Woman loses her $825 Melbourne Cup win after one of her Facebook 'friends' took a picture of the winning ticket and used the bar code to claim the cash
Chantelle from Perth won a cool $825 by betting $20 on 100-to-1 shot Prince Of Penzance, who claimed victory in one of the biggest upsets in the race's history. Elated with her big win, she took to social media to post a proud selfie with the lucky ticket.
But Chantelle soon discovered she had pushed her luck after a 'friend' on the social networking site took a photo of the bar code to an automated machine and fleeced her winnings
A spokesperson for WA police told Daily Mail Australia said they were investigating the incident.
Chantelle told the radio station her $20 bet at Ascot racecourse in Perth was her first ever crack at gambling.
'I've never bet before so me and my two friends went along as you do and put some money on a few different races,'
'When Prince of Penzance's name came up we were pretty stoked, being amateurs at it. Naturally I took a selfie to show my friends.'
Within 15 minutes of posting the image, Chantelle went to the TAB to collect her winnings-only to learn the thief had beat her to it.
'My fingers were covering some of the bar code, so someone had a pretty good game at filtering my picture and cutting out my bar code and putting it into an automated machine,' she said.
She said she it added insult to injury knowing the culprit was one of her Facebook 'friends', since her profile and the friends she tagged all have 'private' accounts.
'All of our profiles are private so it has to be someone who is well, we'd like to think of as our acquaintance', she said.
'I might need a bit of a Facebook cull now.'
In the original post Chantelle held the TAB ticket next to her beaming face dressed in glamorous attire with the accompanying caption 'Winner winner Chicken dinner!!'
But after getting word she had fallen victim to cyber theft, Chantelle posted a follow up message that was quite a different tone.
'To the low life who is obviously my friend on Facebook and used my photo to claim our winnings. You're a massive d***. You ruined my day,' Chantelle wrote on Facebook.
Western Australian police have reportedly tracked down where the money was claimed and they believe they can locate the person responsible.
The incident serves as a reminder to anyone posting potentially harmful information on Facebook and other social media sites.