Why You Shouldn’t Post Selfies With a Winning Ticket

Female bettor from Australia sees her winnings stolen after posting a ticket on Facebook (Image: FinancialSpots.com).

A female bettor from Australia had quite an eventful day during the Melbourne Cup, landing a bumper payout after backing a major underdog, but what started as a great day quickly turned into a major disappointment.

A woman from Perth that was later identified as Chantelle backed a 100:1 chance Prince of Penzance on Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, staking $8.25 on the only horse having a female jockey.

Posting on Facebook Proves a Bad Idea

And when her bet came out a winner, the woman couldn’t hide her excitement and was quick to take a selfie with the winning betting slip and posted it on her Facebook account.

That proved a stupid decision since she had forgotten to cover the ticket’s bar code, and one of her so-called friends was quick to pounce on her mistakes.

An unknown Facebook account holder downloaded the image to their mobile phone and scanned the bar code via an automated machine that had no objections and paid out the $825 in cash.

You can imagine Chantelle’s surprise when she went to claim the prize, only to find out that someone else had already cashed out the winning ticket.

The woman had a lot to say to the “low life” that took advantage of her foolishness, and later confessed to the Triple M radio station that the her Facebook profile and those of her two friends that she tagged in the photo were set to profile, meaning it was one of their Facebook friends who made the steal.

That just goes to show that you shouldn’t befriend people on Facebook unless they are actually your friends, ot at least acquintances. Chantelle clearly learned this the hard way, but at least you can learn from her mistakes.

Prince of Penzance Helps Lucky Punter Land $125k

At the same time, Australian bookies were quite happy to see one of the long shot underdogs win the coveted trophy, but there were few more lucky punters that got a smile from Lady Luck.

A Sportsbet customer landed a $125,000 payout on a $9 bet by correctly picking the first four hourses to cross the finish line at the Melbourne Cup, which is definitely a magnificent achievement, or maybe just a stroke of good luck, depending how you look at it.