Scamfluencers - Prep School Perpetrator

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

After being humiliated and exploited at her elite New York City prep school, Danielle Miller sets out to reinvent herself. She ends up befriending a group of young socialites in Los Angeles, and before long, she’s flying on private jets, picking up pricey dinner tabs, and running her own P.R. firm. But when Danielle is arrested crossing into the U.S. border from Mexico, the source of her money becomes more clear — and her life slowly begins to unravel. Please support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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and its founder Sandbankman Freed, listen to Spellcaster on Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show.

I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. I'm not a fan of the show. be like, let's get some shoes. Let's get some shoes. Let's get some shoes. I mean, I think about it a lot because I feel like these days there's someone going viral every week, but like 15 years ago, you were the internet's

main character for months. Yeah, you used to take a very long time to escape that specific type of internet infamy, huh? Yeah. And for some people, they never really recover their reputations, and things just get so much worse from there. It's May 2021 in Miami, Florida. Danielle Miller is a 31-year-old brunette with a big smile and an even bigger personality. She takes stock of her high-rise beachfront department, whitewash walls and marble countertops.

Her walk-in closet is filled with d'Or, Louis Vuitton, and her coveted Rolex. But now, after a whole lot of hustling and grinding, Danielle is taking some much-needed time off to rest. Mostly, she's recovering from a Brazilian butt lift. It's left her sore and swollen. But on this day, Danielle's rest and relaxation is promptly interrupted when she gets a call from the front desk. She's needed down in the lobby. It's urgent. So Danielle, wearing only a compression body suit, stands up and slowly makes her way to the front door.

She pulls it open and is greeted by a team of agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Danielle barely gets a glimpse at their bulky vests and federal badges before they push past her into the apartment. Danielle winces and screams. Um, they better not pop her BBO. I don't know how that works, but… Well, it's worse because the feds tell her

that she's under arrest for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She's cuffed and the agents ransack her immaculate apartment. They pull out fake IDs and tens of thousands of dollars in cash and money orders. Her privilege, her family connections, her generational wealth, none of it can help her anymore. Danielle is no longer a private school socialite.

She's a common criminal. From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole, and I'm Sarah Haggi, and this is Scamful Inserves. Most scammers are hunting for wealth, influence, and notoriety. But today's scammer had all three, long before she started scamming. And she gained online infamy in the early days of the internet, with not by choice. Danielle became the victim of a brand new kind of exploitation and an unfair reputation that she couldn't shake. We're gonna explore one woman's turn from a promising private school student

into a cunning criminal. So I'm calling this episode, prep school perpetrator. Gotcha. This story really starts in 2004. Danielle Miller is an eighth grader at Horace Mann, an ultra prestigious private school in the Bronx. Danielle's parents are a really big deal New York power couple.

Her father is a prominent attorney who heads up the New York County Lawyers Association. Oh, and her mom is a former rocket. Okay, that is kind of like New York City royalty. Yeah, she's got them games, man. One evening after school, Danielle is in her family's apartment building just outside of Central Park near the Ritz Carlton and the Plaza Hotel. Is that how you grew up? Yeah, that's exactly how I grew up. And I can already really relate to this story. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Danielle is surfing the internet. When her AOL instant messenger pings, it's a message from a boy she has a huge crush on.

My heart's racing, my stomach hurts, I am Danielle. Well, this guy has a proposition for her. He thinks that she's approved. Can she prove that she's not? Danielle's heart starts racing. Here's how she describes her mindset years later on the Forbidden Fruit podcast. I just like, didn't want him to judge me.

Like, I didn't want him to think I was too sexually conservative. I didn't want him to think I wasn't any fun. Like, that's what my like 13-year-old mind thought. So, Danielle weighs her options. If she doesn't do it, her crush might never talk to her again. And if she does do it, it might be a little uncomfortable, but she also might have a shot with him. The gamble seems worth it. So Danielle gets up her nerve, she takes off her clothes, she hits play on the Britney Spears song Toxic,

and then she grabs a swiffer mop and starts recording it all on her laptop. Danielle ends up sending a series of these videos to her crush. What more proof could he need that she's not approved? But he's gone silent on instant messenger and the whole night passes and nothing comes. Okay, this is already so depressing. I feel so bad for Danielle. Yeah, it's definitely gonna get worse. Because the next day, Danielle's running late to school.

And I wanna give you a better sense of the school because it actually inspired one of the TV writers on the show Gossip Girl. Graduates from the school include Bill Barr who would later go on to become the US Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer, who would go on to become New York Governor and James Murdock, the son of Media mogul Rupert Murdock. Danielle finally reaches campus,

she's sweating and panting, and she hustles towards the morning assembly. It's held in a brick building with huge windows home to all the middle school classrooms. All of her peers are gathered in the open atrium, waiting for classes to start, and she feels like everyone is staring at her. And then she hears someone mumble something

about making a video together. Oh no. Ugh. Yeah. Everything crystallizes for Danielle in sudden, blinding horror. Everyone is staring at her because they have seen the videos. And thanks to the lawlessness of the early internet,

this is just the beginning of Danielle's humiliation. So obviously, the video spread like wildfire. It turns out Danielle's crush sent the videos to Danielle's best friend. He tried to persuade her to make a similar video, but she didn't. And here's what Danielle told the Forbidden Fruit podcast about what her best friend did instead. She decided to like send it to the whole eighth grade, who's sent it to the whole ninth grade, who's sent it to the tenth, 11th, 12th,

and then all of their camp friends. In somewhere along the way, the videos get uploaded onto Friendster, one of the world's first social media platforms, and to the file sharing site, Limewire. They go viral before going viral is even a thing. Before long, reporters are posted outside of Horace Mann like lime wire. They go viral before going viral is even a thing. Before long, reporters are posted outside of Horace Man

and in front of Daniel's parents' apartment building. New York Magazine runs an article about Daniel. It's called the Paris Hilton Effect. In Sarah, this article does not age well. Can you read an excerpt? In the latest instance of a teenager attempting to convey her hotness factor, a Horus-Man 8th greater emailed the Galkali explicit video, which resembles an audition for a pedophilic

porn film, to a male classmate she had a crush on. I mean, the funny thing about these sorts of stories, especially at the time, you know, 20 years ago, everybody was ascribing these really intense, complicated motives to girls who are making these videos. And it's like, it's not complicated at all. A guy, she had a crush on, asked her to do something, and she did it. It's his fault.

But of course, nobody's writing an article about the boy. They're writing it about the girl who did it, right? This is very upsetting. So this article comes out around the same time as Paris Hilton's leak sex tape is exploding across the internet. But I wanna be really clear, Danielle's videos are not a sex tape.

Danielle is a child, this is child pornography. But the backlash against her is swift. Danielle becomes both infamous and a social outcast. Parents forbid their kids from hanging out with Danielle, who is now known by another name, Swiffer Girl. Danielle's parents put her in therapy, but they okay her dropping out after just two sessions. Desperate to exert any power over Swiffer Gate, as it's now being called, Danielle decides to embrace the persona of Swiffer Girl, a wild, reckless party girl

who doesn't feel inhibition or shame. Yeah, I mean, this is all kind of dark, but I don't blame Danielle for embracing something she can't shake. Yeah. At least, she's going to hate her no matter what and call her a certain thing. I could just see that mentality forming in order to kind of take control of the narrative. You know? Well, again, she's just a child, right?

Yeah. So, this is a child's response to trauma. But Danielle also starts lying. Initially, it's just about simple dumb stuff. Like, she claims that her family owns the whole building they live in, they don't. And then, for her sweet 16-party, Danielle invites 600 kids. That's basically every private school kid in New York City, all of whom have probably seen her videos.

At the party, a Rod Stewart impersonator reportedly performs a passionate rendition of the song Hot Legs, and Danielle reportedly claims that he's actually Rod Stewart. Now, Danielle explicitly denies everlying about the Rod Stewart impersonator or even booking him at her party, but she does admit to telling Lies as a teenager, and her lies are only going to get bigger.

In August of 2008, Daniel Miller moves west to attend Arizona State University. And finally, she's mostly anonymous, just another freshman with a fresh start, or at least in the beginning. One day, she's in class when her professor assigns a book, Ariel Levy's female showovonus Pigs. It's a book about gender theory

and it largely critiques raunch culture. When Danielle gets to chapter five, pigs in training, there's a section about, well, her. It's about Swiffer Girl, framing the most humiliating event of her life in an academic way. Sarah, can you read a bit of this section out loud, like we're in class with Danielle? People started calling the school Homan.

As for the eighth grader, the dissemination of her amateur porn swiftly resulted in a major uptick in her level of popularity and celebrity. Regardless of the context, it must be so jarring when you're trying to run away from this thing that happened to you to read it like for the class you're taking. Yeah, I mean, it's probably one of the most jarring experiences of her life. And Danielle is shaken. One day, she comes back to her dorm room and finds a note slipped under her door.

She unfolds it and her heart nearly stops. It says, I know who you are, Swiffer Girl. And then her identity is revealed much more publicly. She's outed as Swiffer Girl in a fraternity listserv. And around this time, Danielle's relationship with her parents becomes strained. Separated on opposite ends of the country, they stop talking for months at a time.

After college in 2012, Danielle decides to move even further west, to a place where everyone reinvents themselves. Los Angeles. Danielle is trying to distance herself from the past, but a lot of her new friends in Los Angeles also went to private schools in New York, like Paris Hilton's little brother,

Baron and Esme Brown, whose father helped develop the Hamptons. Esme has long dark hair, much like Danielle, and a dainty ribbon of cursive text tattooed across her right arm. She's the kind of it girl whose party photos, taking it places like Nobu and the Chateau Mar-Mont frequently appear on nightlife vlogs. I could see the exact type of girl Esme is in my head. Like, I remember seeing these photos on like blogs and my space and

all these things. I just want to say we are aging ourselves right now. There are people listening to those who were not around for this and they are listening to us be old. But at this point, Danielle could almost pass for a socialite herself. She lives lavishly, she's holding up at these swanky hotels and wearing all the latest designer clothing, which also just keep in mind the time when this is happening, all those clothes were so ugly Sarah. But it seems like Danielle is trying really hard to impress her new friends.

We're actual socialites. She often picks up expensive dinner tabs, and it's kind of unclear how she's paying for any of this. Danielle claims it's with money she saved while tutoring at ASU, and working as director of events and marketing for the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, something tells me that's not how she made this money.

No, probably not. Network, Danielle's helping to throw a charity event, and she's under pressure to sell tables to wealthy donors. So she approaches Esme, knowing that she comes from generational wealth. But a $4,000 table is not in the budget, even for Esme. Danielle's bombed, but she shakes it off, and then she tells Esme that she bought the table herself.

She invites Esme to join her at the gala and party for free. But a few weeks later, Daniel hears from her father and, ooh, he's furious. Esme's mother had apparently called him after discovering some suspicious charges in Esme's account. Five different cash checks written out to Daniel Miller from Esme.

Their checkset Esme definitely did not write and one is for exactly $4,000. Now, I'm gonna add, Danielle denied to New York Magazine that any of this happened. But Danielle's father reportedly tells Danielle that she will pay every penny back to Esme, and on top of that, she will have no further financial assistance from him. She's cut off. Danielle's parents, by the way, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. We also reached out to Danielle and we didn't hear back. So, Danielle reportedly starts hustling.

And for her, this means doing freelance PR for a series of high-profile clients and brands. She names her business D-Mills PR, and it seems like this business funds all of her partying. But one night in 2015, Danielle's out clubbing with friends wearing sky high heels, when she decides to slide down a handrail. She slips and she lands really hard. Oof. Danielle breaks her back and it's a serious wake up call.

Now she's at a crossroads. Danielle has to decide, is she gonna clean up her act or double down on a life of deception? Daniel's injury is super serious, but there is a silver lining. It allows her to reconnect with her parents after about two years of not talking. And by the time she's recovered, she decides to take her life in a new direction. In 2016, she enrolls in law school following in her father's footsteps.

Her parents are, frankly, skeptical. And Danielle told New York Magazine that her father, quote, thought I'd be a terrible attorney. He said my ethics were off the wall. My mom's your dad being like, you would be a terrible attorney." He said, my ethics were off the wall. Imagine your dad being like, you would be a terrible attorney not because you're like lazy or bad at working hard. It's because your ethics are off the wall, honey.

I mean, also, I have to break it to her dad. Does he think lawyers have good ethical guidelines? Cause not really. But Danielle is determined to show them that she can thrive. And she does. In her first year at Pepperdine University, according to her LinkedIn, she's appointed Vice President of its Sports and Entertainment Law Society, and she gets a prestigious summer internship with a New York judge. But the pressure of law school is a lot, and Danielle's relationship with her parents is fragile.

She returns home for Thanksgiving break during her second year of law school, and to unwind after a stressful semester, Danielle books an appointment at Body Factory on the Upper West Side. It's a fancy medical spot famous for facials and injections, but when Danielle checks in, police are waiting for her.

I'm sorry, what? Yeah, so she's arrested and charged with identity theft and grand larceny for nearly $5,000 in services purchased with stolen credit card information. The spa reportedly noticed that she'd paid for previous visits using credit cards that were eventually flagged as fraudulent. Thanks to her father's high profile connections, Danielle lawyers up right away.

She hires Barry Camens, who goes on to represent Harvey Weinstein and Rudy Giuliani. Thanks to Barry, Danielle is allowed to return to California to continue law school. But there's a catch. She has to return to New York for all of her future court dates. And after this, it seems like all contact between Danielle and her parents basically stops. Again, we reach out to Danielle's parents for comment, and we didn't hear back. That is extremely rough. I mean, families are complicated. Sometimes people are at the end of their rope, and they make very harsh decisions. Well, once again, Danielle's cut off financially and emotionally.

She's on her own, and that's when she meets a man who fills that void, who seemingly makes her forget all of her troubles and her pending court date. Enter McKenzie Day. He's a multi-hyphenate, a model, slash personal trainer, slash videographer, slash marine veteran. He's got a killer jawline

and 42,000 Instagram followers. Mackenzie's recently moved to Aleda to fulfill his dream of being a content creator, and he actually posted a video on Instagram of his mindset around the time he moved. Everyone has a time in their life when they have to ask him so it's like, yo, is this it? Is this what we're doing? Is this how things are going to go? And you have to ask him, so I was like, yo, is this it? Is this what we're doing? Is this how things are gonna go? You have to make a decision. It's a very serious looking video, you know?

He's sitting by a beach. He's not really looking at the camera. He's staring off into the distance. And this is someone who's clearly kinda going through it. Yeah, it does sort of seem like he's seeking purpose. Not long after he arrives in LA, Mackenzie founds a media company called New Day. And I'm going to tell you, it's spelled N-U-D-A-E.

That's great. That is how he chose to spell it. So Mackenzie is looking for LA business connections. Everything falls into place when a wealthy friend introduces him to a rising talent in the PR world, Danielle Miller. Now, by this time, Danielle has founded a new PR firm, the Epic Advisory, and she's already got a roster of music supervisors that she's doing PR for. Mackenzie could use someone like Danielle, so he asks her if she wants to join their two

companies together and become business partners. To his delight, she agrees, and it turns out they have more than just business chemistry. It seems like they have romantic chemistry too. In the beginning, things go really well. Their relationship is blossoming and so is their business. Sarah, I think this photo of Danielle and Mackenzie perfectly illustrates their relationship. Wanna take a look? Yeah, it's like one of those photos people post when they're like, I'm a hustler and that's how I get to where I am.

And they're on a private jet surrounded by phones and there's a laptop and, you know, they're working together and she's really just kind of looking at him with these adoring eyes. Yeah, well, pretty soon, they begin to rack up a lot of business expenses. Mackenzie asks Danielle how they're affording all of this. She reportedly tells him that her father is financing it. Danielle looms Mackenzie into emails

that she says are with her father, and Mackenzie seems to be satisfied. But what looks on the outside like a smooth partnership is apparently much more complicated. The couple seems to have a lot of disagreements, and after one particular argument, Mackenzie randomly gets an email from Daniel's father, Secretary. Sarah, can you read it? Yeah, it says, hey, I'm really worried about Danielle. Have you talked to her?

I have to imagine that Mackenzie doesn't know how to answer. He probably feels like Daniel's dad's secretary is trying to make him feel bad for his fight with Daniel, and he feels manipulated. As wild as it sounds, he starts to suspect that Daniel herself might have been behind all the emails, that she's been pretending all along to be her dad and her dad's secretary. Yeah, because wasn't her dad no longer speaking to her, like didn't her mom say like, we're cutting you off, we can't have contact with you anymore.

Yeah, I mean, it's all quite fishy, and it's also all too much for McKenzie, and after only a few months, he asks to end their partnership. In response, Danielle sends him an email saying that she's suicidal. He calls the cops who send Danielle for a psych evaluation. Danielle denies this to New York Mag.

She says that Mackenzie faked the messages. After their split, Mackenzie wants answers. So he guesses the password to Danielle's email account and he finds emails about credit cards and loans. All taken out in his name to the tune of almost $200,000. Daniel denies all of this. She says that they took out credit cards together for their business.

There were no loans. Mackenzie did not respond to our requests for comment. In the end, Mackenzie doesn't press charges, and Daniel comes out of this partnership relatively unscathed. Daniels capture scamming under the radar, but a simple mistake is about to land her in some serious trouble. A few months after her split from McKenzie, Danielle is driving back from Mexico,

where she celebrated her 29th birthday with some friends. She's in the car, wearing an Urve leje bathing suit with a misoney cover-up and Valentino heels. As she approaches the checkpoint to pass into San Diego, Daniel hands over her passport to the border agent. And that is when her birthday celebration turns into a total nightmare. Because Sarah, she's told that there's a warrant out for her arrest. Remember that court date that Daniel had for the fraudulent spa charges? Yeah, something's telling me she did not go to court in New York. Yeah, correct, she completely missed it. And without funding from her parents, Daniel has to get a public defender. She's denied bail

and deemed a flight risk thanks to her little trip to Mexico. So she awaits trial at Writers. And Sarah, I don't know how much you know about Writers, but it's one of the largest prisons in the world. And it's located on an island between Queens and the Bronx. It's only about 10 miles south of Danielle's old prepschool Horace Man. But it's a world away from it. But in a lot of ways, prepschool prepared Danielle for the cutthroat social hierarchy of prison. She knows she needs friends and fast. And she has some creative ideas on how to make friends. Here's what she said

on the Forbidden Fruit podcast. So I made them braid my hair in like this ghetto way so that I could like fit in more. Oh, brother. Yeah. After she gets the braids, Daniel enters the prison's dorm style lodging, which has four rows of 10 beds. And from a dark corner of the room, a woman calls out in a strange accent. Who braided your hair? She offers Daniel the bed next to her and asks Daniel if she'd like to read a news article about her. It's Anna Delvie.

Shut up, you're lying. Sarah, I know, I know it sounds like I'm making this up, but the two New York scammers become best friends. Anna shows Danielle how to stay safe, how to barter for goods, and how to make their uniforms more fashionable by rolling up the waistbands of their pants. Danielle's soaks up this intel and she learns everything she can during the eight months she's at Rikers.

She's released in the summer of 2019 after pleading guilty to her charges. And she's about to put her prison skill set to good use. In early 2020, Danielle's out at a high end upper east side restaurant when she runs into one of her pals from Rikers. Sierra Blas. Sierra is five years younger than Danielle.

She's a pretty brunette with big eyes who was in prison for violating her parole. Three years earlier, she'd been arrested at Bergdorf Goodman after skimming credit cards to fund a $22,000 shopping spree. So now that Sierra and Danielle are both out in the world again, they want to have some fun. Makes the money. So they decide to team up. Sierra already has a scam in motion,

but she needs somebody to help her by impersonating the people whose identities they're stealing. Sierra promises it's easy money. Danielle's in. And pretty soon, the cash starts rolling in. This seems so risky in so many ways. I understand there's like a high reward, but the risks seem so high considering her record. Like, she's never successfully accomplished a scam. Yeah. Well, when COVID hits, it essentially shuts down all their favorite places to spend money.

So, Sierra and Danielle decide to relocate. They wind up in Miami, Florida, where it seems like they have nothing to do, but go and design or shopping sprees. And, of course, to post about them on Instagram. Danielle posts shaky videos of her and Sierra in a baby blue Porsche Boxster, driving around Miami, singing along to Noah Cyrus. Oh my gosh, these girls. Yeah. Well, Danielle and Sierra's joy ride ends a few months later at a chase bank in Sarasota, Florida.

At the drive-through window, Danielle allegedly hands over a US passport under the name Erika Beers, and attempts to take out eight grand. But while she's at the drive-through, Sheriff's pull up and conduct a traffic stop. They've been tipped off by a branch manager that her passport looked fake.

And once they confirm with the real Erica Beers that she did not authorize the withdrawal, they arrest Danielle and Sierra. Danielle is charged with seven counts of fraud and Sierra is charged with just one count. They both plead not guilty. The Sharers find fake drivers licenses with Daniel's face on them, three credit cards,

six cell phones, and 25 grand in cash. But Daniel isn't deterred. After Sierra gets released and then bails her out, Daniel decides to take on her biggest mark yet, the US government. And I feel like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like and Jacqueline Cunningham is assigned to investigate a big case of identity theft. Jacqueline has been with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more than a decade, and she knows how to follow the money, especially when that money happens to be stolen.

Jacqueline zeroes in on a victim that we'll call Laura. Laura lives in Massachusetts, and it appears that she's taken out a small business administration loan for more than $102,000. But there's just one problem. Laura says that she never applied for a loan. Jacqueline examines the bank account opened in Laura's name and analyzes its debit charges.

When she finds a charge to a private airline company, she calls up the airline. And that's what leads to a break in the case. The airline says that a private flight was booked a few months earlier to Southern California from outside of Miami. The airline sends over a copy of the passenger's ID. On the ID is a white woman with brown hair and long eyelashes. It's the same face that Jacqueline discovers photos of on an Instagram account with the handle, Kila Demilla, as in Danielle Miller. And at least one

post there really catches her eye. Sarah, can you describe it? Oh, yeah. So it's Danielle, and she's in front of a Rolls Royce, in front of the Beverly Hills hotel where people get dropped off. And you know, like she's showing off her fit, her car, and the fact that she's in front of the Beverly Hills hotel all at once. Right. And the caption says, she's back, and she's not for everyone. Yes, exactly. Jack Lee knows that right around this time, this image was posted, a charge for dinner

at the Beverly Hills hotel showed up on the bank account opened in Laura's name. It's not the only giveaway. Danielle Miller also posted a photo of herself in a hotel room at Petite Armitas, a boutique hotel in West Hollywood. She's looking really smug and a Gucci sweater while holding a Birken bag. And the date on the Instagram post corresponds to a $5,500 transaction made to the hotel under Laura's bank account. So, Jacqueline has her culprit, and Danielle's life of carefree crime is about to hit a new

low. A few weeks later, Danielle is at home in her luxury high-rise apartment in Miami. She's supposed to be recovering from surgery, but you know what happens next, and it's anything but restful. Federal agents burst into her home and arrest her. The government alleges that Danielle used stolen identities like Laura's to apply for more than $900,000 in economic injury disaster loans. Those were the loans meant for people hit hardest by the pandemic. Oh my god, is that how she paid for her BBL? I mean, maybe.

But while awaiting trial, Danielle's court appointed attorney tells her that a reporter would like to interview her. The reporter is a former Horace man classmate named Gabrielle Bluestone. Now Gabrielle's made a name for herself covering fraudsters. She was on the Fire Festival beat and she served as a producer on the Netflix documentary

about it. She even wrote a book called Hype, all about internet scam artists. So when she sees the Justice Department's announcement about Danielle's arrest, she immediately remembers her from their prep school days. It's Swiffer Girl. Wow, full circle moment. So Gabrielle and Danielle weren't really friends in high school, but Gabrielle, like almost everyone at the school, knows all about the scandal. And she feels horrible about how it unfolded. So she tells Danielle that she wants to tell her side of the story,

and Danielle decides that this is a good opportunity. A chance to finally come clean about the middle school incident that's haunted her ever since. So Danielle decides to open up. Over the course of the next few months, she sits for interviews with Gabrielle. Yeah, I mean, she's finally telling her, quote, side of the story, I guess to someone who had a similar upbringing. I could see why she would trust Gabrielle. I don't know that I would trust anybody who had gone to my school if that had happened to me, but I can understand why it felt comfortable. Yeah.

And the article drops on New York Magazine's website in February 2022. Here's the headline. I more so consider myself a con artist than anything, with Daniel Miller learned at Horace Man and Rikers. And there's a picture of Daniel at the top of the article. Sarah, can you take a look at it and describe it? She's in this very styled outfit, this pale blue suit.

She's sitting on a couch, her feet are up on a table, and there's a plume of vape smoke coming out of her face, and it is like her honesty kind of looking like a mob boss. It's not a great photo to have accompanying your redemptive arc. Nearly 20 years after Swiffergate, Danielle goes viral for a second time. And it's not exactly the sympathetic portrayal she probably hoped for. Danielle knows she has two outstanding court cases, so she goes on the defensive. Or more specifically, she goes on the Forbidden Fruit podcast. I've always seen not heard in that. That is not my narrative. That is not my story.

I do not support the story that she wrote. In the episode, Daniel denies ever scamming. Even if the government's evidence against her is pretty damning. She's been charged with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. She's under house with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. She's under house arrest and has to wear an ankle monitor, which draws comparisons to Paris Hilton yet again. If Danielle is convicted, she faces more than 20 years in prison. All right, Sarah. I mean, this is obviously a really complicated scam story because it starts with such an awful traumatic event that isn't the fault of our scammer, but it seems like all the decisions

she made after were so ill advised. I mean, I know she has to deal with what happened to her probably every single day. Like there's no way that can happen to you and it doesn't shape how you view the world and how you interact with people. Yeah. That being said, it's still not an excuse for anything. Yeah, I have a tremendous amount of empathy for her as a child, but it stops once she's grown.

Like the entirety of the Swiffer girl stuff is ludicrous because she didn't hurt anybody, but people went after her. But what she did as an adult, there are real consequences to that. There are real people that she fought with. She had so many opportunities to turn it around, but she's never really faced any real consequences for anything she did.

And she again, could have been caught once and been like, okay, maybe I won't do that. And at the end of the day, she believes she deserves to be rich and famous. And instead of doing what normal girls like her do, which is, you know, just become like an Instagram baddie, she defrauded people allegedly. I mean, the scams were not about the stuff. It wasn't about what she could buy or what she could possess. She was already wealthy. We know that. The scams were very much about getting people to see her as powerful and important and valuable. And when you really think about it, that's when it gets really sad because that comes

from not getting that as a 15 year old because of this one stupid thing that people completely blew up on you. Not to be like move on, but if this is something that is affecting you so badly, then do the work to move on from it because anyone who remembers Swiffer Girl has probably moved on. Like, the only reason why I know who Swiffer Girl is because of her actions now. But also, if she doesn't get sent to jail,

she's gonna scam again. Yep. And she's probably gonna scam from jail. Those are just my predictions. Yeah, I do think you're right. Have you learned any lessons today? No. Other than like ban high school and ban rich high schools and ban rich kids. Yeah, we have the OC. We can just watch that over and over again. Yeah, two versions of gossip girl.

Yeah, Laguna Beach. The hills. I'm tired. I don't need more. Tired of them. All right, well, high school's over. This is Prep School perpetrator. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggi. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were, I'm more so consider myself a con artist than anything.

What Danielle Miller learned at Horace Man and Rikers by Gabrielle Bluestone for New York Magazine and Danielle Miller's interview with the podcast For Bid and Fruit? Rachel Borders wrote this episode, additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggi. Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Tape Busby. our story editors are Sarah Annie and Alison Wyntron, and our

senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Sound Design is by James Morgan, fact-checking by Gabrielle D'Ole, additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for FreeZunSync, our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Gens, and Marshall Lewy. For Wondry.