Australians are being ripped off by a sophisticated new scam.

Scammers are impersonating bosses and asking staff to buy Visa and Apple gift cards.

Jamie recently received a Whatsapp message from her ‘boss’, who identified himself by name and said he was in a quick meeting so couldn’t take calls.

He wanted her to run a quick task — purchasing Visa gift cards.

Thankfully, Jamie realised something suspect was up when she noticed the number the message had come from did not match her boss’s mobile number.

Marilyn’s daughter wasn’t so lucky.

She got a message from her boss saying he had some clients coming in from overseas and wanted her to buy and activate $1500 worth of Apple gift cards for them.

Her boss really did have international clients arriving, so she thought the message was legitimate and did as her ‘boss’ asked.

“She was totally devastated, thought she’d lose her job, it was just shocking,” Marilyn told Neil Mitchell.

Press PLAY below to hear more about how the scammers operate