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Scamanda (ABC)


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(edited)

ABC docuseries that premieres Wednesday October 9 at 10pm ET

The doc series tells the story of Amanda Riley — a wife, mother, blogger and Christian — whose tragic cancer tale captivates thousands. But Amanda has a secret that she’s dying to keep, and after an anonymous tip to an investigative reporter, her own words may prove to be her downfall.

Edited by DanaK
Updated synopsis
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(edited)

Did the series premiere for anyone tonight? It was supposed to premiere tonight after getting pushed back to week. I’m getting What Would You Do

ETA: Googling indicates US Magazine says it’s been delayed to 2025

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/everything-to-know-about-abcs-scamanda-series-premiere-date-more/

Edited by DanaK
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(edited)

I didn’t know too much about this story but I find people who lie about everything fascinating in a creepy way. They haven’t said too much about her husband yet but he had to know what was going on. He would have been part of family meetings with doctors, gone to prenatal appointments where the cancer would be mentioned, see bills and insurance statements etc. The story about her going swimming immediately after having brain fluid drained is just crazy. Did she want to see how much she could push it with this woman? The fact that one of her friends was giving her $500 a month is unbelievable.

Edited by Madding crowd
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Why is it whenever someone is a massive scammer or a cult leader, they’re always super religious? 
 

Didn’t know this story, but wow, already enough lies in episode one to choke a horse.  I feel sorry for her kids. So manipulative, “Im Pregnant” and want you to be the godparents…fascinating to me, too, how these pathological liars and users live with themselves.  

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On 1/31/2025 at 11:48 AM, Madding crowd said:

I didn’t know too much about this story but I find people who lie about everything fascinating in a creepy way. They haven’t said too much about her husband yet but he had to know what was going on. He would have been part of family meetings with doctors, gone to prenatal appointments where the cancer would be mentioned, see bills and insurance statements etc. The story about her going swimming immediately after having brain fluid drained is just crazy. Did she want to see how much she could push it with this woman? The fact that one of her friends was giving her $500 a month is unbelievable.

Years ago I worked with a woman who said she had Lyme disease. This was mid to late 90s. I was in high school/college. It was a crappy retail job, think a small Walmart kind of chain. She'd miss days all the time, said it was the Lyme disease. If I had to guess the was late 30s at most, but but she was a rough looking woman who could hack been in her 20s or 50s, it was hard to gauge.  She had a daughter, 8.9 years old. I can't remember exactly, but she started saying she or her daughter had cancer. For the life of me, I can't remember which. People started giving her money. Not thousands, but $10 here and there. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but when the majority of the employees in the store where part time or barley full time (32 hours) and minimum wage was less than $4.50, that was a few hours of work. I worked the service desk and one night I took a phone call from a guy who said he was a  lawyer at blah, blah, blah and asked if X worked there. Yes she does. Has she been telling people there is cancer? Yes. He said that wasn't true and he needed to talk to someone. I couldn't transfer that call to a manger fast enough. I'd like to believe the Lyme disease was real, sometimes her calfs and ankles would be swollen and purple, so there was something physical going on. 

Do we know how many episodes of this there will be? I don't remember hearing about this woman before but I've half followed the story of the woman who worked on Grey's Anatomy who basically did the same thing. 

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(edited)

I thought the first episode was fascinating. I wished they had dropped them all at once, because I want to see the next one. 

I’m curious about Amanda and her husband, as both aren’t on here. Tempted to Google but I don't want to be spoiled. 

This is munchausen’s syndrome, right? Reminds me of the woman who for years faked that her daughter was terminally ill. She was killed by her daughter, who went to prison and has been released. 

I tried to attach a link but it wouldn’t work. 

 

Edited by Sweet-tea
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17 hours ago, Sweet-tea said:

This is munchausen’s syndrome, right?

 

Nah, in this case it was mostly greed and some attention (if it led to $).  She didn't want to work like the rest of us and be able to go do things on someone else's dime.

Looks like the next episode is about the husband (he is a piece of work too) and his poor daughter from his first marriage.  The daughter did not deserve what happened to her.

Shame that big mega church could have taken all those funds and provided food and shelter to homeless or vets or purchasing much needed equipment for the disabled, etc. but Amanda put up a good show.  She knew how to pick 'em.

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Wow, Aleeta and her daughters went through hell with these grifters. How do you convince a judge your ex is so mentally ill that she should lose custody of her kid?! Absolutely evil, especially considering what her eldest daughter went through fighting leukemia!! There's got to be a special place in hell, for real.  I keep saying it, but How do you live with yourself?! People who actually Had cancer, giving you money and donating their plasma, and you just smile for the camera and keep lyjng?!  I'm gobsmacked.  

This episode got repetitive and dragged a bit--sooo many commercial breaks! I wish they'd have released it all at once, as well. Just when it starts progressing, the episode ends.

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(edited)
On 1/31/2025 at 10:48 AM, Madding crowd said:

I didn’t know too much about this story but I find people who lie about everything fascinating in a creepy way...Did she want to see how much she could push it with this woman? The fact that one of her friends was giving her $500 a month is unbelievable.

Liars are somewhat interesting to me but I'm always fascinated more by people who believe these long cons.  Not a quick hit because we all have vulnerable moments.  No, it's believing in the people who keep claiming they're victims of one catastrophe after another or those who fake cancer, like this woman. 

I guess a personal relationship leads people to have more trust of people and more likely to believe the lies but there's also more opportunity for messiness. 

I remember when I first started working in a department that had an employee who was constantly befallen by tragedy.  They didn't ask for money but they did leverage the sympathy of their coworkers for attention and sometimes extra grace. At first, I believed them, but I quickly started to notice a pattern to their tragedies or points where they'd become the victim.  It was predictable but I hesitated to say anything because they were otherwise believed and I didn't want to be the "meanie" calling someone down on their luck a liar.  Eventually, they pushed things too far and my coworkers started to see what I saw. 

So I'm surprised there weren't more Lisas.  The more Amanda put out there, the more anyone who knew anything about cancer would grow suspicious.  Maybe they'll cover this but was there an underground whisper network that found her story suspicious?

On 2/1/2025 at 6:35 PM, Sweet-tea said:

I thought the first episode was fascinating. I wished they had dropped them all at once, because I want to see the next one.

Same here.  I wish I had waited until all four of the episodes had been released but I wanted some SB counter programming so I streamed anyway.

Edited by Irlandesa
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31 minutes ago, Pi237 said:

This episode could’ve been 15 minutes. I’m fascinated by this story, but the pacing is excruciatingly slow. 

I suppose there's a 20/20 version of this story but I think it's been pretty decent so far.  They are giving us enough about her victims and followers for me to care but they aren't belaboring it too much.  My only complaint is that I didn't wait to binge it. 

I love that people went to watch the raid.  I feel sorry for the ex-wife who I'm sure just wanted her exposed so she could go back and get custody.

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I'm interested in the topic but wish they had released the series all at once. As others have said, it's too little, too late. I hope 20/20 or a similar show covers this too. 

Munchausen's was my first thought when I saw this. When the psychologist brought it up though I wish she had delved more into Amanda's background. It sounds like they either don't know much about her or aren't revealing it. What a horrible thing to do to people. And she was so convincing, especially in her interviews. Dynamic, charismatic person. 

I really wanted to know about what was going on with the husband. He had to be in on it. 

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5 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I also wonder about her parents. Surely they would have seen her endless posts, videos etc. Yet they paid no attention and even went to Europe after she announced terminal cancer. The husband had to know; you can’t fake that level of detail with someone you live with. 

Yes, where were her parents in all this? Or were they relieved to be free of her and got out of dodge? No doubt she was behind getting full custody of those kids. And she can tell the most incredible lies convincingly. They’ve probably dealt with that their whole lives and are happy she’s someone else’s problem for a change.  Still, lots of holes in her back story. 

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On 2/16/2025 at 1:42 PM, Pi237 said:

Yes, where were her parents in all this?

Amanda's statement claimed that her parents and siblings knew nothing about her scam, but her mother had told one of her supporters that she went to appointments with Amanda, so the mother had to know.  And there's no way the husband didn't know.  She couldn't have faked all the hospital stuff without him being aware of it.

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I had not heard of this case before. I binged it on Hulu. They could have covered this in two episodes. It boggles my mind that Amanda got away with this scam for so long. And definitely her husband and mother were in on it. 
I’m not sure about her having Munchausens.  I think she was just greedy and a pathological liar and con artist. 
I wish they had  shown how she had faked all the pictures and stuff, although they did suggest she went to the ER or doctor offices at times. 
I just felt bad for all the people she hurt, especially the four kids and the ex-wife. And no one is ever going to get any money back. 

 

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I can’t believe she was qualified to be a principal of a school; although it was a Christian school there should be some effort at getting someone with administration experience and advanced education. Amanda really showed her colors when she cut off her step daughter without a further thought.

They mentioned the ex-wife gained legal custody after an incident on a family cruise with Amanda’s family. Does anyone know anything about that? Her husband belongs in jail too. It’s impossible to fake a terminal cancer diagnosis while pregnant with someone you live with. I can see her fooling the kids though.

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I just finished. I’ve been listening to the podcast at the same time. I prefer the podcast as there is more detail, especially from the detective and reporter. But of course the TV show has the splashy photos of her. 

i would like to know how she faked all the photos in the hospital. She had to be there for a different reason, but how did she do the IVs and everything herself? And it must’ve been a full-time job just learning all the details about her cancer to ensure she was accurate in describing her symptoms. The woman is a psycho or at the least has a cluster B personality disorder to the nth degree. 

The sentence didn’t impress me. I thought, five years means she’ll probably serve about three. Disappointing that she’s in a halfway house now. She’ll still be young enough to scam many more people when she gets out. 

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(edited)
14 hours ago, Sweet-tea said:

i would like to know how she faked all the photos in the hospital. She had to be there for a different reason, but how did she do the IVs and everything herself?

All we saw were an “arm” with IVs. That could have been anyone’s arm. And like Jamie said-she never looked sick. That so many fell for her con is gobsmacking to me. 
I’m also a cancer survivor-and could see from the pictures she looked healthy as a horse.

What I’m side-eyeing is the producers having all the people she conned and who believed in her but agreed to do the show as her victims be identified as her “friends” in the first two episodes and then changed to “church member” and finally “former friend” (Lisa) in the final episode. That Rebecca still believed her until Amanda pleaded guilty? I mean her own boyfriend died of cancer and she couldn’t see how healthy Amanda looked in comparison? No amount of makeup will cover up ALL signs. Not in my experience and with my fellow survivors when we were undergoing chemo together.

And yeah, she continued her scam even before she got sent to the halfway house.

Edited by GHScorpiosRule
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(edited)

I've watched the first episode so far and boy Amanda is clearly a psychopath. The things she did to her husband's ex to get custody of the daughter were awful

You want to side eye the people who kept sending money to Amanda for her (fake) cancer fight, but most people don't expect someone to fake cancer, especially when she was showing them a scar on her head and her being in the hospital and (supposedly) getting treatment. Amanda certainly went all out to fake her cancer fight

 

Edited by DanaK
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I listened to the podcast when it came out and just finished this and the Netflix documentary about Belle Gibson. I’ve been thinking about the similarities between the two in how the got away with these scams.

First Both were really hooked into communities and cultures that don’t exactly encourage fact checking. Both mega churches and Wellness communities are predisposed to believe in miracles that defy scientific explanation. It’s actually sort of the point of both communities. So when both Amanda and Belle were walking around looking more like they’d been to a four star spa then chemo it could just be written off as a miracle. Either Jesus or raw food “saved” them. I grew up in a mega church and can see how people would just buy Amanda’s story. You’re supposed to believe in everyday miracles so why not. I have less experience with wellness communities but I’ve always noticed they use really similar language to encourage a belief in what I would describe as miracles. So they were both speaking to people who were ready to believe.

I also think timing helped both out. 2015ish-2020ish was sort of prime “my truth” time. I remember it being really socially unacceptable to question someone’s life experience. To say out loud you thought either  person was lying probably meant risking becoming an outcast.

And finally I think both were attractive young middle class white women. We are so primed to believe the sick white woman narrative. I say this as a middle class white woman. It’s so common for me to meet other women from my background who are always sort of vaguely sick.

In the end I think Belle is mentally ill but I think Amanda and Corey are scam artists. I think they had money troubles and probably one legitimate medical bill for some sort of test (that came back negative) and saw they could get a lot of free money and stuff this way. I always thought the custody stuff was about money too. I think they just needed the child support. I think they wanted a particular lifestyle in an expensive area, got in over their heads with debt, and one thing led to another. Heck I think it’s possible Cory remembered how much support you could get from his step daughter’s illness and started the idea. Either way, I think they were both lazy, greedy grifters who found each other.

(edited)

One thing I picked up more from the documentary than the podcast was how charismatic and well spoken Amanda was. It makes me understand how she duped so many people. She was a very good actress. As the detective said, it was like she was playing a character. Every day it was a performance: "Cancer victim who has remained positive and inspires others". People mostly bought it. 

I don't know if she has narcissistic personality disorder, borderline or something else, but the woman is clearly off. I wonder about her childhood, as her mother seems off too. I don't believe her mother wasn't aware of what Amanda was doing. I think she knew and Corey absolutely knew and participated in it. 

I feel for her children, her stepdaughter and Corey's ex-wife. Also the reporter had to spend thousands or dollars to defend herself against a baseless lawsuit from Amanda. 

This would make a good movie! Even better, maybe a book as it would delve more into the details of her upbringing, motive and how she pulled off such a prolonged, comprehensive scam. I'm trying to imagine who would be a good pick to play Amanda in the movie. 

Can anyone recommend any other good scammer/con artist docs or podcasts?  

Edited by Sweet-tea
1 hour ago, FozzyBear said:

I also think timing helped both out. 2015ish-2020ish was sort of prime “my truth” time.

But Amanda’s first scam started around 2010 with Lisa. It wasn’t until 2 years later when she read that Amanda was saying she have another cancer or whatever that Lisa saw a red flag and then reached out to the reporter.

But fair points about the community and mega churches. I guess I’m still  confounded that the one friend -whose boyfriend had the same cancer-didn’t question why Amanda didn’t look sick and that the pictures of IVs was enough to convince her.

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