AVN Award Winner Dani Daniels on Thursday morning posted what appears at first glance to be a cryptic message on her Instagram account, under a “story” titled, “Ghana.”
“I’m married. I’m in nyc. I’m not studying nursing. I’m not stuck in Ghana. I’m not on any dating sites. I don’t have any ‘special’ ‘private’ ‘personal’ profiles. I don’t have a sister, a twin, or a family member that needs help. Be smart. I don’t want you sending money to people pretending to be me.”
The message stemmed from a legal case involving Daniels, but one that highlights what her husband, New York public relations veteran Vic Cipolla, told AVN.com is an epidemic problem for porn performers: scam artists who impersonate them on social media.
In a bizarre twist on the infamous “Nigerian Prince” scam (see this link for the Better Business Bureau explanation of the long-running “Nigerian” scam), online con artists regularly post fake profiles of adult performers on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, and use those profiles to scam unsuspecting fans out of thousands of dollars.
“I guarantee that if you talk to any adult film star, they have all had this happen to them,” said Cipolla, who told AVN.com that he and Daniels report an average of 20 fake “Dani Daniels” accounts per week to the social media companies, but Facebook and Instagram are rarely responsive when it comes to deleting the fake pages.
In Daniels case, one fan dragged her into court, despite the fact that she had nothing whatsoever to do with the online impersonator who took the fan, Uber driver James R. Weidenborner, for $1,795, as The New York Post reported. (The Post also reported Daniels' real name, opening the door to many more similar scams.)
The man fell victim to a common version of the scam, in which a bogus “Dani Daniels” claimed to have retired from porn to study nursing in, of all places, Ghana. But, the scammer claimed, she was now stranded in that country with no money. The solicitation to send funds then followed.
Other versions of the scam are more straightforward, according to Cipolla, simply telling fans, “if you send me money, I’ll come have sex with you,” he recounted. But some fans fall for the approach.
In the case of Weidenborner, Cipolla says, the man sued Daniels under her professional name, not her given name.
“That would be like suing Tony Montana for selling drugs, and sending the lawsuit to Al Pacino,” Cipolla said. “Dani Daniels doesn’t exist. There is no Dani Daniels.”
According to Daniels’ countersuit, the Uber driver sued her simply so he could meet her in person. They were in the same hearing room together briefly, but otherwise, if that was his plan, it failed.
Weidenborner filed his suit in New York small claims court, but he failed to show up at a hearing on Thursday, Cipolla said, causing his claim to be dismissed. But Cipolla says that he and Daniels will press on with their countersuit against the Uber driver, for “legal fees and waste of time—and at least to bring this [problem] to light.”
