Beware: possible scammer around Melbourne Central

I had an experience today that I thought was kind of questionable and I would love to make others at least aware, so you can be ready and organised if this happens to you.

I was exiting out of Melbourne Central today (with visable headphones in) when an older woman approached me. She easily looked about 60-70 years old and I thought that she was just going to ask for directions to somewhere.

She then asked me if I could either buy her chicken or Woolworths/coles gift cards because her son was very sick and she needed to feed him but had no money. Feeling a bit guilty and not wanting to look like a bad person, I told her that I would buy her a sandwich from Woolies but she declined and said she only wanted gift cards from the supermarkets. Which I thought was a bit weird seeing as she had first approached me to buy food for her sick son.

She was very persistent in telling me how miserable her life was, and on the walk up to the food court would ask me simple questions about myself (like my nationality), but when I asked her the same questions she would reply with “my mum died of bowl cancer” and “my son is very sick and I don’t have any money because I have spent it all helping others” which did not answer the question at all.

At this point I was very suspicious as she was constantly pounding me with sob stories and I knew that I was most likely falling sucker to a scam. My suspicion heightened when she started asking me if I could also buy her a meal as well, on top of the four pieces of chicken that she initially approached me about for her son. Feeling like she was testing my generosity, as I had agreed to buy her the four pieces of chicken, I declined.

She lead me to Oporto (Melbourne Central) and started putting in her order. She started asking the staff if she could have four pieces of chicken (a deal which was not on the menu) they offered her three pieces as it was a deal that they had advertised. At this point I got vocal, and told the staff to do the three piece deal, as not knowing the Oporto menu, I assumed it would be cheaper. However, she knew of a loop-hole in the Oporto menu, in which four pieces of chicken turned out to be cheaper than the three (the staff also told me this was true), which lead me to believe that she had done this before.

At the Oporto that we were served at, they call out ready orders by name, not wanting to be with this woman any longer, I made her give her own name to the cashier and walked off after paying.

Although I am a struggling student myself, and probably got scammed out of $20 to pay for some strangers chicken, I was glad that at least I could give someone a semi healthy meal.

However, knowing that she was asking for gift cards instead of groceries, chicken for a son that was not with her and most likely a middle aged man himself (given her age) and rattling on about a mother who died of bowl cancer (which given the fact she was an elderly woman herself, was not jarring), I am pretty sure I got scammed. So, just be aware that this is happening around Melbourne Central, and don’t let her swindle you into buying her whole family a free meal if you don’t want to!