Priscila Barbosa: The Rideshare Robinhood | 147

Scamfluencers

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.1 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Priscila Barbosa moves to Boston from Brazil in 2018, she sets out to pay off her debts and send money back home by driving for rideshare platforms like Uber and Lyft. Eventually, she decides her cut isn’t enough, and she rallies other undocumented immigrants to create one of the most lucrative illicit rideshare rings in Beantown. But this millennial #girlboss learns that suspicious groupchats and Instagrams flaunting her cozy new lifestyle will hurt her chances of staying one step ahead of Silicon Valley and the feds. Eventually, Priscilla’s free ride delivers her to a final destination: jail.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Scam Fluencers fans, Sarah here.
0:02.8	If you love the drama, deception, and mind-blowing reveals,
0:06.5	Wondery Plus is your VIP ticket to more.
0:09.2	Add free episodes, early access to the juiciest scandals,
0:12.6	and deep dives you won't find anywhere else.
0:15.2	Get the full Scamfluencers experience.
0:17.5	Sign up today.
0:24.8	Thank you. experience, sign up today. Sarah, we all get what feels like a million spam messages each week with offers that always
0:30.5	sound too good to be true.
0:32.7	And they usually are.
0:34.3	Have you ever fallen victim to one of these scams?
0:37.0	No, I haven't actually, but a friend of
0:39.8	mine was expecting a package and she just happened to get one that was specifically about U.S.
0:45.1	Customs. And mindlessly, you know, she was like walking and like put in her credit card information.
0:50.4	Instantly, she got a fraud alert for like $2,500.
0:55.1	Yikes.
0:57.1	It was crazy how quickly it happened.
1:03.0	I fell for one once when I was like 22 when they were like first starting to happen and I have never fallen for once since.
1:04.7	I'm so afraid of them.
1:06.0	No, they are really, really scary.
1:08.6	Well, these scamming operations are growing really fast.
1:12.1	They target anyone in any language all around the world.
	...

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