The ex New York magnificence queen who misplaced $2,000 to a pair of con-kids working a Zelle rip-off has helped cops establish the suspects — and disregarded the ridicule she’s confronted since sharing the story.
Briana Siaca, 30, stopped by the NYPD’s thirteenth Precinct on Monday — trying Miss-New-York-sharp in blue denims with a white sweater and black blazer — to substantiate the identification of two teenagers caught on subway footage — who turned out to have already got two open warrants out for his or her arrest.
“There’s apparently there’s a bunch of younger youngsters from New Jersey that take the PATH or the buses from New Jersey and hang around at these parks and goal individuals,” Siaca advised The Put up, explaining the cops who first responded after she was scammed knew right-off concerning the scheme.
“They had been like, ‘We’ve been in search of these children, we’re gonna discover these f**kers.’”
Sciaca, who was topped Miss New York in 2021 and has since develop into a high-end actual property agent for Corcoran, took to social media over the weekend to share how two children approached her in Madison Sq. Park on Friday claiming to be gamers on a Bronx youth basketball group making an attempt to boost cash for uniforms.
Not having any money on her, the boys supplied to assist her pay digitally by inputting their group’s data into her Zelle account themselves — however whereas that they had her cellphone of their arms they as a substitute despatched themselves $2,000 and took off.
“I went fully numb. I used to be simply shocked. I used to be completely fooled. I didn’t even know what to do,” Siaca recounted to The Put up, describing how disarming and real they appeared whereas they talked to her.
“They had been so candy. They had been so harmless and so sort,” she mentioned
“I’ve such a tender spot for teenagers in low earnings communities and it actually breaks my coronary heart particularly if younger gifted individuals can’t afford to pursue an exercise or sport as a result of they don’t have the funds for.”
Whereas one boy set to work fleecing her, Siaca mentioned the opposite targeted on “pulling my heartstrings” with tales of how nicely their basketball group was doing — and fully distracting her from the theft taking place inches away.
“There have been clearly professionals at this,” she mentioned, including that some nerve harm medicine she was on on the time had left her out of types.
“They’re doing this on a regular basis,” she mentioned.
Siaca’s financial institution advised her it’s unclear in the event that they’ll have the ability to get her a refund, so she determined to make use of her platform to attempt to forestall different individuals from being taken by the identical rip-off — even when it meant opening herself as much as public ridicule.
“I knew that posting this video I might be susceptible to judgment and simply getting known as me names, however I’m not new to that. I’m from pageants. I’ve heard all of it,” she mentioned, calling the ribbing she’s gotten from individuals asking if Friday was her first day within the Huge Apple “hilarious.”
“No, I’m not new right here. I used to be Miss New York, I’ve been within the metropolis for over 10 years. I come from not the very best neighborhood. I’ve road smarts. I’m tremendous e-book good,” mentioned Sciana, a Brentwood Lengthy Island native.
“If placing out that video implies that I may assist different individuals, it’s all value it to me,” she mentioned noting that she’s acquired “a whole bunch” of responses from individuals saying they’ve additionally fallen sufferer to scams they thought they had been too intelligent for.
“Realizing that I had the potential to assist different individuals, I used to be prepared to threat embarrassment for that,” the wonder queen mentioned.
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