Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Don't Date Him - The Daylon Pierce Story

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Daylon Pierce became known for running a widespread online dating scam in which he used social media and dating apps to target women, often presenting himself as charming, emotionally invested, and sometimes falsely claiming stable careers or military ties to build trust quickly. After forming intense romantic relationships, Pierce would manufacture financial emergencies and persuade victims to send him money, gifts, or access to funds, only to disappear or cycle them into ongoing manipulation. The scheme unraveled as multiple victims compared stories and reported similar patterns of deception, leading to a criminal investigation that revealed a consistent playbook of emotional exploitation and fraud.

So this dude will go on dates with women and then scam them out of money, and he scammed like a million dollars from these women on these dates. So the guy's name is Dalen, and Dalyan is about 32 when this all starts, and he's living in Arizona. And bro, he's kind of a turd. Like, he's been in prison for a long time for past theft and gang activity. But one day in 2013, Dailen finally gets out. He's a free man.

However, now he has a problem. He's broke. He needs money. And he's not about to get a job. Ain't nobody got time for that. Instead, he decides to become a con man and scam a bunch of lonely women out of their money. So Dalyan gets to work and he goes online and he starts making dating profiles. He's on match.

He's on BB people meet. He's on plenty of fish. He's on Tinder. And he sets up several different profile pages across all these sites. and he'll use a fake last name so that no one can trace him back to his criminal past. And on his profile, he presents himself as a rich guy, a wealthy stockbroker. But he also makes sure to really stress that he isn't just looking for a one-night smash, that he's really out here trying to find real love.

And so pretty quickly, Dalyan starts getting a lot of matches and connecting with a bunch of these lonely women. Then he starts investigating them, like checking them out. out to see if they could have money or good credit and if they seem gullible, like an easy target. Once he feels like he's found the right victim, he sets up a date with them. And so Dalen, he'll go out on these dates and almost immediately he'll start talking himself up, about how he's the successful stockbroker, about how he owns his own investment company and everything. He'll act like he's always on the phone pretending to talk with investors or clients like when his dates are around. He'll even send them photos of himself on a plane supposedly headed to visit clients or out

at dinner with clients. And these poor women, they're impressed and they believe him. And then he'll start asking them about their credit scores and if they can buy a house or a car or if they've got student loans they want to pay off. And I guess bro is just a smooth talker. Because for whatever reason none of this sets off alarm bells for these women and that is when he hits them with the big sell he tells them that if they just give him a bit of their money he can then invest it and turn it into a whole lot of money for them and then they can use it to pay off all their debts and buy whatever they want and these women are like sounds legit and they start handing over money like thousands of dollars at a time one woman she

liquidates her entire 401k, and she invests $92,000 with him, believing that she'll soon start making an income of $15,000 a month, because that's what Dalyan promised her. But about two months after she gives him her money, he just straight up ghosts her. Another woman invests almost half a million dollars, and like immediately, bam, Dailen just takes it all. And of course, Dailen, he's not taking their money and investing it. No, no, he's not a stockbroker. He's not even licensed as a stockbroker. Instead, he's using it to fund his lifestyle.

Like, he gets a nice house in Phoenix. He buys himself a BMW and a Porsche and a new Jeep. He's also using this money to gamble in casinos and like hang out in nightclubs and strip clubs. He's out here every weekend getting bottle service and acting like some big shot celebrity, tipping huge amounts, getting VIP treats, everywhere he goes, and everyone around him thinks that he's some rich, successful businessman

because that's what he leads them to believe. But it's all funded by these women's life savings. But that's not even all. Some of these women don't have huge sums of cash just to hand over to him, but they do have good credit. So Dalen will keep dating them, and he'll low-key, like, take out loans in these women's names, and then not pay them off, which later destroys their credit without them knowing. Some of the women eventually even have their stuff repossessed or have to file for bankruptcy. One woman got her car repossessed, another woman had to give up her whole house. And if that isn't bad enough, scamming lonely women isn't the only shady thing Dalyan does. At some point during all this, he and one of his friends come up with a credit card scheme,

where they will basically get the personal information of people who have died and then make a duplicate credit card in their name. Then they just use these credit cards to spend thousands and thousands of dollars at like luxury stores and sleeping in hotels. And because these victims are no longer living, no one notices that he and his friend are doing this. And at the same time, he's still dating and scamming these lonely women. And since he doesn't use his real last name, he's able to successfully ghost them each time after taking nearly everything they have. And by this point, he's successfully stolen money from 13 different women to the tune of $1.8 million. And so it seems like this guy is just never going to get caught. This is your fix.

I am your host, Stasi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Stephen, because he's so evil. I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone face consequences. It's intoxicating. The writers just know how to trick you.

There's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th, and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies, January 13 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Until. Okay, so as you guys, could probably assume, by now, Dalyan has pissed off a lot of women. So there are a bunch of ladies who are extremely invested in figuring out who he really is. One woman starts a whole ass Facebook page dedicated to warning other women about Dailan and how he's scamming all these

women out here and not to give him any money at all ever. And she has posted his picture all over this group. Meanwhile, some other women he had dated, they somehow connect and, they team up and they go to police and try to get them involved, hoping that they will do something about him. Now, at one point, he scams one woman pretty badly, and she gets suspicious that he might be doing this to other ladies out there. So she goes and she reports him to the FBI, like, I think this guy's out here scamming people. And the FBI is like, no way! And they start investigating. And soon enough, they figure out who he really is. and they discover what you and I already know.

That Dalyan has no license as a stockbroker. He's not investing these women's money. He's just taking it and spending it at the strip club and shit. So they start building a case against him. And at the same time, he's still out here going on dates with all these women and scamming them. And then there's this recently divorced woman, and she comes across one of his profiles online. And, you know, she'd think he kind of fine.

So they meet up and they start dating. And he's doing his whole thing. He's claiming he's a successful stockbroker and he's pretending to give her financial advice and whatnot. And it isn't long before he scams her just like he did all the others. So this woman, she's like, fuck this guy. And she goes and she files a police report. And eventually, bam, Daly gets arrested. Here's his mugshot.

And after his arrest, the Attorney General's office in Phoenix puts out a press release about what he did, and they encourage other victims of his scams to start coming forward. And so more and more women start coming forward with their story, and he keeps getting hit with more and more charges. And so, Dalen ends up taking a plea deal, and he sentenced to 15 years in prison. Not only that, but when I was doing my research on this guy, I found that he currently has a dating profile on a site called loveaprisner.com, which is, and I'm not making this up, a dating website where you can, I guess, meet incarcerated people and date them?

I'm just telling you that, ladies, if you're single and you want to date, Dalyan, you want to date this guy while he's in prison, here he is. Here's his profile. Have at it.