Influencer Dana Chanel Scammed Small Black Business Owners Per Lawsuit

Entertainment

By ShaCamree Gowdy Published: November 11, 2021

Influencer Dana Chanel Scammed Small Black Business Owners Per Lawsuit

Instagram influencer Dana Chanel has been accused of scamming small Black business owners out of thousands of dollars.(Screengrab courtesy of Instagram)

In Summary

Instagram influencer Dana Chanel has been accused of promoting products and services that did nothing more than scam small Black business owners out of big bucks.

Instagram influencer Dana Chanel, whose real name is Casey Olivera, has found herself on the wrong side of social media attention as the subject of a lawsuit brought on by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Chanel used Philadelphia-based companies Credit Exterminators Inc., later renamed as Earn Company, LLC, and Alakazam Apps, LLC, which are co-owned and operated by her sister and father, to allegedly misled consumers and failed to deliver goods and services as promised, according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims one non-profit owner paid $2,000 to mobile development provider Alakazam Apps, assuming she would work directly with them to create a custom app. She received neither an app nor a response or refund after more than 10 tries to contact them.

Credit Exterminators was hired by a second customer to handle outstanding credit accounts on her behalf. The client received a garnishment of wages letter from a creditor she thought they had settled months after hiring them, and received no return or compensation even though she paid the corporation more than $2,000 in total.

“Dana Chanel built a following online by presenting herself as a Black woman-owned small business success story,” AG Shapiro said in a press release. “She advertised the products of her companies as a way for other black small business owners to achieve what she did. Then, she ripped off the same community she claimed to care about.”

Chanel has a large online following, according to the lawsuit, with over 790,000 Instagram followers, a personal website and a strong presence on other sites. She sends out several inspiring messages per day to her followers, highlighting Christian values and entrepreneurship as a way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

Customers complained they didn’t receive the goods and services they paid for, or that the businesses misled them, prompting regulators in Pennsylvania to launch an investigation.

“It’s hard enough these days for workers in Philadelphia,” said AG Shapiro. “We can’t have bad actors breaking the law and making it even harder for folks to resolve their bad credit or keep their small businesses afloat.”