Dana Chanel Accused of Scamming Black Businesses

Your favorite Bible-toting product placer is back in the news this week. Founder of Christian mobile app “Sprinkle of Jesus” and owner of hair and skincare brand The Curl Bible has now been sued by the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro for allegedly scamming the same community she claims to empower, small Black business owners. There have been reports of shady business dealings with the Philadelphia-based Instagram influencer for years. The complaints mainly came from other Black Philly business owners who once sought out her services for marketing and credit repair, but claimed they never received the services they paid for.

Has the influencer—whose real name is Casey Olivera—proven herself to be a scam artist? While she has built an online community of over 750,000 followers who are the main supporters of her brand and affiliated companies, has she managed to play us all under the guise of the “Millennial millionaire mentality?”

“Dana Chanel built a following online by presenting herself as a Black woman-owned small business success story,” Shapiro stated. “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.”

The ”Sprinkle of Jesus” app, which is mainly dedicated to providing daily devotional content to its subscribers and business consultancy to Christian entrepreneurs, was also used to market app-building services to others who desired to create a similar community for themselves. The parent company of the app, Alakazam Apps, LLC, which Chanel owns with her father, Nakia Rattay, was charged Friday in a lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Several complaints filed are by customers claiming to have paid the company for app-building services and guidance on how to maximize their use, and have received neither an app nor a refund.

“Some consumers who paid monthly hosting fees to Alakazam never received a completed mobile app from the company or received a mobile app that lacked a minimum level of functionality necessary to give the product any value to the consumer,” the lawsuit says.

One customer who paid Chanel’s company upwards of $2,000 never received the app they paid for, and reached out to Chanel over ten times, yet never received a response, the lawsuit claimed.

Other complaints include customers who paid Chanel’s other company, Credit Exterminators, for credit cleanup services which, you guessed it, they said they never received, according to the lawsuit. When customers reached out to credit bureaus to follow up on the status of disputes, they were quickly made aware that the disputes the company had claimed to make on their behalf were never filed. Efforts to reach out for refunds once again hit a brick wall.

“It’s hard enough these days for workers in Philadelphia,” Shapiro said Friday. “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.”

Dana Chanel has yet to make a public statement on the allegations.