American beauty queen Briana Siaca sounds alarm after falling victim to very common Zelle scam
- The former Miss New York was scammed out of thousands in a New York park
- She’s now going viral, warning other New Yorkers about the thieves who got her
A former beauty queen has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on a video she shared describing a Zelle scam she fell victim to in the middle of New York City.
Briana Siaca, formerly Miss New York USA and currently a real estate agent with the Corcoran Group, posted a video on TikTok describing a recent encounter she had with two young scammers.
In her PSA warning to sensitive New Yorkers, she said she had been listening to a podcast in Madison Square Park when two teenage boys approached her and said they were “raising money for their basketball team.”
“They reportedly play in the South Bronx and can’t afford their uniforms, and they told me the whole story,” the Long Island native said.
“I agreed to give them some money, but I didn’t have any cash on me, so they accepted Venmo and Zelle,” she continued, adding that the teens told her they chose Zelle over Venmo.
Briana Siaca, formerly Miss New York USA, was scammed out of $2,000 by two teenagers in the middle of Madison Square Park
She said she then picked up her phone and asked where she could send the money.
One of the boys told her he would like to plug the information into her device for her, to which she agreed and handed him her phone while she had a conversation with the other teen.
At one point, Siaca realized that the teen with her phone was taking an unusually long time to enter his account information and took her phone back from him.
The teens then thanked her and hurried away before she had a chance to look at what they had done.
“I looked at my Zelle account and they sent themselves $2,000,” she told her followers.
‘I am shocked. “It feels a bit like a scary dream because these boys were so seemingly sweet and innocent and charming and I thought it was really brave that they were going around raising money for their team,” she said.
Siaca said she was approached by two teenage boys in the middle of the park while she was listening to a podcast alone
Siaca said she has contacted her bank, but there doesn’t seem to be much they can do. Once Zelle transactions are sent, it is very difficult to retrieve the digital money without the recipient sending it back directly.
She said she reported the theft to the local NYPD police station and that the officers there were “extremely helpful.”
They told her that “kids have been scamming people all over the city, in the New York City parks, Barclays Center and all that, they’re out to scam people and send Venmo and Zelles to themselves,” she said.
Law enforcement officials in New York have warned New Yorkers and tourists to be extremely vigilant about these scams, which often involve relatively modest-looking teenagers who use popular cash apps to solicit donations for youth sports leagues or other extracurricular activities.
The now Corcoran Group member said she handed one of the guys her phone so he could plug his data into Zelle, but eventually realized it was taking a suspiciously long time.
By the time she got her phone back and the boys had run away, they had sent themselves $2,000 from her bank account, which she may or may not get back.
While some on social media mocked Siaca’s naivety, her father defended her to the New York Postin which she said she was recovering from a recent wisdom teeth extraction when she was successfully targeted in the scam.
“They were on some pretty strong medication and she was sitting there really dizzy trying to take some time after the surgery and they were keeping an eye on her,” David Siaca, 70, said.
“They told her a story, they said, ‘We need help,’ some charity work, and she was all giddy and just handed over her phone.
“These people, I mean, they’re like predators,” he added.