas says she stole the money to pay off her drug debts.

Alana Catherine Petridis, 37, fronted the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and applied for bail.

Ms Petridis is accused of scamming dozens of women through fraudulent advertisements on Facebook marketplace over a three year period.

The court heard Petridis had multiple fake Facebook profiles where she would post listings on marketplace for second hand designer clothing.

When women replied to her listings she would allegedly direct them to send payments to one of six bank accounts which were allegedly set up in false names.

Ms Petridis alleged scammed dozens of women on Facebook marketplace.

The customers never received their items, despite Ms Petridis allegedly promising she had sent them.

When they would ask for a refund, Ms Petridis would allegedly block them.

Ms Petridis, who was already on bail for Facebook scamming charges, allegedly continued to offend until June 9th.

On her previous stint of bail she was banned form using any social media, but allegedly continued offending by using her dad’s phone.

Police officers have pooled together dozens of victims from Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

The court was told 34 people who she allegedly scammed have created a Facebook group chat to support each other and encourage other victims to report the alleged scammer to police.

It is also alleged that after her arrest on these scamming charges, Ms Petridis reached out to some of her victims to offer refunds.

Ms Petridis, who resides in Donvale with her parents, has 254 charges before the courts.

She is also accused of drug driving, multiple instances of shop theft, making fraudulent returns and scamming the government of $3600 of Covid disaster relief payments.

In court, the 37-year-old claimed her alleged light-fingered tactics were to pay off her debts to drug dealers and fund her gambling addiction.

Ms Petridis sobbed when her bail application was denied.

She will next appear before the Ringwood Magistrates Court on June 26 for a plea hearing.