Priscila Barbosa: The Rideshare Robinhood

Summary

Podcast Summary: Scamfluencers – "Priscila Barbosa: The Rideshare Robinhood"

Introduction In the "Scamfluencers" episode titled "Priscila Barbosa: The Rideshare Robinhood," Wondery delves into the intricate story of Priscila Barbosa, a Brazilian immigrant who transformed from a struggling entrepreneur into a mastermind behind an illegal rideshare empire. Hosted by Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagie, the episode explores the motivations, ethical dilemmas, and eventual downfall of Priscila's elaborate scheme.

Priscila’s Journey to the United States Priscila Barbosa's story begins in Brazil, where she is portrayed as an ambitious young woman with a background in IT and a passion for entrepreneurship. She founded FitXpress, a successful meal delivery service catering to specific dietary needs. However, the economic downturn in Brazil forces her to shut down her business and watch her family’s bakery crumble under financial strain.

“[11:49] Priscila Barbosa: I mean, so much of this is obviously huge red flags, but the letting her stay with him while she learns the ropes, no, that's a predator.”

Desperate to support her family, Priscila turns to the United States, lured by the promise of better opportunities. She sells a family heirloom to fund her trip, only to be abandoned at JFK Airport with limited resources and no support system.

The Genesis of the Scam Stranded in Boston with barely any money, Priscila scrambles to find employment. She secures a job at a pizzeria but soon realizes that a single income won’t suffice. Her breakthrough comes when she stumbles upon a Facebook post offering assistance to drive for Uber and Lyft, presenting an opportunity that seems both lucrative and feasible.

“[17:28] Priscila Barbosa: I know this does sound, as you're saying it, quite risky and deceptive, but listen, I'm from an immigrant and refugee family. This is the kind of thing people do for work.”

She purchases a used car and collaborates with a scamster who provides her with a rideshare account tied to a legitimate U.S. citizen’s identity. This initial setup allows Priscila to drive legally without possessing her own driver's license or Social Security number.

Expansion and Ethical Dilemmas As Priscila gains success, earning substantial income by driving for Uber and Lyft, she begins to leverage her technical skills to create multiple fake accounts. Her operation grows from a single account to managing hundreds, facilitating undocumented immigrants to earn money by exploiting loopholes in the rideshare platforms.

“[31:39] Priscila Barbosa: I feel pride in breaking their stupid systems. These companies are all about money. They don't care for the drivers. We are just numbers for them.”

Despite the financial gains, Priscila grapples with the moral implications of her actions. She justifies her scams as a means to support her community, believing that she is providing opportunities where none exist. However, the risks escalate as she delves deeper, crossing lines that blur the distinction between survival and exploitation.

The Downfall Priscila’s empire faces significant challenges when Uber and Lyft tighten their verification processes. Her accounts begin to be flagged and deactivated, leading to substantial financial losses. Desperate to maintain her operations, she resorts to purchasing real Social Security numbers from the dark web, further entrenching herself in illegal activities.

“[36:34] Sarah Hagie: And Alessandro is not the only driver doing this. A lot of other undocumented workers are also driving under fraudulent accounts and getting a percentage of the referral bonus.”

Her relentless pursuit of income and expansion catches the attention of law enforcement. Investigations reveal the breadth of her fraudulent activities, culminating in her arrest alongside 18 other Brazilian nationals for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Consequences and Reflections Facing legal repercussions, Priscila cooperates with authorities to testify against the sham marriage agency that facilitated her entry into the U.S. She receives a three-year prison sentence but is released after two years for good behavior. Post-release, she is immediately arrested again to testify, leading to her eventual deportation back to Brazil.

“[51:08] Priscila Barbosa: I sense pride in breaking their stupid systems... I just don't know if this harmed Uber's reputation in a big way.”

In the aftermath, Priscila reflects on her actions, expressing shame and acknowledging the harm caused by her schemes. The hosts discuss the complex nature of her motivations, highlighting how systemic challenges and a lack of support for immigrants can drive individuals toward desperate measures.

Host Perspectives and Conclusions Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagie engage in a thoughtful discourse on Priscila's journey, questioning the fine line between survival and criminality. They emphasize the role of systemic barriers in pushing immigrants into illegal activities, while also acknowledging the dangers and ethical breaches inherent in such schemes.

“[56:56] Sarah Hagie: Okay, one last thing before we end today's episode... America. It is America.”

The episode concludes with a contemplation of America's flawed systems that inadvertently encourage such fraudulent behaviors, urging listeners to consider the broader socio-economic factors at play.

Notable Quotes

• “[02:13] Priscila Barbosa: ...the bigger victim is likely the one who's making the call or texting to me...”
• “[29:46] Priscila Barbosa: Yeah. I mean, she is opening the Pandora's box of becoming a scammer...”
• “[54:31] Priscila Barbosa: What is it? It is America.”

Conclusion "Priscila Barbosa: The Rideshare Robinhood" offers a compelling exploration of how desperation and systemic inadequacies can lead to elaborate scams. Through Priscila's story, the episode sheds light on the ethical gray areas faced by immigrants navigating the challenges of survival in a foreign land. It serves as a poignant commentary on the intersection of crime, morality, and socio-economic pressures.

Transcript

[Sachi Cole]

Wondery subscribers can listen to scamfluencers early.

[Sarah Hagie]

And ad free right now. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or Apple Podcasts. Sarah, we all get what feels like a million spam messages each week with offers that always sound too good to be true. And they usually are. Have you ever fallen victim to one of these scams?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

No, I haven't, actually, but a friend of mine was expecting a package and she just happened to get one that was specifically about U.S. customs. And mindlessly, you know, she was, like, walking and, like, put in her credit card information. Instantly, she got a fraud alert for, like, $2,500.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yikes.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

It was crazy how quickly it happened.

[Sarah Hagie]

I fell for one once when I was, like, 22, when they were, like, first starting to happen, and I have never fallen for one since. I'm so afraid of them.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

No, they are really, really scary.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, these scamming operations are growing really fast. They target anyone in any language all around the world. But the truth is, the person on the other side of that message might be trapped inside a giant scam factory where they're forced to scam others against their will.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah, it is awful. Many have been lured into compounds in Southeast Asia by the promise of an amazing job, Only they wind up sitting in front of a computer for 12 to 14 hours a day, forced to scam victim or risk being tortured or even killed.

[Sarah Hagie]

You and I both recently listened to Scam Factory, which tells the story of the people behind these messages. It's an incredible firsthand account of one family's journey into a scam compound and their quest to try and escape.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

The series takes you inside a scam factory and shows the sophisticated recruitment tactics they use. They entice and trap a vulnerable workforce by targeting entire family. Families and Scam Factory follows how one woman's actions to save her family resulted in the harm of a long line of others and their families. It's messy, it's complicated, and I couldn't stop listening.

[Sarah Hagie]

Sarah, what stood out the most for you when you listened to Scam Factory?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I think throughout what stood out for me the most was just how much we don't think twice about who's sending those messages or making those calls, often online, you'll see as a joke, like an exchange with a possible scammer, and you won't think twice about it. But it could be so deeply sinister. I think the whole cycle of harm that goes into the scams and how even if you get scammed, the bigger victim is likely the one who's making the call or texting to me, that was really shocking. I also think it was crazy how the people running the scams were always a few steps ahead, and they are really expert manipulators. I don't know. It's really something out of nightmares. Yeah.

[Sarah Hagie]

I mean, the series really makes you think about what you would do if you were in that situation. Like, would you choose to harm people who you don't even know so that you survive?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I don't know. I feel like it's really hard to know what you would do in that situation because you could get into a lot of trouble for just trying to escape the scam.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah. Okay. Well, we're about to dive into our main story, but a quick plug. Scam Factory is available early and ad free right now on Wondry. Or you can listen everywhere on February 24th. 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.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

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.

[Sarah Hagie]

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.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I mean, that's every girl's dream, to go to your boyfriend's wedding.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, Sarah, this is not a poly keel situation. This Whole wedding is actually a sham. Priscilla and Mario actually just met each other, and if all goes 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?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

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?

[Sarah Hagie]

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 outsmart 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 when you look at powerhouse brands like Aloe and Skims. Crushing it. Sure, great products and killer marketing matter. But here's the real secret. It's the business behind the business that makes everything run smoothly for millions of brands. That's Shopify.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Nobody does selling better than Shopify. It's the number one checkout on the planet. Powered by Shop Pay, the not so secret weapon that boosts conversions up to 50%. That means fewer abandoned carts and more sales.

[Sarah Hagie]

Whether your customers are scrolling social media or strolling past your storefront, Shopify helps you sell everywhere they are. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

So upgrade your business and get the same checkout that companies like ALO use.

[Sarah Hagie]

Sign up for your $1 per month trial [e-mail] Scampod all lowercase go to shopify.com Scampod to upgrade your selling today.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Shopify.com Scampod.

[Narrator]

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[Sarah Hagie]

From Wondery I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagie and this is Scamfluencers.

[Narrator]

Come and give me your attention I won't ever learn my lesson Turn my.

[Sarah Hagie]

Speakers to 11 I feel like a legend. 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 Robin Hood legend. Our story starts around 2013 in Brazil, in a city a couple hours west of Sao Paulo. Priscilla's in her late 20s. She's an ambitious go getter who's always had a knack for tech. In high school, she upgraded her own PC and formed a group of female gamers to compete in tournaments. She used her college degree in IT to get a job digitizing records for the city health department. She's also obsessed with working out and cooking healthy meals. Now she's looking to combine all of her passions into a side hustle, selling ready made meals that are gluten free, lactose free and vegetable oil free. It's a good idea and Priscilla's clients love it. In 2015, she officially names her business FitXpress and within two years it becomes her full time job. FitXpress is so successful that she hires nine employees. Priscilla's young and has money and she uses it to travel the world, going to music festivals and Disney World. She's also spending a lot on Botox and manicures. Oh, and she's really into bitcoin.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

You know, I was really into this story until you said she was really into bitcoin.

[Sarah Hagie]

I know.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I'm excited to see how she turns into a scammer because this seems very legitimate.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, unfortunately, Priscilla's business is hit hard by a recession in Brazil. Many of her customers start cutting out their meal deliveries to save money. Priscilla cashes out her Bitcoin and takes on high interest loans to try to save her business. But her efforts are too little, too late and she's forced to close FitXpress. She's not the only one suffering in the economic downturn. Her parents own a small bakery and are counting on that business for their retirement. But they end up losing the bakery and with it, all their plans for the future. Priscilla's younger sister, who just graduated, is struggling to find a job. So Priscilla, as the oldest daughter, feels responsible for helping her entire family. But she can't find a stable gig in Brazil. She shares her struggles with her friends, including one acquaintance that she has in the States. He lives in Boston, where there's actually a pretty big Brazilian community. And he tells her about his new gig driving for Uber and Lyft. He says he's making $250 a day. Priscilla is impressed. That's about what a lawyer can expect to make in Brazil. According to this guy. All Priscilla needs is a tourist visa to come over and get started. He even offers to let her stay with him while he shows her the ropes.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I mean, so much of this is obviously huge red flags, but the letting her stay with him while she learns the ropes, no, that's a predator.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, it's not great, but this is what a lot of immigrants do. And at this point, Priscilla sees this as her best chance to help her family. And once she sets her mind to something, there's no going back. She sells a family heirloom, her grandfather's ring, and buys a $900 one way ticket to the United States. She's buzzing with excitement. The start of her American dream is just a flight away. But Priscilla has no idea just how much this dream is going to cost her. It's April 2018, and Priscilla is standing outside customs at JFK Airport. She's frantically looking around for the guy who encouraged her to come to the US he was supposed to pick her up in New York and drive her to Boston, but he's nowhere to be found. And now he's not answering any of her texts. She came all the way from Brazil and now he's ghosting her. Priscilla breaks down in tears. All she has is her phone, two suitcases and $117 to her name. And now she has nowhere to go. Priscilla doesn't have enough money for a return flight home and her pride stops her from calling anyone for help. She simply can't stand the idea of anyone telling her I told you so. So Priscilla wipes away her tears, walks outside into the spring air and spends $10 of her precious money on a Lyft to get to the bus terminal. From there, she hops on a bus and heads north to Boston. It's about a four hour ride, which means Priscilla has that long to figure out what she'll do when she gets there. She scrolls through Brazilian community Facebook groups looking for others in the Boston area. She sends out a bunch of DMs and calls people up asking for help, one Brazilian to another. And finally she gets a lead. There's a guy with a pizzeria who's hiring. She can come in for a job interview tomorrow. Another Brazilian man is renting a tiny room in a flop house and he tells Priscilla that she won't have to pay the $400 rent until she gets paid. Relieved, Priscilla takes them both up on their offers.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Wow, talk about being resourceful. I don't know if I would be so clear headed in such a totally scary situation.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, Priscilla is very scrappy, but none of this is very glamorous. She buys a cheap air mattress for the flop house and at night she pretends she doesn't hear the rats scurrying outside of her bedroom door. She does get the pizzeria job, but she has to walk an hour to get there each day because she doesn't have a car. Priscilla may be a stranger in a strange land, but she does have one comfort. On her way to work, she regularly stops at Planet Fitness to lift weights and use the shower. She doesn't have money for her manicures or Botox, but she still wants to find a way to feel like her. And she posts pictures to Instagram that paint a much more glamorous picture of her new life in the States. Can you describe these Instagram posts from around this time?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah. You know, this is kind of the danger of Instagram. It's a very like 2018 using filters.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Taking a photo right on Instagram and posting it.

[Sarah Hagie]

Vibe like no Vibe to the photo?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

No, it's when you could post whatever you wanted.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, we were so free.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

It's photos of her. Like one, she's in Times Square and she's doing heart hands and she looks great. Like you would never know. She's struggling. Another, she's pointing up in front of a Hard Rock Cafe, which is honestly quite charming. And you know, there's another one in front of that hope statue in Times Square. And the caption for the hope one says the translation is grateful for another chance and opportunity that God gave me. I mean, not knowing that obviously there's a scam involved here. Later on, I would just look at this and think she's making the best out of a pretty bad situation. You know, like, it's American dreamlike.

[Sarah Hagie]

It is. It really is. At this point, Priscilla makes about $800 a week at the pizzeria in CA. But she'll need more than that if she wants to get out of debt and move out of the flop house. So she looks for a second part time job. But most gigs require her to have a Social Security number. One restaurant manager sympathizes with her and even gives her a lead to get fake work documents. But Priscilla's too scared to go down that road. She doesn't want to risk being caught and getting deported. And then a few months later, business at the pizzeria slows down and she loses her job. She struggles to find a new one. As an undocumented immigrant, her options are limited. Priscilla starts to realize that bending the rules may be her only option. Shortly after being laid off from the pizzeria, Priscilla is lying in bed scrolling through Facebook and she sees a post that says, do you want to work for Uber or Lyft and be your own boss? Of course, the last time someone suggested this, Priscilla got ghosted. But now she's already in Boston and she's been able to earn enough money to buy a used car. So she decides to call the number from the Facebook post. The guy on the other end gives her his pitch. For 250 bucks a week, he can set her up with a fully functioning Uber account that's hers to use. The account has been created using a real US citizen's identity, which meets the background check requirements, a US driver's license, Social Security number, and one year of driving experience. But it will have Priscilla's picture and be linked to her car and her bank account. And this won't flag anything in the system because it's actually somewhat common for rideshare drivers. To use cars that are registered to someone else.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I know this does sound, as you're saying it, quite risky and deceptive, but listen, I'm from an immigrant and refugee family. This is the kind of thing people do for work. And this is like, one of the more legitimate and easier things. Like, this is considered an actual good opportunity.

[Sarah Hagie]

Right? Well, Priscilla feels fine with this scheme. In her mind, no one is actually getting hurt here. Yes, they're using people's licenses illegally, but it's not like she's stealing identities to open bank accounts. Priscilla is simply driving her customers from point A to point B in a safe and timely manner. Of course, it's not that simple. She is breaking the law. And while Priscilla plans to drive her customers safely, there's no guarantee that everyone using this workaround is doing the same. This hack exposes customers to drivers who don't have a verifiable safety record, who may not have experience driving in the US and who haven't passed a background check. Plus, their real identities aren't linked to their accounts. So if they rob or assault a passenger, it would be hard to track them down.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Cars are dangerous and anything can happen. Like, I would want to know who that person is if I was a passenger. Of course. But also, this breach of trust doesn't seem sinister if you don't have sinister intentions. Right? But, yeah, I mean, this is obviously a problem.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yes, well, Priscilla doesn't seem all too worried about these concerns. She signs up, and in her first week of driving, she makes two grand. Enough money to drive full time and live more comfortably. She convinces herself that if she just keeps her head down and completes the Uber rides, she can't possibly be hurting anyone. But to keep the money rolling in, she'll have to go even further into the scam. And she won't be able to claim innocence for much longer. Six months after Priscilla arrives in Boston, Uber deactivates her account due to suspicious activity. But it's okay. Priscilla's account manager can set her up with a Lyft account instead. However, there's a bigger problem, because Lyft wants Priscilla to confirm her identity by scanning her driver's license, which she can't do because she doesn't have one. She texts the guy who set up the account and asks what to do. He sends back a photo of the ID he used to open the account. Priscilla submits it and holds her breath. She doesn't know what she's going to do if she loses his job. And then Lyft accepts the Photo. She breathes a sigh of relief. But this whole illegal drive share scheme is wearing Priscilla down. Because it isn't just her customers who are potentially at risk. Priscilla herself is in a precarious position. She has to deal with rowdy passengers because as an undocumented immigrant, she can't call the cops, not even after one guy tries to force himself on her. And she's constantly on high alert when she's on the road. One forgotten blinker or burnt out taillight could land her in front of a cop asking for a license that she doesn't have. So every day feels like a game of chance.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Oh my God. There are so many layers to how scary this job must be. Like, yeah, it would be scary to be a woman, a woman of color in Boston driving at night, at night driving a Lyft or an Uber. And yeah, like she doesn't have any protection. So imagine just driving without insurance. I feel like that'd be so scary.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah. Well, of course Priscilla is not telling anyone back in Brazil about how sketchy her job is. Because while this gig may be stressful, it's also lucrative. In just six months, Priscilla's moved out of the flop house and into an apartment. She's sending money home to help her parents pay their bills. She's almost completely out of debt. And most importantly, she's able to treat herself. She finally starts getting her manicures and Botox again. And she keeps posting on Instagram boasting about her accomplishments. Sarah, can you describe this post?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah, you know, it's just like a happy photo of her on an American street. Looks like a big city, could be New York. She has peace signs up and there's a caption, her longest yet, that says leaving Brazil was by far the hardest decision I've made. I still don't know what my future holds, and fear keeps creeping in from time to time. But there are many experiences that make me thank every day for having had such courage and boldness. You know, usually people, when they talk like this online, it's really eye rolly. It feels like really much like a performance or it doesn't come from a real place. But like, unlike a lot of scammers that do post this way, she once did have everything in a very legitimate way. Like she had her own business, she was thriving and she lost everything and her family did too. So I do feel like this comes probably from a real place of her trying to have a positive and inspiring outlook. So it's a good attitude to have agreed.

[Sarah Hagie]

But then one Day one of Priscilla's customers accidentally leaves her wallet in the car. Priscilla contacts the woman and offers to return it. But instead of being grateful, the woman is a pain in the ass. She sends Priscilla to two different locations over the course of two hours and is rude the entire time. Priscilla is so annoyed that she feels compelled to do something she's never done before. She takes a picture of the woman's license. She doesn't plan on actually using it, but it probably makes her feel good to just have a little power. When Priscilla finally meets up with her, the woman doesn't give her a tip or even a thank you. And that's when Priscilla starts to think, yeah, maybe I should use this monster's ID to make a new rideshare account. It's not like the woman's gonna get hurt or find out. And after everything she put Priscilla through, she certainly doesn't deserve her kindness.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Oh my God. This took such a turn in what feels like no time at all. And this is a new fear I have of losing my wallet. Like, you know, you forget that someone could just take a picture of your IDs and use them. If someone returns it, you think they're just going to be nice about it.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, this is why I don't have a driver's license, Sarah, as you know.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

True. And I think that's a really smart thank you.

[Sarah Hagie]

But here's the thing. Priscilla does hesitate. Making her own fake account would be crossing a line that she's avoided so far. So she holds off on doing anything with the photo until Christmas. At this point, she's overstayed her tourist visa. She would need a green card to leave and re enter the US So she doesn't dare fly home to Brazil. She spends her first holiday without her family lying in bed. Feeling a little lonely and a little desperate, Priscilla decides it's time to make a big change. If she wants to get enough financial security to do something about her visa situation, she can't keep paying other people to provide her with rideshare accounts. If she can make her own, she'll save $250 a week. So she opens the Uber app, clicks on the link to create a new account, and uploads the rude woman's id. Priscilla uses the woman's name, but adds her own car insurance, registration, email and phone number. She even puts her own picture, which looks nothing like the license photo, onto the driver profile. And then she takes a gamble and just makes up a Social Security number. She submits the application and hopes for the best. The next day, Uber approves her account. Priscilla can't believe it was that easy. She can just create fake accounts herself. She doesn't have to pay a middleman anymore. Priscilla's back to being her own boss and she's going to put her entrepreneurial spirit to work. Who doesn't love the good things in life? Even though we all enjoy a little luxury, it doesn't mean it's always the most affordable.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

That is until we discovered quince. Quince is the go to luxury essentials at affordable prices. They offer a range of high quality items at prices within reach, like 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50, washable silk tops and dresses, organic cotton sweaters and 14 karat gold jewelry.

[Sarah Hagie]

Sarah as you know, I am in Calgary, Alberta right now. It is minus 25 Celsius and I will say that I at least remembered to pack a bunch of my quince clothes when I came here. So now I have all these sweaters that are so warm. I actually look extremely cute in all of my zoom calls. And my mom is living in all of the like Jersey sweatsuits that I've gotten her. She loves them.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

That sounds so cozy and I feel like perfect for such a depressing winter. And all Quint Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands.

[Sarah Hagie]

Give yourself the luxury you deserve with quint. Go to quint.comscampod for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.comscampod to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comscampod hey everyone.

[Sarah Hagie]

Sachi here.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

And Sarah, you know those sketchy messages we all get? The job offers that seem too good to be true?

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, we thought we'd seen every type of scam out there, but this story completely blew our minds.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Those messages, they're actually coming from people trapped inside heavily guarded compounds forced to scam others at gunpoint.

[Sarah Hagie]

Scam Factory Wondry's riveting new series exposes a multi billion dollar criminal empire operating in plain sight.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

And this isn't your typical social media scam. Inside these compounds, armed guards ensure the only way out is to scam your way out.

[Sarah Hagie]

And trust us. After covering countless scams, this story left even us shocked.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[Narrator]

I feel like.

[Sarah Hagie]

After the Christmas Holidays, Priscilla starts driving under the rude woman's identity. And then, in early 2019, she gets another business opportunity. A friend is looking for someone to use his dormant rideshare accounts. He even offers a finder's fee of $50 a week. Priscilla's pretty tapped into the Brazilian population in Boston, so she agrees to scout a new driver for him. She knows a few other people who have accounts to spare, so she connects them with willing drivers as well. Before long, she's bringing in $300 a week in finder's fees. To be clear, Priscilla has still only made one fake account. But that all changes when she throws a house party. As she and her friends eat barbecue and drink Mike's hard lemonades, someone shares a big discovery. Priscilla learns that the government updated the way to sign Social Security numbers after June 2011. As a result, if you create an account with Uber or Lyft and plug in a number created post2011, their systems automatically verify it. Basically, the new Social Security numbers are completely randomized rather than being tied to a geographic location, which makes it harder for background check software to verify it. It's a loophole just waiting to be exploited. Priscilla can't believe it's that simple. So later that night, she pulls up a website that tells you when a Social Security number was issued, and she starts trying random numbers until she hits on one that was assigned after 2011. She uses it to make a new Uber driver account. And then she waits. Lo and behold, within 48 hours, Uber approves the account.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Okay, you know in horror movies when someone is, like, being haunted or, like, a demon possesses them and you can pinpoint what they did wrong for that to happen to them. Yeah, this is one of those horror movies where it's like, anyone can be a victim. Like, she's just putting in random numbers, like, there's no rhyme or reason here.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, it's literally random. And Priscilla is stunned. She realizes that this opens a ton of opportunities. But if she's going to do this, then she is going to need driver's licenses, and she'll have to buy them off the black market. There's no getting around that. But Priscilla tells herself the same thing she did when she started driving. No one's getting hurt. In fact, she'd be helping other undocumented immigrants. If there were other options for them to legally work in the US they would do that instead. But there aren't. She'd be doing something good for people who deserve better. And of course, it would pad her own wallet.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah. I mean, she is opening the Pandora's box of becoming a scammer, which is, oh, if I do this one thing, that's the last bad thing I'll do and no one will get hurt until, you know, you can justify anything after that point.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yep. And at this point, Priscilla is all about Coulda and not about Shuda. That summer, she creates eight new accounts, she's back to running her own company, and she earns a reputation around Boston as a trustworthy businesswoman. Soon she's the go to person for the Brazilian community. She's organized. And unlike other brokers, she doesn't scam undocumented immigrants or force them to pay exorbitant fees. So more and more people start hitting her up on WhatsApp, wanting their own profiles.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

So she's kind of become the person who brought her to America in that way.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yes. But, you know, without the ghosting.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah.

[Sarah Hagie]

By late summer, Priscilla is making around $10,000 a month. Soon she realizes that it would be more lucrative for her to stop driving and focus solely on account creation and management. So that's exactly what she does. Priscilla takes this new full time job seriously. For each new client, she registers a burner phone number and an encrypted email. She also does her best to match clients with licenses that look like them. And if that doesn't work, she photoshops her clients faces right onto the IDs.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

This is where her kind of tech background comes into play. Like, this is pretty sophisticated.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, it is. And Priscilla's likely doing all of this with one goal in mind. To make enough money to legally settle in the US she's not interested in the criminal life life long term. And she's determined to go legit someday. But she's got limited options at the moment, so she's doing what she has to do to survive. But there's also a part of Priscilla that feels proud of herself for outsmarting major US Corporations. Can you read what she later told Wired magazine?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah. She said, I feel pride in breaking their stupid systems. These companies are all about money. They don't care for the drivers. We are just numbers for them. You know, hard point to argue.

[Sarah Hagie]

She's not wrong.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

These companies exploit people legally. You can't really argue the logic.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, Priscilla still has a few rules that she won't break. For example, she knows a guy who collects driver's licenses by purposely getting into fender benders. And then he takes pictures of their IDs when they exchange information. Priscilla refuses to buy his licenses. She doesn't want to be involved with anything that hurts real people. To Priscilla, her scheme feels different, like a victimless crime. But she's not going to be able to stand on holier than thou ground for much longer, because when push comes to shove, she'll have to choose between money and morals. When Priscilla's not working, she's living it up and documenting it all on Instagram. Around the time she starts making good money, she takes a cross country trip in her used black Mustang, stopping at the Grand Canyon, then partying it up in Vegas. In Los Angeles, she stops by the famous Rodeo Drive. Sarah, can you describe this post?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yes. She's in front of a Louis Vuitton store on a post that shows Rodeo Drive, and she's kind of holding onto it, like arching her back that very pre 2020profile. And again, she's living it up. And she looks quite happy to be in la.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, she looks good. And when she calls home, her mom asks what exactly Priscilla is doing for work that allows her to afford such a lifestyle. Priscilla gives a vague answer about making accounts. And then it all comes screeching to a halt. In the fall of 2019, Uber contacts about 35 of Priscilla's clients and demands that they present their documents in person. It seems they've detected a separate ring of people bypassing the company's background checks, and some of Priscilla's accounts were flagged in the process. Unfortunately for Priscilla, since the Social Security numbers they've been using aren't real, she and her drivers have to abandon the flagged accounts. Priscilla loses about $30,000 in monthly income in a matter of days. But Priscilla's gotten a taste of the good life, and she's not willing to give it up that easily. Uber doesn't scare her. She wants to make more accounts, but she knows now that her random fake Social Security numbers won't do the trick. She's going to need real ones. The idea makes her uncomfortable. Driver's licenses are one thing, but Social Security numbers, which can be used to open bank accounts and new lines of credit, are more valuable and riskier to steal. They also have bigger consequences for her if she gets caught. But Priscilla's already lost one business she loved. She doesn't want to lose this venture too, so she takes the leap. Priscilla buys a few stolen numbers from a contact for $100 each. She creates a few new accounts with the new numbers, and they all get approved. But it feels wrong. These are real people's identities, and she's crossing a line that she Told herself she wouldn't. She stops after the first few and starts to worry that she'll have to walk away from her Uber business altogether to find something new. But then one of her customers gives her an idea that might just save her entire illicit business without compromising her morals. Alessandro da Fonseca is at Chipotle waiting to pick up a doordash order and chatting up the other drivers. Alessandro has been driving for DoorDash using one of Priscilla's fake accounts for a few months now, ever since he immigrated from Brazil. Like Priscilla, Alessandro comes from a lower class neighborhood. As a kid, he dreamed of joining the Brazilian Navy, but he failed the entrance examination. Since he didn't have a lot of other options, he came to the US in 2019 to try to make a better life. He's hard working and responsible, sending extra money back home to his family in Brazil. Unlike Uber, DoorDash doesn't seem to have caught onto the fake accounts. So Priscilla's able to reuse the driver's licenses she used for Uber to create new accounts for people like Alessandro. Things get even better in 2019 when Priscilla and Alessandro learn about a DoorDash referral program. If someone refers new drivers to the app and the driver makes a certain number of deliveries, the person who referred them gets a payout. Alessandro and Priscilla see the potential to exploit this program to the max. Priscilla uses one of her many fake accounts to refer a new also fake account. Then Alessandro does the driving and completes the orders. And once they get the referral bonus, they split it 50 50. Typically, Alessandro works under two referred accounts at once and clears enough deliveries to earn the bonus every two weeks. Rinse and repeat.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Oh my God. This is getting increasingly sophisticated and complicated and risky.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah. And Alessandro is not the only driver doing this. A lot of other undocumented workers are also driving under fraudulent accounts and getting a percentage of the referral bonus. But some of them are only getting about 20%. So Alessandro introduces them to Priscilla. She's much more generous with her split. According to his later sentencing memo, Alessandro claims that his recruits were only his immediate circle of friends and their friends. He admits to making the introductions, but after that, all he did was encourage them to hit their target, so they got the referral bonus. Sometimes Priscilla texted him to make sure his recruits were keeping up. And if they weren't, Alessandro offered to take over their accounts and drive until they hit the bonus threshold. Alessandro claims he has no idea how Priscilla was actually running the back end of her business. He's just trying to make his money and get by, so he's not asking any questions that might threaten the status quo. Plus, he trusts Priscilla. But when the pandemic hits just a few months later, the food delivery business is poised to take off in a way that no one anticipated. And everyone stands to make a hell of a lot of money when the pandemic hits in 2020. The demand for food delivery is insane. DoorDash and Instacart are struggling to recruit enough drivers to meet demand, so they increase their referral bonuses to two grand or more. They'll take any drivers they can get as much as the delivery apps need. Drivers. Undocumented drivers are even more desperate for work. They're not eligible for unemployment or Covid relief. So Priscilla's getting texts nonstop from people begging her to help them. She starts making accounts as fast as she possibly can. Around this time, she pushes the ethical line even further. She buys a bot that messes with delivery app systems and allows her drivers to cut the line in the queue for orders. DoorDash works on a first come, first serve basis with its drivers. So if her drivers are always at the front of the line, they're practically guaranteed to make more money. It also means they're taking potential earnings away from other drivers who aren't gaming the system.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah, I mean, it's clear that she's now kind of seeing this as more of an empire than, like, a way to help other people like her make some money while they find ways to stay in the United States.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, she's, you know, a capitalist. And with the help of the bots, some of Priscilla's clients are able to complete enough deliveries to hit the referral bonus within a single day. And they come right back the next day asking for a new account so they can get another new driver bonus. It seems like a win win situation at one point, Priscilla brings in about $15,000 in one week. Despite the state of the world, Priscilla's feeling pretty good. She's got a solid business, and since she's not doing any of the driving herself, she's probably less worried about getting Covid or getting deported. But there's one thing that would make it all even better. Getting a green card so she can visit her family. And thanks to her massive influx of COVID era earnings, she has the money and the connections to get one illegally. In May 2020, Priscilla flies to LA to visit an agency that puts together sham marriages. She pays $28,000 to the agency to arrange her marriage to a US citizen with 10 grand of that money going to her new fake husband. That would be Mario from the start of our story. And remember his four real girlfriend, who was at a ceremony? Well, she was in a sham marriage, too, also for money.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Okay, so it's just kind of a whole other ring of shams. But this one is with marriage.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, this is a family business here. Okay, well, after it's all official, Mario and his girlfriend head home, and Priscilla flies back to Boston and carries on with her life. She takes a few extra steps to make the marriage seem legit, like buying a car in her and Mario's names and applying for life insurance together. Now she just has to wait for her green card to get processed and approved, which could take years. At that point, she still won't be a US Citizen, but she'll be set up to apply for citizenship down the road. For the first time, Priscilla feels comfortable setting down roots in her new country. She adopts a Yorkie and names him Bailey. She rents a three story townhouse, which she decorates with a karaoke machine, a keg tap, a hot tub, and a fire pit in the backyard. And of course, all of this makes for fantastic Instagram content. She also buys a plot of land in Florida where she hopes to someday build a house and move in with her real partner, a Brazilian house painter who lives with her in Boston. And she hopes to actually be able to marry him one day once she gets her green card. At this point, that perfect future seems within reach. So in the fall of 2020, when tons of people start asking Priscilla to set them up with Uber Eats accounts, she pauses to consider it. Dealing with Uber would mean crossing the boundary of buying real Social Security numbers. But she's so close to having everything she's dream dreamed of. And she's helping her clients make ends meet, too. So Priscilla bites the bullet and buys real Social Security numbers herself. Off the dark web, she tries to justify to herself as continuing to help her community. She even gives out a few accounts for free for immigrants in particularly desperate situations. The whole time, Priscilla is managing to stay one step ahead of the app's verification systems. Even when Instacart deactivates about 85% of her accounts, presumably for suspicious activity, she doubles down. She spends days making new accounts for all of her clients, assuming that she'll outsmart the app. She thinks she's invincible. But that attitude is about to land her in a world of trouble.

[Sachi Cole]

At 24, I lost my narrative. Or rather, it was stolen from me and the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by father, false narratives, callous jokes, and politics. I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. So I think listeners can expect me to be chatting with folks both recognizable and unrecognizable names about the way that people have navigated roads to triumph. My hope is that people will finish an episode of Reclaiming and feel like they filled their tank up, they connected with the people that I'm talking to and leave with maybe some nuggets that help them feel a little more hopeful. Follow Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Reclaiming early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[Narrator]

Hey true crime fans. Ever dreamt of solving cases and pouring over evidence with top podcasters, criminal experts and your fellow true crime enthusiasts? Join us for Wondry's Exhibit C Inaugural True Crime Cruise aboard the luxurious cruise ship the Norwegian Joy for an unforgettable voyage from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas. Take to the high seas for this enthralling, around the clock true crime experience. Immerse yourself with some of the best minds in criminal psychology and your favorite true crime podcast hosts and experts, all while enjoying top tier amenities and breathtaking ocean views. The Exhibit C cruise is the ultimate true crime experience where you and fellow enthusiasts can share theories and participate in activities like an immersive murder mystery, a Beat the Polygraph challenge, or self defense classes that would deter any would be criminal. Come for the intrigue, stay for the sunshine. Go to exhibit ccruise.com to learn more and sign up for the pre sale. I feel like a legend.

[Sarah Hagie]

It's late 2020 and Priscilla is battling with the Uber app. It seems like the rideshare giant is finally catching onto her scheme. Her accounts just keep getting deactivated. Normally Priscilla's pretty good at finding a workaround so she can remake the accounts, but now she's hitting a wall and if she can't figure this out, she's screwed. Not only will she lose her entire income, but she'll let down all her clients and friends in Boston and she'll have to admit to failure to everyone back home in Brazil. Priscilla is not going to let that happen. She knows she's not the only one dealing with this issue. So she opens WhatsApp and clicks on the group at the top of her a chat nicknamed Mafia. It's full of Other immigrants who are running similar schemes so they can help each other troubleshoot problems as they come up.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I just wouldn't name it that. I wouldn't name it Mafia. Don't. Don't invoke criminal activity in your criminal activity WhatsApp group.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, it's a little obvious. Well, Priscilla asks if anyone else is having similar issues. Another member of the group mentions that Uber keeps metadata of its accounts. And Priscilla's tech savvy kicks in. She realizes that Uber's tracking all the accounts she makes back to one source. Her iPhone. If she masks her location using a vpn, it could fix everything. In case you are not a hacker nerd, VPN stands for virtual Private network, which essentially encrypts your personal data and masks your IP address. VPNs are helpful for getting around firewalls on the Internet, like if you're trying to watch a TV show that's only available in Canada. They're also helpful if you're a scammer trying to cover your tracks.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Hey, I mean, most people should be using a vpn. They're stealing our data out here, so.

[Sarah Hagie]

That's true.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah.

[Sarah Hagie]

So Priscilla gets to work. She sets up a VPN on her computer, and then she changes her computer's location and installs another VPN on top of that. Finally, she opens a web browser and tries to create an Uber account with one of her stolen Social Security numbers. And it works. The account is approved. Priscilla makes a few Uber eats delivery, orders herself through the test account just to make sure. But yeah, the account is still working. She texts the Mafia the good news. They're all happy and relieved that their de facto leader found a solution. Can you read what one member messaged to the chat?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah, they said if Priscilla can't figure it out, no one can. You know, I believe that she sounds like she's so resourceful, so smart. It's kind of crazy that she's low key. Beloved by all.

[Sarah Hagie]

Well, just when Priscilla thinks her problems are solved, a bigger one pops up. Around the end of the year, there are rumblings that police might be investigating the whole fake rideshare and delivery app accounts industry. And if they do that, it's only a matter of time before they end up on Priscilla's doorstep. Naturally, she freaks out. And her first thought is that she's got to destroy the evidence. She grabs everything in her apartment related to her business and throws it all into trash bags. She also snatches up her burner phones and drives over them with her clothes. She then disposes of everything in dumpsters all over the city. And then, just to make sure she's extra safe, she forces herself to stop making accounts for a couple weeks. Priscilla distracts herself by going to Miami beach for New Year's Eve, where she posts a photo of herself smiling at the camera. Sarah, please read the caption for us.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Okay, so it's a photo of her with a huge margarita. It's like the size of her head. And you know what? Looking at this, you'd never think there was a pandemic and that most people were stuck in their homes or suffering. And I feel like her caption is just, like, not really reading the room. In many ways, she goes, 2020. Ah, what a year. It has been a difficult year for many, but I am just thankful for my achievements, for my evolution as a person and spiritual, for the lessons, for the struggles, and most importantly, for the health of all the people I love. Nothing but gratitude. 2020. Oh, that is rough. Knowing what is likely going to come for her. But also, you know, this is kind of when she starts veering into delusional territory because, like, she struggled. We get it. Like, a lot of the other ones made sense, but I feel like if you're doing something illegal with money, you shouldn't show people that you're spending it.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah. She is starting to lose the plot. She actually shares the picture with the mafia WhatsApp group, and someone jokingly writes back, quote, Find me FBI. It seems like tempting fate, but Priscilla waits a few weeks, and there's no sign that Uber or law enforcement has caught onto her. So she starts making accounts again. Winter passes without much fuss, and in the spring, Priscilla gets the news. She's been waiting. Her green card's been approved. Everything is back on track. She even starts to think about starting a new legit business. After all, the rideshare scheme was only supposed to be a temporary stopgap. Now, with a green card, she could do anything. Maybe she'll reboot Fit Express or something new, like a Brazilian barbecue restaurant. We'll never know how Priscilla would have handled going legit, because just a few weeks later, Priscilla wakes up to banging on her door and her Yorkie barking wildly. It's the FBI. They're charging her, along with 18 other Brazilian nationals, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. And out of the whole group, Priscilla made the most money, which makes her the biggest fish for the feds. Priscilla's shocked. And it wasn't even her activity that tipped off the feds. As it turns out, Another Brazilian man was arrested a few months earlier for working under a stolen identity on Instacart, and Priscilla had sent him a template for a fake Connecticut driver's license after another Mafia member had asked her to help him out. The digital connection was enough for the FBI to get a warrant for Priscilla's iCloud account back in February without her knowledge. By April, they'd started staking out her apartment and watching her movements. By the time the authorities barge through her door a few weeks later, they've got all the evidence they need. All that's left to find out is whether Priscilla's gonna cooperate or. Or put up a fight. While Priscilla awaits her hearing in jail, her sister flies to Boston and packs four suitcases full of her designer clothes to bring back to Brazil for safekeeping. Priscilla also had a friend transfer $30,000 back to her family before it can be seized from her accounts. The legal process drags on for the rest of the year, and in February 2022, Priscilla agrees to plead guilty and cooperate with the US government. As a part of this cooperation, she also has to agree to testify against the agency that arranged her Sham marriage. And two months later, 11 people involved with that scam are also charged. Prior to Priscilla's sentencing hearing, Uber submits a victim statement. Sarah, will you please read part of it?

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah. It says the crimes committed by the defendants presented a potential safety hazard for riders on Uber's platform, caused Uber to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in investigative costs and expose Uber to reputational harm and further victimize the identity theft victims whose identities defendants wrongfully used on Uber's platform to steal money. I mean, yes, technically all true, but I just don't know if this harmed Uber's reputation in a big way. It was kind of their fault. Like someone exploited a flaw in their own system. And so, yeah, she did something wrong, technically, but I just don't feel Uber's pain here.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, well, the government estimates that Priscilla used more than 2,000 stolen identities as part of her scheme. And interestingly enough, none of the owners of these identities submit victim statements. They probably weren't thrilled to hear that their identities had been used, but ultimately, they weren't affected at all. Besides receiving some confusing 1099 forms from Uber for work that they just didn't do. At her sentencing hearing, Priscilla cries and says she's ashamed of what she did, and she apologizes from the bottom of her heart to the people whose identities she used. Ultimately, the judge sentences Priscilla to three years in prison. She's already spent two years in jail awaiting trial at this point. So she figures with good behavior, she'll only spend a few more months behind bars before her time is served. Sure enough, Priscilla's sentence ends five months later, but her release is bittersweet. She's immediately arrested again as a material witness in the sham marriage agency case, and she's due to be deported once she gives her testimony. In the meantime, she's given an ankle bracelet while she awaits trial. After the sham marriage case wraps up in November 2023, Priscilla applies for asylum, claiming she fears retribution from associates in both the marriage agency and Uber cases. She feels she's safer in the US and as of this taping, she's still here awaiting this decision. Priscilla came to the US For a better life, but she got swept up in becoming Robin Hood without considering that the sheriff might catch her. And now, no matter how many immigrants she may have helped over the years, it's likely that Priscilla will soon be on her way back to Brazil. Maybe she'll find a way to take from the rich and give to the poor there. Or maybe she'll find a way to make a broken system work for her. One last time, Sarah. This is obviously a scam artist that we want to root for. Yes, we want to be on her side. We're kind of on her side, generally in spirit, but unfortunately, in practice, we cannot be.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yeah, this episode was one of those where there is a scam. It does involve a lot of people. It's definitely illegal, but there's an element of it where you're kind of like, I mean, is she that bad of a person? Like, did she do something unforgivable or that, like, she'll be a danger to people in the future? I do not think so.

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah. I mean, the tough part about Priscilla's story is that she is, like, trying to enter the US by being a shrewd capitalist. She is kind of learning, like, the lesson of, like, how to be an American, which is, like, find the loophole, exploit the loophole. Most of American commerce really encourage you, in fact, to find the loophole and to work around it. And she kind of did it. Unfortunately, she did it too hard and too well. And then she did fraud. Yeah.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

When she first got to America and got ghosted by someone offering her work for whatever reason, like, that was potentially a very exploitative situation. And as bad as it is to steal people's identity, she wasn't exploiting the people that worked for her. Like, in fact, it maybe was, like, too good of an offer that she became very popular and very well known. Like, she got caught not because she wasn't good at covering her tracks. Like, she got caught through someone else because she was so well known, which is kind of incredible, I guess I.

[Sarah Hagie]

Would say, like, most of her scam was, like, pretty defensible until she started to rip people's real identities off. But that said, actually, I don't know that that's true. Cause the reality is that she was putting people on the road who didn't have valid driver's licenses. And that is incredibly dangerous. Like, it's a dangerous thing to do to the rest of us who are walking around and to some person who gets in a car. I mean, I take Uber several times a week. I would hope, at minimum, the person driving has a license. Right. This also feels like a story about how there are no services for immigrants or for new Americans or for people who come to a country and maybe need help getting set up. Like, there was nothing. There isn't any sort of infrastructure so that they can get a driver's license that's valid and then they can work these jobs. Like, it is so hard to make a life if you come to the States from a developing country and if you don't have established wealth. Like, these are crimes that are born out of necessity.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Totally. And you've talked about this, even just how you got to America and the visa process and the green card process. Like, that takes a lot out of someone who has resources and will basically 100% likely get approved. So I think it's very easy for someone who doesn't know anyone of this experience to be like, there's always a way to do things right, but sometimes there isn't. And you kind of have to survive and not end up homeless. So what else are you going to do?

[Sarah Hagie]

Yeah, I came to the States on a work visa with money from Canada, and I speak English, and I had a Canadian passport, and I had lots of support, and it was still so hard.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I think the real scam here is Saatchi. What is it?

[Sarah Hagie]

America.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

There we go. It is. It is America.

[Sarah Hagie]

Okay, one last thing before we end today's episode, we wanted to share something exciting that we're working on for 2026.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

Yes. And I cannot wait. Next January, Sachi and I will be joining Wondery's exhibit C, a true crime cruise. Yes. Cruise. Which will be sailing to Nassau, Bahamas, between January 26th and 30th of 2026.

[Sarah Hagie]

This exclusive voyage offers fans unprecedented access to their favorite podcasts, true crime experts, interactive workshops and an opportunity for you to connect with other true crime fans.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

I am so excited to meet all of you on board and pro Tip. Sign up for the presale before March 3rd to your preferred cabin. Also, if you are an annual Wondery subscriber and you're listening to us on Wondery right now, you can get special onboard perks.

[Sarah Hagie]

You can learn a ton more about perks, payment plans, onboard activities and the other podcasters in the [e-mail] or we have a link in the Episode notes. We'll see you in the Bahamas. If you like scamplancers, you can listen to every episode early and ad free right now by joining Wondery and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey this is Priscilla Barbosa, the Rideshare Robin Hood. I'm Sachi Kol.

[Priscilla Barbosa]

And I'm Sarah Hagie. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email [e-mail] we use many sources in our research, including court documents and news releases from the FBI and Uber, along with Wired's Priscilla Queen of the Rideshare Mafia by Lawrence Smiley and articles from the New York Times and NBC 10.

[Sarah Hagie]

Alex Burns wrote this episode. Additional writing by US Sachi Cole and Sarah Hacke. Olivia Briley and Eric Thurm are our story editors. Fact checking by Lexi Perry. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance Provided by Augustine Ltd. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze on Sync. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Our senior managing producer is Callum Plews, Janine Cornello and Stephanie Jens, our development producers. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our producer is Julie McGruder. Our senior producers are Sarah Enny and Ginny Blum. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer, Beckman, Marcia Louie and Erin O'Flaherty. For Wondery.

[Sachi Cole]

In the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in tragedy. But the official narrative doesn't add up. I'm Matthew Scher, and on my new podcast We Came to the Forest, we peel back the layers of secrecy surrounding a deadly confrontation that shook a community to its core. Through exclusive recordings and never before released eyewitness accounts, we expose the hidden truths behind a shootout that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. As we dig deeper, we uncover a web of conflicting testimonies and missing evidence. From the idealistic dreams of young environmentalists to the complex motivations of local officials, this story challenges our understanding of justice, activism, and the lengths people will go to protect what they believe in. Follow We Came to the Forest on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts, you can binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest early and ad free right now by joining Wondery.