A decade before conwoman Melissa Caddick swindled a massive $23 million from investors, the notorious fraud cheated her friends out of a measly $50 in a shameless scam to avoid paying for a joint birthday present.
Caddick, 49, vanished from her Sydney mansion in November 2020, hours after authorities executed a search warrant on her Dover Heights home and revealed they had caught on to her Ponzi-style scheme.
Her detached and decomposing foot was found by campers on a NSW beach three months later, on February 21, leading police to believe Caddick had jumped from the cliffs near her home and drowned.
But long before Caddick was caught scamming millions to fund her lavish lifestyle, she had already perfected the art of fraud.
In the finale for the podcast Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions it was revealed the financial advisor scammed her friends out of $50 way back in 2012.
A group of Caddick’s friends pooled funds to purchase a Thermomix – an all-in-one food processor and cooking machine, which range from $1500 to about $2500 – as a gift for a friend.
Everyone paid their share, except Caddick, prompting friends to chase her up.
But when confronted, the fraudster asserted she had already sent through her contribution and the issue must have fallen with her friend’s bank.
She then provided the group with a doctored bank transferral statement to support her claim – which, like her victims’ fake Commsec trading accounts, was short of a digit.
Melissa…
