US expat Melanie Albert reveals how single word cost her $3k at Woolworths checkout

In the blink of an eye, while making a purchase at her local Woolworths, US woman Melanie Albert’s life was turned upside-down.

It was an apparent email from her new boss that American expat Melanie Albert says she will never forget.

Having recently started a new position as an assistant manager at a popular Sydney restaurant, a midday email that appeared to be sent from the venue’s generic address to her work account came as no cause for alarm.

Ms Albert, originally from Austin, Texas but living in Sydney since 2019, was only six weeks into the role when the relatively relaxed email appearing to be from her boss requested her best contact number for messaging service, WhatsApp.

With the sender details appearing as her employer’s complete first and second name in Outlook, she thought nothing of the request and replied promptly with her best contact number.

Within minutes, a message appeared in her WhatsApp account simply saying hello, using her first name and casually asking how her day was going.

Melanie Albert is from the US but has been in Australia for years, and was hoping to get a permanent visa in October.

Ms Albert recently fell victim to a scam.

Being her day off after a gruelling weekend shift, she did not have access to previous phone correspondence directly with the owner of the restaurant group. But the message came from a sender using his name so Ms Albert promptly replied.

“It’s my Saturday, going to yoga … I’m good,” Ms Albert, who spoke to news.com.au exclusively, said of her initial reply.

Within minutes, the sender — whom she still assumed was her employer — asked if she could do him a “favour” by ducking to the closest Coles or Woolworths supermarket.

“I said ‘sure I’m 10 minutes away’ [from a Woolies],” she explained, which the sender then requested she go to “immediately” and text upon arrival.

“I was like, yeah sure, so I got up and brushed my teeth and went to Woolies.”

The initial email exchange received by Ms Albert appeared casual and conversational.

The first message Ms Albert received on WhatsApp, believing it to be her boss.

Upon arrival, the sender asked what Apple gift cards were available in store. She responded with values of $20, $30, $50, $100, $200 and $500.

“OK cool,” the sender replied.

“Kindly purchase one of the $500 and you will be reimbursed back on it.”

As a new employee, and with the WhatsApp and email address still appearing as her employer, Ms Albert followed instructions with the purchase of the gift card.

Once processed at the Woolworths checkout, Ms Albert confirmed the purchase via WhatsApp, when she was then instructed to remove the card from the box and send a picture of its activation code.

Ms Albert was scammed $3000 within minutes.

Ms Albert hopes others won’t make the same mistake she did.

Within seconds, the sender spoofing as her ‘employer’ asked for her to purchase an additional two cards — amounting to a grand total of $1500 — for which she agreed, given she’d been told about prompt reimbursement.

Having already burnt through half of her savings within minutes, which she had planned to put towards an $11,000 partner visa application to remain in Australia in October, Ms Albert was asked to purchase several more cards.

It was at that point she decided to call the number to confirm she “wasn’t getting scammed”, but her call went straight to voicemail.

“I am in meetings at the moment … kindly text I cant (sic) take calls,” the sender responded after failing to answer, adding that she has “nothing to worry about”.

“I will reimburse you back on all expenses as soon as I am done here.”

Ms Albert sent images of the gift card verifications to the scammer.

Ms Albert said she had no reason to suspect the sender wasn’t her employer.

Feeling reassured, Ms Albert proceeded with another $1500 worth of Apple gift card purchases in $200 and $100 values. In total, she spent $3000 while at the Woolworths checkout in a matter of minutes.

“The sender kept reassuring me I would be reimbursed,” Ms Albert said.

“I was like, ‘oh sh*t this is all the money I have’ but in my head I was getting reimbursed so, it was OK.”

After sending through what she believed to be the final cards, the sender requested another $2000 worth of gift card purchases — which the 34-year-old refused, as she only had $91 left in her account.

“I’d wiped out my visa savings,” she said, for which they sent an emoji and further correspondence ended completely.

“When they sent that emoji, I just thought ‘oh no’.”

Ms Albert spent all her savings in minutes on a scam.

Ms Albert was scammed into purchasing multiple Apple gift cards at Woolworths in Sydney.

Ms Albert quickly called the restaurant’s group operations manager, holding on to hope that maybe her boss was on the other side of the messages.

But her fears were realised when he confirmed that her employer hadn’t sent a single text and that she had fallen victim to a scam. After taking a look at the initial email, a single word confirmed her worst fears. The letter ‘e’ in office had been dropped from the address, signalling a glaring typo often associated with scam emails.

“I felt like a huge idiot,” she said.

“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.

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

Ms Albert went to the police station that afternoon to file a police report, but was told the likelihood of being able to find those responsible was low given the messages could’ve been sent from anywhere in the world.

Ms Albert said it is unclear how the scammers got her email address, and found out the name of her boss. Picture: iStock

After contacting her bank and filing a dispute over the $3000 worth of purchases, Ms Albert was told her claim was “unsuccessful” because she was in fact the one who tapped the card — not a third party.

An investigation this year commissioned by the National Anti-Scam Centre said Australians were still making a significant number of scam reports to organisations such as Scamwatch, ReportCyber and the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange.

The report indicated that Aussies made over 601,000 scam reports in 2023, which was an 18.5 per cent increase on 2022.

Investment scams continue to cause the most harm ($1.3 billion), followed by remote access scams ($256 million) and romance scams ($201.1 million).

Aussies made over 601,000 scam reports in 2023, which in itself was an 18.5 per cent increase on 2022.

Ms Albert has since launched a GoFundMe page to help recoup some of the scammed funds, and has also been offered a payment in advance from her employer to tie her over until she’s able to replenish her lost savings.

“I was just starting to get out of rock bottom when I fell victim to a scam that’s landed me further back then where I was a few months ago,” she said.

“The scammers managed to drain me completely dry across my debit and savings account. 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.”