The ex New York beauty queen who lost $2,000 to a pair of con-kids running a Zelle scam has helped cops identify the suspects — and brushed off the ridicule she’s faced since sharing the story.
Briana Siaca, 30, stopped by the NYPD’s 13th Precinct on Monday — looking Miss-New-York-sharp in blue jeans with a white sweater and black blazer — to confirm the identity of two teens caught on subway footage — who turned out to already have two open warrants out for their arrest.
“There’s apparently there’s a bunch of young teenagers from New Jersey that take the PATH or the buses from New Jersey and hang out at these parks and target people,” Siaca told The Post, explaining the cops who first responded after she was scammed knew right-off about the scheme.
“They were like, ‘We’ve been looking for these kids, we’re gonna find these f**kers.’”
Sciaca, who was crowned Miss New York in 2021 and has since become a high-end real estate agent for Corcoran, took to social media over the weekend to share how two kids approached her in Madison Square Park on Friday claiming to be players on a Bronx youth basketball team trying to raise money for uniforms.
Not having any cash on her, the boys offered to help her pay digitally by inputting their team’s information into her Zelle account themselves — but while they had her phone in their hands they instead sent themselves $2,000 and took off.
“I went completely numb. I was just shocked. I was totally fooled. I didn’t even know what to do,” Siaca recounted to The Post, describing how disarming and genuine they seemed while they talked to her.
“They were so sweet. They were so innocent and so kind,” she said
“I have such a soft spot for kids in low income communities and it really breaks my heart especially if young talented people can’t afford to pursue an activity or sport because they don’t have enough money.”
While one boy set to work fleecing her, Siaca said the other focused on “pulling my heartstrings” with stories of how well their basketball team was doing — and completely distracting her from the theft happening inches away.
“There were clearly professionals at this,” she said, adding that some nerve damage medication she was on at the time had left her out of sorts.
“They’re doing this all the time,” she said.
Siaca’s bank told her it is unclear if they’ll be able to get her money back, so she decided to use her platform to try to prevent other people from being taken by the same scam — even if it meant opening herself up to public ridicule.
“I knew that posting this video I would be at risk of judgment and just getting called mean names, but I’m not new to that. I’m from pageants. I’ve heard it all,” she said, calling the ribbing she’s gotten from people asking if Friday was her first day in the Big Apple “hilarious.”
“No, I’m not new here. I was Miss New York, I’ve been in the city for over 10 years. I come from not the best neighborhood. I have street smarts. I’m super book smart,” said Sciana, a Brentwood Long Island native.
“If putting out that video means that I could help other people, it’s all worth it to me,” she said noting that she’s received “hundreds” of responses from people saying they’ve also fallen victim to scams they thought they were too clever for.
“Knowing that I had the potential to help other people, I was willing to risk embarrassment for that,” the beauty queen said.
