Remember the Summer of Scam? If you need a refresher, the was a term coined to mark the summer of 2018, following the release of several high-profile and wild con sagas. Perhaps the defining story of that summer, though, was that of New York’s fake German heiress, Anna Sorokin, who infiltrated some of the city’s most elite social circles and conned a lot of people under the fake name “Anna Delvey.”
The story of Sorokin has been dramatized in the Netflix series Inventing Anna, executive produced and written by Shonda Rhimes, and based on Jessica Pressler’s New York magazine exposé about Delvey. Before you watch the show, here are a few key things to know about the stranger-than-fiction saga.
The story first came to light thanks to a New York magazine article.
In May of 2018, New York published Pressler’s article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People,” detailing exactly how Sorokin scammed a number of people and institutions into footing the bill for her lavish Manhattan lifestyle, which included a deluxe suite at the Soho hotel 11 Howard. She did this primarily by posing as a wealthy German heiress and aspiring entrepreneur—she told investors she was planning to launch a “a Soho House–ish type club” that would also be an art space.
Pressler, who was previously best known for writing the article that became the…
