Hunt for woman accused of ripping off Aussie botox clinic

A woman has been accused of booking expensive beauty treatments at Brisbane businesses under a fake name before fleeing and leaving her bill unpaid.

Courtney Warren has owned Facethetics Injectables for three years and has never had a problem like the "Botox Bandit".

Ms Warren said she fell victim to a beauty scam on her first appointment of the year, but is refusing to take the blow lying down and has done some internet sleuthing to track the alleged thief.

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"You've got a beautiful injectable result and we deserve to be paid for it we don't deserve to be ripped off. This is not going to go away," Ms Warren told A Current Affair.

"I've infiltrated her life a little bit and made it really hard for her to get away with it hopefully," she said.

It's believed the woman's real name is Samantha, but she made the booking under "Shannon" and requested cheek, lip and chin filler, along with anti-wrinkle treatments. 

She had $1628 worth of work done, which "Shannon" was more than happy to show off, posing in before and after photographs.

This is why what happened next was so bold and brazen.

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"She said she would like to pay card so she bought out a big chunky wallet out of her handbag, looked through it and told us 'oh I've left my card in the centre console of my car'," Ms Warren said.  

She then allegedly asked if she could leave her handbag and wallet next to the reception desk so she could go to her car, giving Ms Warren confidence she'd return.

"About 20 minutes after she left, I was actually concerned for her welfare, I tried to contact her via phone and text and that's when I realised the phone number she left with us was off.

"I looked into her bag and that's when I realised the wallet and the bag were completely empty … that's when it clicked," Ms Warren said.

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The alleged runner has left Ms Warren without two weeks' worth of wages.

She instantly took to social media to track "Shannon" down and found a profile that matched the name and address she provided, but the person looked different.

"That's when I began to realise that she'd used someone else's identity to book her appointment," Ms Warren said.

Wasting no time at all, Ms Warren posted photographs of the woman to social media and didn't hold back in exposing the alleged deception in a desperate attempt to try and find who this mystery woman really is.

"We got an immediate viral response. Within half an hour I had clearly identified that this person was called Samantha," Ms Warren said.

Ms Warren found Samantha on multiple social media platforms, but it was one particular Instagram post that got her fired up.

"She posted a photo of her injectable results saying 'botox and filler 2021 #swollen, #newyear'. She's obviously so happy with the results and she actually put a post up bragging about them knowing she didn't pay for them - it's quite disgusting really," Ms Warren said.

But Ms Warren was about to find out, this isn't the first time Samantha has allegedly ripped off a beauty business.

Rachel Tindall  - the owner of a hairdresser a few suburbs away - was doing her own detective work after Samantha allegedly failed to pay for her $450 hair extensions.

"It was a public holiday … I went out of my way to do it for her, she was quite insistent," Ms Tindall said.  

She was contacted by Samantha on Facebook Marketplace.

The hair salon owner said Samantha paid a $50 deposit for hair extensions and again, she was more than happy to have photos taken of the results.

But when it came to paying the $450 still outstanding, she alleged Samantha used every excuse possible.

"She said both of her cards, she had two - a pink and a black one from NAB, one was with the mother and one was with the father," Ms Tindall said.

Ms Tindall suggested Samantha transfer the money directly to her bank account and she sent a screen shot of the transaction.

"So it says 'payment transmitted successfully' with a green tick so I thought 'okay'," she said.  

Two days later the money hadn't come through, but that didn't stop Samantha from contacting Ms Tindall to complain about her new locks being dry.

Ms Tindall said she asked her to come back in, at an additional cost of $50, which Samantha paid.

The hairdresser claimed that while she was in the chair, Samantha mentioned she was going to get botox done at Facethetics Injectables.

"She said, 'oh yes I've just paid off a full ... like package with them' and I said 'oh right'," Ms Tindall said.   When the money still hadn't come into Ms Tindall's account days later, she contacted her bank.

"They said 'there was no money waiting to hit my account'. That's when I did message Courtney on Instagram DM'd her and said 'hello I did have a client by the name of Sam she was coming to see you in the next day or so, just wondering if she had paid you because she didn't pay me for the service'," Ms Tindall said.

Ms Warren has now taken to social media to track down the alleged thief, but so far her leads have all been dead ends.

"I think there's a certain amount of flexibility where people can do their own investigations online and gather evidence that will assist the police," Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said.

"Certainly wouldn't be condoning them going and confronting her or anything like that. I would have thought it would have been quite an easy matter for the police to follow up on."

Both businesswomen said they have now reported the matters to police.

"Police have to do something about this, it's wrong," Ms Tindall said.

"Now I would really just like to confront Samantha and ask her where's my money for the services we provided," Ms Warren said.

Statement by Queensland Police Service:

Police are aware of the matters and they are currently being investigated.