Transcript
Narrator (0:00)
On Scam Factory, we uncover the people who bend the rules, the ones who break them entirely. But sometimes the biggest deception comes from the very person enforcing the rules. Billy Mitchell wasn't just any gamer. He was a legend. The first person to achieve a perfect score in Pac Man. The reigning Donkey Kong champion and a self appointed guardian of integrity in the video game world, helping to expose players who faked their high scores. But when the documentary King of A Fistful of Quarters came out, cracks started to form in his carefully built image. The film showed a different side of Mitchell, one that used intimidation and manipulation to maintain his reign. And when accusations surfaced that some of his own Donkey Kong scores were achieved using edited footage, the gaming world turned on its king. Was Billy Mitchell a true champion? Or was he playing a different kind of game? I'm about to play a clip from Scamfluencers. Follow Scamflancers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sachi Kol (1:10)
Like the people in Scam Factory, today's scammer also moved to a new country for the promise of a better life. But she actually worked her way up to running an illegal rideshare empire. She was giving immigrants like her a chance to make a living. But it wasn't without risk, both for her workers and for their customers. We sometimes have scammers on this show who we empathize with because at least at the beginning, their hearts are in the right place. Yeah, but they always lose the plot at some point. Like the line between selfless and selfish is a lot grayer than you might think. Well, Sarah, today's story is about what lengths people will go to in order to survive and who they're willing to sell out in order to thrive. That's right. It's time for another GirlBoss. It's late May 2020, and Priscilla Barbosa is at a park in Los Angeles. She's wearing a short white sundress and a flower crown and standing under a tree of purple blooms. Priscilla is in her mid-30s and barely 5ft tall. She's Brazilian with long brown hair and lots of curves. And right now, she's gazing up into the eyes of a man named Mario Medrano. A reverend stands between them in a mask. It is the height of the pandemic, after all, and he's here to officiate their wedding. It's an intimate ceremony. Priscilla's family is back in Brazil, so she has only one friend with her. And on the groom's side is his girlfriend. I mean, that's every girl's dream to go to your boyfriend's wedding. Well, Sarah, this is not a polycule situation. This whole wedding is actually a sham. Priscilla and Mario actually just met each other and if all goes well, well, they'll never have to see each other again after today. Priscilla is in this for a green card and Mario is in it for $10,000. Among the few guests at the park is a staffer from the sham wedding agency that put Priscilla and Mario together. They take photos of the fake couple to document the day. Priscilla facetimes her family back home who seem to go along with the whole charade. And then she heads down to the beach where she snaps a photo and posts it to Instagram. But online she fails to mention that she's just gotten married. Sarah, can you describe the post for us? Yeah, it's kind of mysterious. It's super saturated to the point where her skin looks orange and you just kind of see her from behind wearing a short white dress. And it looks like it's meant to be intriguing. And the caption says the sky is the limit with an exclamation point, which has me wondering, what are you talking about? Yeah, man. I mean, Priscilla is an enigma. And ever since she moved to the States two years ago, she's been posting things like this on Instagram. Glamorous, mysterious images with vaguely inspirational captions that make her life seem perfect, especially to her family and friends back in Brazil. But like so much on social media, the reality is something else entirely. Because just like her marriage, Priscilla's work isn't what it seems. She's portraying herself as a successful businesswoman, and she is. But her empire has been built on the backs of undocumented immigrants illegally driving for rideshare companies. She's managed to out some of the biggest companies in the US and the government, and it's given her and her community of undocumented employees a really good life. But Priscilla's starting to cross over from helping others to just helping herself. And soon her picture perfect American story will meet cold, hard reality. From Wondery. I'm Sachi Kol. And I'm Sarah Hagie. And this is scandal influencers. Priscilla Barbosa began scamming when she came to the US but it wasn't out of greed. It was out of survival. Priscilla figured out how to game popular apps like lyft, Uber and DoorDash. And then she set out to share the wealth, earning a reputation in Boston's Brazilian community as a modern day Robin Hood. But as her business grew, Priscilla bought into her own hype and crossed over from sympathetic scammer to ruthless capitalist. This is Priscilla Barbosa, the Rideshare Robinhood.