Brittany Dawn: The Fitness Scammer Turned Spiritual Influencer | Documentary

[Music] they fill our feeds with pretty pictures luxury and the newest product they're selling that week they smile as they tell us about their day their newest relationship and their insecurities a parasocial relationship forms and we feel like we know them we tweet text and talk about them non-stop some of them even tell us we can be just like them who are they influencers baby and they are glorified in our culture almost as much if not more than actual celebrities but at what cost these days it's too easy to believe what we see online and what happens when an influencer takes advantage of that and scams their following an influencer only has to promote something shiny on their feed or inflate the size and success of their business earnings and by the time we've handed over our hard-earned cash and realize we've been duped it's too late we're left with a soggy salad and money we can't give back well that influencer is on to the next best scam the federal trade commission claims to crack down on influencers and their scams but it seems like it's only the really big influencer scams that get caught and convicted and even then victims are usually not refunded the full amount for which they were scammed but what about the smaller influencers the micro influencers who quietly scam and fly under the radar today we're taking a look at a micro influencer who did just that her name is brittany dawn and she scammed her following until it all blew up in her face gma cover story right now the legal backlash against an instagram fitness influencer accused of scamming clients across the country but don't worry these days she's onto something new and we'll get into that later in the video [Music] [Music] brittany dawn davis was a fitness influencer from texas who went by the handle britney dawn fitness she had over 550 000 followers with an instagram aesthetic meant to show her lifestyle ranging from glamour and fitness shots to photos in front of her range rover she also had a youtube channel with over 300 000 subscribers on both instagram and youtube she shared how she overcame an eating disorder and competed in a bikini competition and stated she wanted to inspire women of all body types she shared workout and fitness tips and was sponsored by many brands that gave her affiliate links to share with her followers brittany later began selling personalized diet and fitness plans on her website some which cost upwards of 300 but these weren't just any diet and fitness plans brittany promoted that these plans would be customized to each individual person who bought one that's important being as she was teaching people how to count macros macros or macronutrients are carbohydrates fats and proteins and someone's daily macro amount is dependent on a person's height and weight not getting enough macros can lead to someone being malnourished and depleted of energy brittany dawn also promised weekly individual check-ins with each customer for her followers this was an exciting chance to not only learn from their fitness guru but to get close to her too and brittany in return would get to learn about her customers on a personal one-on-one level it almost seemed too good to be true because it was this is how her scan went down after somebody purchased a customized diet and fitness plan brittany added them to her team brittany dawn facebook group where her female customers could go on their health and fitness journey together and offer support to one another but this is where things started to not add up through talking with one another in her private group brittany's customers quickly realized they were all given the exact same workout program and nutrition plan on the surface brittany dawn looked like the picture-perfect influencer she was bubbly and full of inspo but behind the scenes britney had been deleting customer complaints and blocking her own customers for years as her following grew customer complaints began adding up and one of her customers decided to start a facebook group for customers of britney's who were unhappy and not getting answers in less than one week the group grew to almost 300 members in this group hundreds of britney's customers shared screenshots and stories and they realized not only were they given generic programs but the one-on-one check-ins brittany offered as a selling point were nothing more than a quick message from her that said something along the lines of i'm so proud of you in fact some of her victims say they got the same i'm so proud of you line week after week and that was the only personalized check-in they received from brittany dawn victims also reported when they would ask a specific fitness or diet question instead of giving them one-on-one time brittany dawn would direct them to her youtube channel if somebody asked for a refund or stated the program was not as advertised britney would block them and their emails went unanswered this is when they started reporting her business on the better business bureau's website and one day in march of 2019 it all came to a head when britney dawn's face was plastered all over good morning america we're going to move to our gma cover story right now the legal backlash against an instagram fitness influencer accused of scamming clients across the country amy back with the details and amy some of those clients looking to take some serious action that's right george thousands are joining a facebook group for people who say brittany dawn took their money for fitness plans and then never delivered and now many of them are taking those complaints to the texas attorney general now brittany dawn could no longer hide what she was doing she knew it was time to spring into action and quickly uploaded a now deleted apology video stating that her business had simply grown too fast and she didn't know how to handle it in front of the camera she promised to make it right but then in emails to her victims the customers who she ignored and blocked after not delivering her product she offered a partial refund but only if they signed a non-disclosure agreement to protect her brand going forward as you can imagine this didn't go well and people were even more outraged melina brunson found hope and inspiration in social media influencer brittany dawn fitness i was looking for some sort of training some sort of fitness program eventually i followed her so i went ahead and purchased one of her programs i have such a heart for what i do and for being in this industry being a fitness influencer is my full-time job brunson paid 250 dollars for a 60-day plan of workouts a personalized nutrition plan and access to dawn by phone but she says while she put in the work dawn did not we never got anything back other than just oh girl you're doing so great but i'm like how am i doing great so i'm not losing weight and inches aren't going anywhere and she is not alone there are nearly 4 000 members of a facebook group brittany dawn fitness complaints i apologize to anyone who feels like they got scammed for me i was not only a coach but also the sole content creator customer service business owner youtuber financial advisor and everything else that comes with every business i now realize that i should have had more help and that this is a lesson that i am having to now learn the hard way and for that again i am sorry she said she made a mistake but how can you make that mistake for four years dawn told unhappy customers to email her with proof of purchase and she'd refund them she sent me a partial refund of 23. out of 92 that she owed me i jumped into an industry that had no instruction manual i'm basically going through uncharted territory and i'm doing the best that i can to the best of my ability i'm using this as a tool to learn and to grow as a professional and to move forward fortunately several of her victims told business insider they were able to dispute transactions with paypal and get a refund but business insider also reviewed many of the paypal records of britney don's customers and said many were not able to get a refund [Music] in february of 2019 brittany dawn told business insider that quote i appreciate any grace afforded me while i get this business in order whatever future it may hold but for today i will continue to address each of my customers offering make goods plan extensions and refunds on a case-by-case basis unquote she also stated she would no longer require her victims to sign an nda and that she would not block or delete her comments but only a little while later she deleted her apology video and uploaded a video titled calling out the hate where she stated she has an incredible customer service team and they had addressed every single issue brought to them by her customers she stated she stepped back for a few weeks from her social media presence to address everything going on then she went on to say she wasn't going to play a victim but that trolls will be trolls and she was tired of them attacking her online she stated the trolls were making false accusations and jumping on the bandwagon to quote bring britney down unquote but only two days after posting this video business insider released an article in which they stated that some of brittany dawn's victims were still struggling to receive a refund and while that was happening brittany was flaunting her vacation in hawaii on instagram one better business bureau complaint by a customer of brittany dawn alleges that she paid 224 dollars for a program in 2017 called the 90-day individualized macro and training program the victim said she worked two jobs and was excited britney dawn was having a black friday sale because she wanted to start a fitness journey in hopes of relieving her anxiety and stress from working two jobs but she never received the program she paid for she alleges that brittany dawn's website was having technical issues and so she reached out to brittany who stopped returning her emails in her bbb complaint she stated it has been two years and she has never received a refund britney dawn never officially went away and although she stopped selling her diet and fitness plans she's monetizing something different these days jesus she now hosts two day retreats for christian women for 650 they held a retreat in january of 2021 in the middle of a pandemic before mass vaccinations had begun rolling out and she has another retreat planned in october of 2021. on her social media brittany regularly shares scriptures and talks about the importance of being a good christian at the time of this recording brittany dawn is engaged to an ex-kansas city missouri police officer who she plans to wed in september of 2021. his name is jordan nelson and he was sued by the aclu of missouri in 2018 for stopping a black man one night on a report of a suspicious person the man complied stopped walking and held out his arms as he was told to do his hands were empty and he was silent but jordan nelson walked up to him and without instructing him further or placing the man in handcuffs kicked his legs out from under him and slammed him face first into concrete leaving the man with major facial injuries i won't show you the dash cam video as it's too graphic and although he is happy to partake in brittany dawn's influencer lifestyle his social media account is private at the time of this recording his linkedin profile states he's an account manager for a pharmaceutical company known as pacira biosciences a company that provides non-opioid pain management and health solutions for healthcare practitioners and their patients although britney's social media following is no longer what it once was she is still attempting to be an influencer and uploads videos and social media posts weekly posts that mainly talk about how her soon-to-be husband is protecting her purity youtube lifestyle vlogs and video rants about how she is regularly under what she calls spiritual attacks and talks about dreams she says were given to her by the holy spirit in one rant she goes off about lady gaga incorrectly claiming gaga wore a hunger games pin at joe biden's inauguration and claims that lady gaga is allegedly involved with witchcraft brittany also regularly promotes her christian retreats christian merch and photo presets aka filters that her audience can buy from her website it appears at one time she offered social media management services but that is no longer available on her website although her linkedin still states she is a social media consultant [Music] in august of 2020 she was banned from facebook at the time for promoting misinformation and q anon conspiracy theories brittany don davis is now a big advocate for what's known in the evangelical world as purity culture and regularly uploads videos and posts shaming the person she used to be for the types of clothing she used to wear [Music] so [Music] [Music] but is she really shaming her past self as much as she's projecting that shame and misogyny onto the women who followed her purity culture is of the belief that sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is a sin the purity movement was started in the 1990s in the midwest by conservative evangelicals who claimed to want to protect their daughters and young women from what they claim as immoral sexual behavior unmarried young people usually minors are given purity rings made to sign contracts called abstinence pledges where they make a promise to their god to pray away impure thoughts and keep their heart and body pure until they're married they're also told not to wear revealing clothing so they don't cause boys and grown men to be tempted by their bodies and abstinence is the only thing taught to teenagers for sexual education within the purity culture movement this type of thinking harms women and anyone in the lgbtq community as purity culture states their sexual desires are wrong and more focus is put on women than men in purity culture women are seen as sexual deviants who at any moment could cause a man to stumble in his walk with the lord many women within this movement are uninformed about their bodies normal sexual feelings and how to properly protect themselves against pregnancy and stds well ladies i believe you also have a unique opportunity to protect the purity of your brothers in the lord what i think you probably are not aware of is how difficult it is for a guy to look at a girl with purity in his heart when she is dressed immodestly you have no idea how difficult it is you have no idea [Music] purity culture is the reason why so many in the media thought it was okay to publicly question pop stars like britney spears and jessica simpson about their virginity while they were minors something that would have never been okay to do to women and girls only a decade or two before but if we go back to the time when the purity movement was at its peak you'll notice boy bands were never asked about their virginity except for the jonas brothers and that's because they were purity rings due to their religious upbringing as their dad was a pastor yet the media felt compelled to harass and make fun of the jonas brothers about their rings as if purity was stupid for guys but mandatory for girls the darker message purity culture promotes is that a woman's value doesn't lie in her brain her heart or her spirit but with what's between her legs and that's why purity culture is harmful to all women a study done at drexel university's college of medicine in 2009 found that quote u.s states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth of the 10 most conservatively religious states five are among the states with the highest teen birth rates the same study also found that the higher the religiosity was in one area the higher the teen birth rate was on average this is in no way meant to shame any person who was ever pregnant as a teen this is meant to show the damaging effects of purity culture as statistics show parenthood is the main reason why teen girls drop out of school and we want girls to finish school right or maybe some people don't [Music] culture has made a comeback in recent years and content creators and people like brittany use hashtags such as modest is hottest and it's obvious their target audience is aimed at young women and teen girls although britney dawn claimed she stopped selling her diet and fitness programs in the beginning of 2019 in april of 2020 she received a ppp loan from the government for over 20 thousand dollars greeson is allegedly the last name of her ex-husband and that name is used in the title of her sole proprietorship one month after receiving this loan brittany posted online she was now a proud homeowner it's still unknown what if any health and fitness certifications brittany dawn allegedly had and it's unknown how much money she scammed her following out of for the four plus years she ran her diet and fitness business mainly because at the time of this recording britney dawn has never been charged or arrested for any crimes pertaining to those accusations it's also unclear if all of her victims were fully refunded or not brittany's scam was in no way intelligent she didn't have to know how to code or hack into somebody's bank account nor did she have to trick anybody into wiring her money as long as she could post pretty pictures and videos and block her angry customers all she had to do for her scam to work was continue to lie lie to the following she built and continues to build because the one thing influencers don't want to give up is their influence these have been the scams of brittany don davis a former fitness influencer turned spiritual guru if you are a fan of learning about scams cults and cautionary tales be sure to like and subscribe for future content like this to be recommended to you thanks for watching my name is josie and i hope to catch you again in the next episode um [Music] so [Music] hey

Channel: NOT THE GOOD GIRL

Views: 560,265

Keywords: Brittany Dawn Davis Nelson, Jordan Nelson, Pacira, influencer scam, fitness, health, Brittany Dawn, wedding, christian, Brittany Dawn Davis, Brittany Dawn lawsuit, lawsuit, Dallas County, influencer, influencer lawsuit, Brittany Dawn sued, Texas Attorney General

Id: ET6TuuAl0no

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021