The Disturbing and Incredible Story of Fake Cancer Survivor "Scamanda," With Host Charlie Webster | Ep. 596
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 13 minutes
Words per Minute
173.40038
Summary
Amanda C. Reilly thought she had stage 4 blood cancer. Except she didn t. And the ruse she went through, the fraud she committed on her friends, family, and church members, is the subject of the hit investigative podcast, Scamanda.
Transcript
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Beat, beat, beatboxing actually has hidden health benefits.
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It can help strengthen and protect your voice from injury.
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Your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
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Oh, we have an incredible true crime story for you today.
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Blogger Amanda C. Reilly had stage four blood cancer, except she didn't at all.
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And the ruse she went through, the fraud she committed on her friends, her family, her
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church members, is the subject of the hit investigative podcast, Scamanda.
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So I'm not, I'm not speaking out of school here when I tell you it was a scam.
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But how she pulled it off and the lengths that this woman went to, to fool people into believing
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she was ill and to donating to her funds in order to help her with her disease will just
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The podcast was the number one show on Apple in all categories for weeks and for very good
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I listened to it with my whole family when we went to France.
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We were, everybody was into it like Scamanda, more Scamanda.
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The host and producer of the show, Charlie Webster, is here with us today to discuss how
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one woman managed to scam friends, family, and strangers out of more than $100,000 with
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I love that description of your trip to France was just like dominator by Scamanda.
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My youngest is nine and it appealed to all of us.
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So it's, it's got a wide range of listeners and fans and it's just completely exploded online
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And it's kind of, I mean, forgive me because I know some people actually really lost money
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and were emotionally wounded by this woman, but it was fun.
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You made it fun to listen to because the first several episodes, you really are, you know
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from the name that it's not real, but you spend the whole time like, how did she do it?
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It's funny you should say that, Megan, because I debated so much.
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I was scribbling notes all the time because I couldn't decide whether to call it Scamander
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and whether it would give the game away too much.
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Because for those that haven't listened, I actually don't let you really know what happens
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And Megan, you'll know yourself as a broadcaster and journalist, how hard that is to do when
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you're actually making and producing something.
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And but how I actually got onto the story was there's an there's an investigative true crime
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Well, it wasn't even a story because that's quite quite a few people have asked me, like,
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And I'm like, oh, no, we are like I actually kind of did the story.
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We are the original broadcaster of the story in a way.
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And Nancy found this from an anonymous tip back in like 2015.
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But then what was so interesting was she was looking into it for a potential story.
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And then she ended up not making it as a story, but became embroiled in the story as a character
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And then that's when I came on board to build it further as a journalist and then look into
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And to be honest with you, when I first spoke to Nancy and I mean, we can go into the fact
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that Amanda wrote a blog, but I started to read Amanda's blog and look at pictures and
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And I was like, OK, I need to just I need to make sure that we've got this right, because
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You start you listen to her blog post and you're like, no, she definitely has cancer.
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And yes, this whole episode is a spoiler alert.
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So if you're going to listen to Scamanda, you should probably come listen to this episode
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And then you'll have fun listening to Charlie and yours truly talk about it.
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Um, but yeah, she this woman seemed to have a Ph.D.
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So you spend much of the series wondering, well, maybe she had cancer for a little while.
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Maybe she had like a small dose of cancer, but like she definitely had some sort of illness.
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And then, of course, you find out at the end, the whole thing was a scam.
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If she had devoted one tenth of her energies to actually just working and getting a like a
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great job, and I know she had a job for some of this time, she she wouldn't have needed to commit
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But that that begs the question of why she did it, which we'll get to in a bit.
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You might want to look into this person who may be scamming people on cancer.
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And just to just to top it off, Charlie, Scamanda is not the only person to scam people
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when it comes to cancer like this, as it turns out, is a thing.
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This is what I when I first looked into it and started.
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Honestly, I sat there with boxes and boxes of papers and documents, and I tried to access
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bankruptcy documents, which took me months and months and months.
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And and I was like, no, this isn't do people actually do this.
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And then since I released Scamanda, people started telling me that, you know, oh, my best
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friend did this or actually reminds me of this story.
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And I didn't realize how common it was, to be honest.
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I mean, I think there are there are lots of motivations, right?
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Some people have this used to be called Munchausen's.
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Now they call it, I think, fictitious disorder or something like that.
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But, you know, they why does somebody this doesn't sound like it was Amanda, but those
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people who have Munchausen's will actually hurt themselves on purpose.
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You know, they'll swallow bleach and things like that to to actually get into the hospital
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and be treated by doctors and I guess feel special.
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I think she was, you know, messed up as anybody would have to be to commit this crime.
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But I don't think she was actually mentally ill in the way somebody with Munchausen says.
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So Amanda started a blog and I think the timing is really key to what she did and a few other
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And I remember looking back at my own career and OK, where was I in 2012?
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And it's a bit of a giveaway by the way that I sound that I am British.
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And I was actually hosting the London Olympics in 2012 as a broadcaster.
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And I think it was all about the blogosphere and Twitter.
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And I think that's that is very key to her story.
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So she started a blog at the time where blogging was really a thing.
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And it was an automatic credibility, I think, for your narrative and your story.
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And, you know, we had the mummy blogger, the fitness bloggers.
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And Amanda started to share her story of her diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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And she called her blog, What the Heck is Hodgkin's Lymphoma?
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And she started that blog and she was so detailed in it.
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I mean, a lot of people, this is the thing about her.
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And a lot of people came to her blog and she started to get an audience.
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Well, yeah, you said we're going to give spoilers away.
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This is for people who have listened to it or they know they're going to get spoilers.
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It's still worth your time to go back and listen to the whole thing.
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Yeah, because I think to that point, I think it's not really about the end result.
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What I wanted to try and show in the podcast was how she did it.
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So she was part narrator and telling you how she did it herself, in a way, alongside me,
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which I had a lot of fun, a lot of late nights doing and a lot of sleepless nights,
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But then this started in 2012 when she said she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
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And then I found out that in 2010, she told a couple in San Jose that actually she was diagnosed
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And then I then found out, actually, after the podcast, that this was going on even before that.
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Like, I'm sure we'll get into the motivation, which we've touched upon a little bit, which
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I think is so interesting, and her behavior and the psychology.
00:10:05.960
But there seems to be a pattern of behavior of lying or saying that you're, you know, I
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found out that she said she got lupus as a teenager.
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You know, I don't know whether she definitely didn't have that, but people think she didn't
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And then I feel like it grew and grew, and I feel like she realized that she could get
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things, and not necessarily money, but attention or, I don't know, get away with not doing that
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project or work or something by not being very well.
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But we can talk a bit more about her past anyway.
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But yes, she wrote this blog and then became a bit of a blog influencer and then a local
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celebrity, and then she infiltrated the church and then became a known person within the
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church and was actually called the anointed one.
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She took advantage of people of faith who were rooting for her and believing and praying for
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But one of the interesting things about it to me was she's married ultimately to this
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guy named Corey, and she met Corey because Corey was married to Alita, and they had two
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And they hired Amanda originally when Amanda was a teenager, like 18, to sort of come in
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and be with the two daughters and be a source of light, play with them, teach them cheerleading
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And she was this super and I think remained this super bubbly, positive force, you know,
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We learn later, but that's how she first got folded into this family.
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And it seems to me, you tell me, but like she looked at this daughter's cancer and learned,
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you know, and I bet she saw how much attention the child got.
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But that seemed to me to be like where she got the idea, like, oh, look at all the attention
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that goes to this, this young girl who's been stricken with this terrible disease.
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And the fact that she ends up with Corey, who's 12 years older than her.
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And I, but I also, you know, when I started to look into that part of it, I did wonder,
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because I really tried to, to make sure I didn't have blinkers on and to make sure that I didn't
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have a preconceived idea of what I thought it was or wanted it to be, because I thought
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Especially because you've got Nancy's now a character of the story and Amanda, well, hated
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Nancy, the investigative journalist who got turned on to the story and started pushing
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And then, then it didn't become about making the story.
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She just became the story and she ended up a source to the police and she ended up being
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And then I wanted to try and play that off in the podcast because I didn't quite want
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And the reason why was because that's exactly how it played out.
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And I wanted to show you that as a listener, because I wanted you to feel how this went along
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and why people didn't believe Amanda, sorry, did believe Amanda, but didn't believe Nancy.
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Um, so to go back to Corey, Alita, the two girls, Jess and Jamie, it was Jamie that had
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And yet, as you said, Megan, Amanda was brought in to, to spend time with them and teach them
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And they weren't having a lot of social interaction because of, um, Jamie's cancer and she is doing
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And actually she's, um, just had a baby, um, so, which is actually a genuine miracle baby
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for those that have listened to the show, uh, which we can talk about.
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And Amanda came into the home and one of the things I wanted to make sure was, well, was
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She, there was definitely a position of power there.
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He was much older, like in his, what would he be like late twenties, 29, 30.
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I don't know, kind of a bit strange for me why somebody would do that.
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There was an element of some of the things that Jamie went through and her story and what
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And now this becomes the pattern of behavior because she went to cancer groups for young
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And I think she took on other people's stories and then created her own narrative from that.
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And people thought she was an, she must've known because she was an oncologist.
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I mean, people actually thought she was an oncologist.
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I actually told somebody, oh no, she's actually not an oncologist.
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Um, because she would say things about the different drugs that we use, the different
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treatment that was used, all the symptoms of what you're going through, which I don't
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think is just something you can find off the net.
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I think you would have to listen to people's stories and build that your own picture in
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And I think that's how, I mean, there's so many reasons of how she managed to do this,
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but one of them was that it was very, very hard to catch her and to prove that she was
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lying because it was so genuine in a strange way.
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And then when you listen to her talk about it and you, the, the podcast is a good job
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because you hired an actress to read the Amanda blog posts and the actress does a great job.
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She sounds super bubbly and she sounds like someone you'd want to know and like maybe go
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And then you also intersperse the real Amanda because you have her on tape repeatedly speaking
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And she too is, she's just like the actress playing her super bubbly and so on.
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And very, very knowledgeable about cancer, cancer, drugs, you know, experimental treatments.
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Here's just a little, this is all from Scamanda podcast, um, of the actual Amanda talking about
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I've been fighting stage four blood cancer for the past three years to the point that doctors
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They developed a new drug, immunotherapy, and they wanted to give it a try on me.
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We'd been warring and praying and fundraising and the doctor, you know, told me, I like your
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positivity, but you need to understand that in your situation, this drug working would
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Sorry that I'm laughing, but that's my favorite.
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One of my favorite when she says like rain in California, because she comes up with these
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If you listen to the whole thing, she she's, she's good with the phrases.
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She's good at sort of spinning a yarn in a way that's very believable.
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She, she winds up with Corey, the husband of the family who she was supposed to be there
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And then the relationship goes downhill between Amanda, Corey, and now the ex-wife Alita, who's
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And this is important because Alita, as many ex-wives who are in custody battles over their
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children, does not wind up really feeling all that great about Amanda.
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And Amanda and Corey want full custody of the daughters.
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And one of her daughters is starting to have the same feeling from inside the family, not
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the one who had cancer, Jamie, the other daughter, Jessa.
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But it's hard for them to really be heard because she's disgruntled.
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She's the ex-wife, you know, it's and then you've got the sunny, cheery thousand watt smile.
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Nobody wants to look at the sweet cancer victim and say, like, you don't have it.
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I believe the bitter ex-wife, which is how they portrayed the ex.
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Yeah, there's so much in that around human behavior, which is what I find so fascinating.
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Like, I love psychology and how complex we are, because I think there's so many possibilities
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But I think we like to put them in those, for want of a better phrase, buckets, because
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it helps us identify people or maybe feel safer.
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But if you look at the way you do, you described it perfectly, Megan, because if you look at
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Amanda, yes, very, very, to me, the typical manipulation, master manipulator, they're not
00:19:30.420
horrible, as in how we would perceive aggressive, horrible.
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They're not this big, bad monster that comes up to you in the street.
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That's how they manipulate and get through the situation.
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And then you've got somebody like Alita who, and it really is, in all seriousness, awful
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what happened to Alita, because Jessa got taken off Alita for a year.
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Like, I can't even imagine what that must feel like for a mother.
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And then, to top that off, Amanda and Corey were influencing Jessa to make her turn against
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And what do we expect Alita to portray herself like?
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So then she is desperate and heartbroken and hurt and absolutely devastated.
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But then that gets perceived as like the, you know, like you said, the disgruntled ex-wife.
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And then Amanda used that to play into the narrative.
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You know, she's just jealous of me because then when Alita did start to say, you know,
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she's faking cancer, why would then they believe the ex-wife?
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Because Amanda had already spun the yarn of the fact that she was not a good mom.
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She was, you know, doing all these things, basically, trying to portray her as a bad character.
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So then you've got this woman who's smiley, charming, Amanda I'm talking about.
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And she's just trying to protect her, her stepdaughter and her family from the big bad mom.
00:21:18.280
So you can see how convincing it became when you talk about it like that.
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And, you know, I think we've got to remember that there was a child in the middle of this,
00:21:27.640
poor Jessa, who spent, you know, I've spoken to her a lot and she's in the podcast.
00:21:32.940
And she feels, she feels not only horrifically betrayed and violated, but that was her upbringing.
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She was lied to her whole upbringing, her whole childhood.
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And she feels guilty, though, for what Amanda did,
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because on the receiving end of some of the gifts and the kindness of people was Jessa.
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She got meals, she got to go and see concerts, she got to appear, you know, she got to go to sports games.
00:22:07.740
And she feels guilty because she was taking that, you know, under the premise of a lie,
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So, you know, there's a lot of deep, yeah, deep complications of relationships here.
00:22:23.240
In fact, to me, money doesn't even, when I spoke to so many people, money wasn't the thing.
00:22:28.780
Even so many people spoke to me off the record because they were scared of Amanda and what she might do to them.
00:22:38.520
It couldn't have been about the money, because if you look at what the feds say she stole,
00:22:43.140
I mean, she defrauded people out of, it was $105,000 over, what, seven years, I think.
00:22:55.080
Like, that's, that, it can't have been about the money.
00:22:58.380
It has to, as you point out, have been about attention.
00:23:02.200
You describe her almost as like having celebrity status in San Jose, in particular in her church.
00:23:09.740
Um, and on top of that, it seems like she used it to make other people do her mothering, take
00:23:20.360
care of her household, hold responsibilities that I've seen as a pattern in other cases,
00:23:27.080
So I, I absolutely love like the stories about Munchausen by proxy or all that.
00:23:30.880
But like, they use it to make other people do their responsibilities.
00:23:34.480
So poor Jess is over there and, uh, somebody else is going to have to make Jess's dinner
00:23:42.720
And you said about the $105,000, it wasn't about the money, but also it's important to
00:23:49.760
point out that the way of the laws, um, very black and white, right?
00:23:57.020
Um, so the only way that they could get Amanda criminally was for wire fraud, because technically
00:24:11.480
Um, even though it obviously has a horrific impact on people, that's not against the law.
00:24:21.360
So if she hadn't have, and that was because she did a good, like a, an online fund page,
00:24:28.900
So that's how they managed to criminally charge her.
00:24:32.600
Now, if she'd have not done it online, where she'd have just collected money, um, through
00:24:37.340
check and through cash, she would not be in prison.
00:24:40.780
I've just given it away where she is now, but yeah.
00:24:43.340
So she would have got away with it because, yeah, because there was lots of money.
00:24:47.700
So there was so much more money, but it was cash and checks.
00:24:52.140
And, um, I've got a picture of her in church and she was part of a mega church.
00:24:56.380
So think how many thousands of people that are, that, that is, that's not just a couple
00:25:02.200
And they're putting money and throwing money at her feet on stage.
00:25:05.980
So then you think, well, how much money was that?
00:25:08.620
And then how much money over that seven years, Megan, did she collect in cash and check?
00:25:13.580
Nevermind what you said in kind, which was through babysitting.
00:25:19.600
And there was a lot of patterns of babysitting when she said she was in hospital and Corey
00:25:27.340
Well, I mean, she actually was in hospital because she took loads of pictures of herself
00:25:31.100
in hospital, but there was people that were trying to help her babysitting, cleaning,
00:25:37.300
um, cooking meals, gifting things, raising money, uh, for her.
00:25:44.420
Even there was somebody, um, who gave a nutritional supplement every month.
00:25:50.820
So she could just go on and a membership to an, like a nutritional supplement.
00:25:54.940
So every month she could order as much as she wanted.
00:26:00.040
So I think there was so much more, but none of that counted as the criminal charge.
00:26:04.600
It was just the wire fraud, which makes you think, oh my gosh, how do people, how does
00:26:11.200
I, I don't know, maybe we should change the law.
00:26:14.460
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00:26:46.760
One of the great moments in the podcast is where you, cause you interview the nanny to
00:26:50.760
the family to, you know, the Corey, Amanda family.
00:26:54.540
And if at one point the nanny talks about how she had a wealthy friend who wanted to
00:27:00.480
help Amanda and the person made a donation of like 50 bucks and Amanda was mad and mocked
00:27:10.920
And that's one of those like, oh, that veils down moments where like, she's bad.
00:27:16.840
No, no one would ever mock a donation from anybody helping anybody with cancer.
00:27:21.940
But there are these little clues there where you start to see who she really is.
00:27:35.560
So Nancy, the investigative reporter is fun to listen to.
00:27:39.100
She's almost a co-host in the, in the, in the podcast.
00:27:46.500
Like, I know she's a scammer, but is she a scammer?
00:27:53.200
So here's a little bit of Nancy, uh, Moscatello from the podcast talking about, you know, her
00:27:59.240
trying to deal with this and, and how she got sort of, um, involved.
00:28:04.920
I felt really torn more so with, is this real or not?
00:28:10.760
So every time I would read something, I'd say, oh no, she's got cancer.
00:28:19.700
And then I would read on a little bit further and I'd go, oh no, she doesn't have cancer.
00:28:24.280
But the detail and the energy and everything that went into it, it just felt really real.
00:28:34.580
So I start looking through the bankruptcy documents and there's just pages and pages of debt.
00:28:42.140
And I figured the best place to start is going through and see what that debt's all about.
00:28:48.480
And there's not one doctor, one medical expense.
00:28:54.280
Oh, that was an exciting moment too, because Amanda had to file for bankruptcy and Nancy
00:29:06.920
And that's, I think for Nancy and for the audience, that's a big aha moment.
00:29:13.620
You just reminded me when I first saw it that, um, I'm trying to remember the figures
00:29:19.360
now, it was like a one in front of a zero five or something and, or a zero or two five.
00:29:25.600
And it, if you look at the bank, we held it up to the light and it was doctored.
00:29:30.580
So it was actually for like 2,500 or something like that.
00:29:34.500
And it was to do with, cause Amanda ended up having two boys, um, two Corey and it was to
00:29:40.580
do with her pregnancy, but she'd put a one in front of it and, and done it as if it was
00:29:51.060
And, um, in the podcast, there's a moment where you hear both of them, uh, take the
00:29:56.160
stand and, you know, swear under oath and talk about their bankruptcy.
00:30:02.420
And I was like trying to get a hold of that audio for ages and ages because it was a really
00:30:07.040
And to me, it also pointed about, I have to be careful what I say, but further knowledge
00:30:13.120
of what was happening, not just with Amanda herself, because it was also, I can tell you
00:30:21.280
I, in my opinion, Corey knew everything in my opinion, Corey is guilty too.
00:30:27.260
Um, and that's one of the mysteries people have to decide for themselves and listening
00:30:30.640
to the podcast, whether the husband knew, but my opinion is he clearly knew and helped
00:30:36.620
How else was he taking these trips to the hospital with her out of town for days?
00:30:43.120
We're, we now know she was not in any hospital.
00:30:46.820
And he, well, she did what the, the, the crazy thing about all this is she did go to hospital.
00:30:58.120
She did sit in hospital and take photos of herself hooked up to IV machines.
00:31:03.440
There's a, there's a picture right in front of your screen.
00:31:07.700
So she wasn't sat behind a keyboard, like a keyboard warrior, just putting out this narrative.
00:31:12.660
She actually did spend her time in hospitals, taking selfies.
00:31:17.720
And I would just want to pick up on what you said about Corey.
00:31:22.260
So again, remember what we're talking about with the justice system, just because you haven't
00:31:27.740
been convicted of something doesn't mean that you didn't do it.
00:31:31.420
It's just the bar of evidence with our justice system is so high.
00:31:35.680
And if you listen to the podcast carefully, I planted some things there on purpose.
00:31:42.420
And one of them was the bankruptcy because they both swear under oath and talk about it.
00:31:47.660
And the other one is, um, Nancy, I'm sure you'll want to talk about this, Megan, but now Amanda
00:31:53.940
was taken to court by Nancy for civil harassment.
00:32:05.620
And Corey again, took the stand and said that he was at every appointment with Amanda.
00:32:12.740
So there's lots of little things that I dot in on purpose.
00:32:15.680
If you listen to carefully, that will give you clues that maybe I'm not allowed to say outright.
00:32:23.020
Yeah, well, the beauty of, you know, being an American now, now you are, um, is you can
00:32:31.240
offer your opinion and, uh, that's it's protected as free speech.
00:32:37.220
So, but let's talk about, I'm ready about the, uh, yeah, I know the UK has much stricter
00:32:54.780
She starts noticing things like the hospital gown.
00:32:59.040
She's posting photos of doesn't actually match up with that hospital.
00:33:06.240
She's a smart reporter and, um, starts sniffing around her, starts talking to the ex-wife
00:33:18.700
She tries to get a restraining or that's how crazy this woman was.
00:33:25.060
Normally, like if, if a reporter's onto you, most people probably give it up, just like
00:33:32.640
She goes on offense against the investigative journalist and actually drags her into court,
00:33:38.520
trying to get a restraining order against her all while in role.
00:33:45.640
This lunatic reporter is after me and now completely upends poor Nancy's life to the point where
00:33:53.700
you don't know how the judge is going to rule in this court proceeding, whether he's going to see
00:33:58.120
the truth, what we think is the truth going into this episode, or whether he's going to actually
00:34:03.880
restrain Nancy from any further reporting on Amanda.
00:34:07.240
Yeah, I mean, I was just listening to when you were explaining it, because, um, I think, I, I understand, right?
00:34:18.280
This might sound weird, but I understand why Amanda did that.
00:34:21.560
If you get into her head a little bit, which is what I was trying to do.
00:34:25.340
And I don't know what this says about me, but, um, without putting myself across in the wrong way,
00:34:29.640
because if you've lied that long and you've got so many people adoring you and she did, um,
00:34:43.140
She's not going to stand there and run away or take it.
00:34:48.840
So I suppose, what do you do when you're in too deep?
00:34:58.300
She got a restraining order out against her and she accused Nancy of civil harassment.
00:35:05.100
And it could have in a way gone either way, because, um, something I try and show in the
00:35:17.720
So what the thing about Amanda does, that's so clever because Amanda is very clever.
00:35:22.320
She uses some of the truth to try and showcase that because she said, you know, Nancy was
00:35:32.240
Nancy was calling family members, not as much as Amanda made out, but Nancy kind of was.
00:35:38.000
So you do wonder like, oh my gosh, and could she try and shut her up?
00:35:42.960
And because Nancy was part of the press, then obviously the laws here do protect, as you
00:35:54.780
And, you know, that was like two days of Nancy's time, nevermind of six months of preparation
00:36:10.980
And Nancy's worked in true crime for a long time, but Amanda could have ruined her reputation.
00:36:16.840
But she turns up the heat and then she turns up the heat again, because at that point, that's
00:36:23.760
when the police, the local police started looking into her.
00:36:26.800
And instead of stepping away, she goes forward.
00:36:29.520
So her MO in a way is to turn the heat up, to attack again, to go in even deeper.
00:36:36.540
And I do honestly believe it's because she kind of believes her own narrative and is in
00:36:44.220
And I'm not going to label her because one thing I did want to point out, actually, I
00:36:48.920
don't want to go on a tangent, but I did really want to point this out is you mentioned Munchausen
00:36:57.260
And one of the things I didn't do, which people have questioned, is I didn't talk about Amanda's
00:37:04.440
And the reason why is because it was never brought up by the police in the case, by her
00:37:10.320
defence, in the sentencing, in any place at all.
00:37:14.500
So I thought it was really important that I didn't go and diagnose her because this is
00:37:30.280
And I genuinely believe that she believes her own lies in a way, maybe not at an unconscious
00:37:37.880
level, but definitely somewhere on a, you know, conscious level or convincing herself
00:37:45.080
And when somebody does that, my point is that they're not going to walk away and they're
00:37:50.980
They're just going to go forward and make themselves the victim.
00:37:55.440
I mean, to the point of lying under oath and a bogus court proceeding against a reporter,
00:38:00.440
that's like now you really are, you know, you're compounding crime with more crime.
00:38:11.820
So you mentioned the detective who ultimately Nancy goes to and tries to get interested in
00:38:18.260
this in San Jose, because, you know, what's the point of all this other than, you know,
00:38:22.300
And this guy gets frustrated, too, like he he also is trying to figure this out and call
00:38:29.100
You think once it's in the hand of the police in San Jose, it's nearly over, but it's not.
00:38:35.100
But here's just a little from the podcast on Detective Martinez trying to figure out whether
00:38:40.760
she actually had attended this hospital City of Hope that she posted on.
00:38:46.100
Detective Martinez was waiting for a call back from City of Hope to confirm Amanda was a
00:38:55.960
They took a while to get back to me, like a week.
00:38:58.280
So they gave me an email basically saying, no, she's not a patient.
00:39:08.460
And I got chills because I was finally after all these calls or all these emails, this phone
00:39:30.440
It was so big because one of the things you do a great job of outlining is HIPAA prevented
00:39:36.720
the investigation of Amanda time and time again.
00:39:41.560
So just to get the one letter from the one hospital saying, no, she's never been a patient
00:39:57.060
And Amanda's case was the first in its history in America.
00:40:01.420
It was the first of its kind in ever in IRS history.
00:40:05.260
And I have found out since the podcast released that the podcast is now being used as an example
00:40:11.860
for other police in different states, basically.
00:40:17.940
And I know there's another case going on somewhere else at the moment.
00:40:20.920
And it's being used to help them build a case, which is amazing that we could tell this story
00:40:30.200
Because again, like I said, you can't put somebody behind bars for lying.
00:40:42.300
So what Detective Martinez had to do was try and ask questions in a way that wasn't giving
00:40:54.600
Because she said on her blog, so it's like cross-referencing her blog and exactly where
00:41:02.340
So can you at least just tell me whether she was a patient there?
00:41:08.760
So Nancy became a source for Detective Martinez.
00:41:11.460
And then it just hit a dead end every time because they couldn't access.
00:41:17.320
The basic thing was to show whether she had cancer or not.
00:41:21.240
But then you think if she didn't have cancer, if she did have cancer, then you would just...
00:41:26.980
If somebody, you know, accused me, I'd just present them with my medical records.
00:41:34.120
Even if she didn't, that's still not hard evidence.
00:41:38.200
And Detective Martinez did make contact with her.
00:41:44.840
And said, oh, you know, can you send me your medical records?
00:41:52.360
And so she actually marched herself down to the police station with an envelope full of
00:42:01.140
The other interesting thing, and I'm coming from someone who wasn't raised in this culture.
00:42:05.760
So in the UK, we have the NHS and the National Health Service and our medical records are one.
00:42:14.620
So I can go to a hospital in London and then I can go to a hospital in the north of England.
00:42:20.720
Completely nothing to do with the London hospital.
00:42:23.040
And my medical records will, you know, they'll be able to access exactly the same thing.
00:42:27.900
Whereas in the state, you can go to a different state and a different hospital.
00:42:32.720
And nobody knows that you've just been in that other hospital.
00:42:36.420
So she would go from one hospital to another hospital and to one, you know, accident and
00:42:44.820
So then nobody ever connected the dots because you don't share medical records.
00:42:50.680
I think that is something that's changing actually in the state of California.
00:42:56.200
That's how she got real medical records because she was faking it even with the doctors and in
00:43:03.740
So that's how she did it, which I think is important to talk about because a lot of people
00:43:09.720
And again, when I was speaking to all the people involved in her story, her friends or
00:43:16.400
former friends, some still believed her at the time.
00:43:18.960
So I had to be very careful, especially because Nancy was depicted as this like the enemy now,
00:43:24.480
this person who was vindictively going after this poor woman who's got cancer.
00:43:28.880
So I had to be so careful and be really independent when I was speaking to people because a lot of
00:43:37.260
And it was because she people had seen her in hospital.
00:43:45.280
She grew up from the hospital in the middle of the night one night.
00:43:54.200
I think I'd probably believe Amanda because I've seen her.
00:44:02.400
I've seen the hundreds and hundreds of selfies, her shaved head, losing her hair.
00:44:11.820
And, you know, the she collapsed and fainted in church and wet herself and was taken off by
00:44:18.460
To me, that is proof and evidence of what this woman is saying.
00:44:33.240
She just walks in like, hey, I'm here for the clinical trial, too.
00:44:35.980
And they give her the medicine, even though she doesn't have cancer.
00:44:39.180
I don't think she took part in the whole thing, but I think she definitely went.
00:44:43.240
Well, I know she definitely went to meet the consultant.
00:44:51.300
You point out in the podcast, it's like kind of disturbingly easy to get admitted into the
00:45:00.500
Like there's, you know, where does the doctor's office get its medical supplies?
00:45:06.780
You can do all sorts of things to make yourself look like you're actually in a medical facility.
00:45:14.180
Don't use this as a conversation to go and do this.
00:45:25.240
I could go on the internet and I could order everything I needed to make it look like I
00:45:38.160
And you can also walk into an accident and emergency room and get help.
00:45:43.240
You can say that you're dehydrated because you've got, you know, you're having chemotherapy.
00:45:48.400
You could say that you weren't feeling very well and they're not going to say, no, let
00:45:54.080
me check your records to make sure you have cancer.
00:45:56.320
They're going to treat you for what you're not for the cancer, but they're going to treat
00:46:05.300
This isn't such a huge problem that the doctors and nurses are now like, oh, we've got to
00:46:08.800
make sure she's really got the cancer because this is a thing.
00:46:14.120
And it was it was pretty easy for her to get these pictures, as it turns out.
00:46:17.720
But Nancy noticed something that was pretty telling about all these blog posts.
00:46:24.240
And this is where smart investigative journalism comes in.
00:46:34.000
One thing I noticed right away is Amanda would talk about facilities or names of of the places
00:46:40.460
she was going, but there was never any mention of the actual doctors or nurses or the people,
00:46:47.720
you know, that were basically saving her life on a daily basis.
00:46:56.480
Right, because it's a different matter altogether.
00:47:00.660
When you say it was this doctor by name who treated me.
00:47:08.640
Yeah, we there was things like you could zoom in in some of the pictures and see logos.
00:47:14.840
And you're like, hang on, does that logo match with where she says she is?
00:47:21.520
And the other thing that I looked at was there's a picture of some pill bottles.
00:47:27.980
And I didn't notice this until halfway through making it, to be honest.
00:47:32.060
And I zoomed in and I was like, because I was cross-referencing things.
00:47:37.140
And I was like, oh, my God, there's a different name on that pill bottle.
00:47:40.380
But she turned it so you could only see like it.
00:47:54.700
It's you you put out a like a mashup of some of her lies, the actual Amanda, not the actress reading the blogs to promote the podcast.
00:48:04.400
It's entertaining and it gives them a feel for just the number of things she said.
00:48:24.700
I'm traveling to New York for my clinical trial.
00:48:29.520
I'm in a clinical trial just trying to buy more time.
00:48:33.160
So anybody interested in learning more about my story, just support Amanda dot com.
00:48:36.600
So anybody who wants to go on there and follow my story and root me on.
00:48:40.420
I love prayers and happy thoughts and anything else.
00:48:51.880
I've seen that a million times and it still makes me laugh.
00:48:56.500
There is a there is obviously like a seriousness under it.
00:49:00.780
But you just when you look at that, you it kind of fits home, I think, and puts it into perspective.
00:49:06.900
Her reference there to I'm a terminal patient reminds me of another strain in the show, which is about how she did infiltrate actual cancer support groups.
00:49:22.260
I mean, this is where it's sick and was working with the American Cancer Society on like, you know, not fundraisers for her exactly if memory serves, but just sort of, you know, let's beat cancer type events.
00:49:40.600
If you go to them and say, I have stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma, they believe you.
00:49:45.500
They don't ask for medical records to make sure.
00:49:48.800
And she took advantage of all these good hearts.
00:49:53.400
And I think I think we've got to be careful that we don't end up living in a totally cynical system where because a few people and Detective Martinez actually said this to me.
00:50:06.560
Well, well, they should have checked or the church should have checked.
00:50:12.360
Because, I don't know, I'm a survivor myself of abuse, and I would hate to be questioned like that because we do live in a culture where we still sadly blame the victim.
00:50:27.840
And you shouldn't need you shouldn't for the people that genuinely need help, I think is what I'm trying to say, to walk in somewhere and these amazing charities and nonprofit organizations that do help so many people.
00:50:39.980
You shouldn't have to go through a checklist and show your medical records or prove that something's happened to you.
00:50:50.140
So I don't think it should be on them or on any because a lot of the people who I spoke to were like, you know, I don't consider myself a naive person.
00:51:02.640
And I'm like, no, no, no, you're thinking about it all wrong.
00:51:08.740
It's not the Hodgkin's lymphoma society's fault.
00:51:14.060
These people, all the people that were victimized by her, these people are just that good.
00:51:22.000
They infiltrate society and do these things and spin a narrative as this charming and lovely person that's helping people.
00:51:29.300
And to go to your point is, well, she did fundraise and help people.
00:51:32.920
She even sent cancer patients packages because she said, I know what it feels like and I know what you need.
00:51:41.920
Which is obviously a lie, but she did send care packages to people that needed them.
00:51:49.860
So you're like, what's so fascinating about her is she was inspirational.
00:51:56.800
She did offer hope to people, even though it was a lie.
00:52:03.020
It gave people hope in a situation that, you know, this was coming in, you know, but the back end of this was coming into COVID times.
00:52:11.220
And, you know, she inspired people and raised money for people.
00:52:18.160
It's one of the worst parts of it because it's like inspiration that you then find out is totally false.
00:52:23.720
And this is a fraudster is like you're going to be more cynical.
00:52:31.920
So, you know, we just had on the show these two IRS agents, these whistleblowers who investigated Hunter Biden.
00:52:39.640
And these guys know the law forward and backward.
00:52:42.260
They know exactly what you can and cannot do when it comes to raising money, wire fraud, all of it.
00:52:47.080
I mean, you do not want to get sideways with IRS agents.
00:52:53.500
So they looked into this for a long, long time, got all the records and ultimately brought her to court.
00:52:59.820
And we don't need to speculate or couch whether she did it because she admitted it.
00:53:13.080
And she got one of the most remarkable prison sentences for something like this that we've ever seen.
00:53:21.800
Yeah, she got five years in federal prison with no appeal.
00:53:26.920
And it was Special Agent Lee, I'd love to give her a mention, from the IRS, who's amazing, who ended up taking her down, obviously, with the information from Detective Martinez and then backing that with the information that Nancy had collected and given to the police.
00:53:43.180
Now, the thing about that is it became very personal for these people.
00:53:49.540
So, again, you look at a few people, it wasn't a lot of money.
00:53:53.180
And for Agent Lee, we've all been affected by cancer in some way, whether it's through ourselves or our family and through a loved one or a friend.
00:54:05.740
And so Detective Martinez, it became very personal.
00:54:13.580
And then Special Agent Lee had someone close to her who had cancer.
00:54:20.000
So I think it was very emotionally driven, which I think is important to point out.
00:54:25.540
But, you know, Megan, you said about her saying that she didn't have cancer.
00:54:34.660
So I looked into this really closely and I played out the statement in the podcast on purpose, the full statement, because I wanted to showcase you exactly what she was like.
00:54:43.580
This is the statement she made to the court, read by actor Kendall Horn.
00:54:48.660
Your Honor, there aren't enough words to adequately express how horrific I feel and how sorry I am that this happened.
00:55:01.540
My heart aches every day thinking that I did something that hurt other people.
00:55:07.140
This is the worst thing I've ever done and the worst mistake I could have made.
00:55:15.040
I was there in the sentencing and I met her, I watched it.
00:55:25.860
And so I worked really closely with the actress, Kendall, who I brought on board to try and mimic exactly that.
00:55:32.220
So we had, you know, we were stood in this room recording and I was mimicking her, her body language.
00:55:37.960
Kendall was copying me because she didn't actually say that she never had cancer.
00:55:50.680
Initially, she didn't plead guilty until the very, very end, until she was backed into a corner where she had to because they had proof, like physical proof that she didn't have cancer.
00:56:03.080
The reason why I bring that up is because I have spoke to her and she thinks that she was victimized and she was targeted by Nancy and Alita.
00:56:25.360
I hate to tell you you've been caught and your guilty plea tells us everything we need to know.
00:56:30.880
It is a big sentence and it's a great sentence.
00:56:34.300
So the husband gets no charges for the reasons that you mentioned earlier, but they have two boys.
00:56:47.980
Yeah, it's a good point you made, actually, about the sentence.
00:56:50.340
I'd love to bring that up because the recommended sentence was 12 to 18 months.
00:56:57.480
And that was in a courthouse in San Jose, which I believe you could probably inform me more.
00:57:05.760
And I remember sitting in the court and everybody just gasped.
00:57:11.840
But even the, you know, even the prosecutors, because I didn't think they thought that would happen.
00:57:17.060
And I feel like the judge was like, no, I can see through you.
00:57:20.600
And we need to show that this is not acceptable and it's not okay.
00:57:28.200
And again, you know, we talk, I find the law very interesting because it's very old fashioned in a way.
00:57:33.760
It's very adversarial where it's about, you know, I don't know, belongings, money, you've stolen my property, this is mine, et cetera, et cetera.
00:57:41.340
And less about behavior, which is why it's harder sometimes to convict these crimes.
00:57:45.180
But I thought that was really important sentence to show that these things are serious.
00:57:51.240
And a lot of it is an emotional trauma and damage, but that is as valuable, if not more, than materials.
00:58:06.260
I think it's there's about 10 months off the last time I checked.
00:58:11.660
She's been in prison since September of last year, 2022.
00:58:24.100
And I believe the parents are, as in Amanda's parents, are also helping look after the children.
00:58:32.280
But then you've also got a, you know, there's Jessa, who we mentioned, and that was the daughter who, that's Corey's daughter.
00:58:40.780
And Alita's daughter, who Amanda, they did get custody of for a year, who they called her bonus daughter.
00:58:47.340
Amanda, they have this, like, weird thing for names, yeah.
00:58:54.660
I mean, Amanda's mom referred to herself as goddess.
00:59:03.660
Yeah, so you've got to think about these two young boys who thought that their mom was dying.
00:59:10.980
That's another thing you feel like, oh my God, she led her own children to believe that their mother had cancer.
00:59:17.440
Yeah, and that's when you start to go, okay, like, what?
00:59:32.160
They've got these two boys and Jessa, and at one point, the three of them were told that they might have to donate some of their own, you know, organs or blood.
00:59:52.480
Like, that didn't bring in more money, you know?
00:59:58.880
I mean, and also at one point, she was given money for a funeral that she'd planned.
01:00:06.900
Like, it goes so, I'm kind of like, I feel like I'm stuttering, but purely out of trying to bring to the audience, to your audience, how deep this went.
01:00:18.560
This was so much more than, you know, we called it Scamander, and it goes back to the question you asked me in the beginning, Megan, and you started talking about the title and giving things away.
01:00:27.520
And to me, the reason why I was, like, iffy with the name, because the name is brilliant and amazing and clever, was purely because, to me, it's so much more than a scam.
01:00:38.480
I mean, you get into, like, the harm she did to her own children, the psychological damage.
01:00:44.060
And speaking of psychological damage, none of hers has been addressed.
01:00:47.660
She's not getting the help she needs in federal prison.
01:00:51.320
And so when she gets out, what do you think is going to happen?
01:00:58.780
I think she's going to perpetrate another scam because it's inside of her.
01:01:12.520
Because I suppose that's why I brought up that she, I don't think she believes that on a, I know this might sound like on a surface level.
01:01:23.300
I don't, you know, you know, deep down she might know, but, you know, we can separate ourselves, can't we, and convince ourselves of things.
01:01:32.600
But I always think of, like, relatable behavior to try and understand, which I think is important because it helps you maybe predict of whether somebody is safe or not.
01:01:42.820
And if she doesn't think she's really done something wrong and she feels like she's been a victim of this kind of witch hunt, again, from Nancy and Alita, then how could she possibly not, if she doesn't think it's wrong, how can she then redeem herself and change?
01:01:58.780
So that is, a lot of people think that she will, and I must tell you this, because when she was sentenced, she was originally raised in California and she was sentenced in San Jose and she perpetrated her scam, let's say, in San Jose, Northern California.
01:02:20.720
But then she moved to Texas afterwards, before she went to prison.
01:02:26.740
And we found out that she was going into hospitals even after she was sentenced because there was a gap of about, I'd say, three or four months before she went in prison.
01:02:44.600
And, yeah, I was kind of shocked myself, even though I shouldn't have been, because I spent so much time looking into this and making the show.
01:02:50.980
So, and then, you know, it does beg the question of, well, if she was still doing it after she was sentenced and called out and going into hospitals, but she also thinks that she's not, she thinks there is, she says there is something wrong and people don't know the full story.
01:03:08.200
So, I think that's why the judge put her in prison for so long and gave her a five-year sentence, because the judge said, I don't, I believe you're a threat to public safety, because I believe you're going to do this again.
01:03:22.000
And even when I spoke to, what I also find quite surprising with the people that I interviewed was how forgiving they were.
01:03:29.420
I don't think, personally, I would have been as forgiving or as kind.
01:03:33.600
You know, some people really, you know, didn't have a nice word to say.
01:03:38.980
Well, yeah, and I mean, it's so much to say, but.
01:03:39.000
It shows all these people in the faith community who are generally forgiving to begin with.
01:03:45.000
Number one, you've got to listen to the podcast to find out the extraordinary job that Amanda had and was promoted to during the midst of all of this.
01:03:53.560
I mean, if you think it's not happening in any town that you would ever frequent, think again.
01:04:01.400
So, I'll leave that as a tease for the podcast.
01:04:03.600
And the second thing is, this is a reminder to be very careful about those online GoFundMets.
01:04:09.380
You know, like, be careful before you, if you want to help people with cancer, you could consider St. Jude's.
01:04:15.580
You could consider making a donation to the American Cancer Society, but you should look at them, too, just to make sure.
01:04:20.720
There's an online charity website that will tell you how many dollars, how many cents of the dollar that you donate goes to actually help victims,
01:04:28.960
as opposed to, like, line the pockets of the charity organizers.
01:04:33.000
And those I always check those before I make a donation.
01:04:35.160
And I have to say, I almost never support a GoFundMe because I've just seen too many of these stories.
01:04:42.760
It's also why I don't give money to homeless people on the street.
01:04:46.260
You know, like, there is an unhealthy percentage of those folks who are scamming, too.
01:04:51.300
If you want to help, there are actual organizations who will make sure the money gets to the right person and people who are really suffering.
01:04:58.800
But, you know, randomly going to supportamanda.com is not a good idea, as the podcast makes really clear.
01:05:06.760
And, you know, like, it just made me think about this era we're in as well with social media and what you can put out there.
01:05:15.340
You have to be careful what you believe and what you see.
01:05:18.240
But then I just feel so sad listening to you because I'm like, oh, God, maybe I'm just being too empathetic.
01:05:24.220
But I just feel sad that we're in that situation where you won't donate to a GoFundMe page because you're questioning whether that person is lying or not.
01:05:34.400
And then there's people that really do need support and help because I don't think it's as, you know, misfortune isn't something we necessarily bring on ourselves.
01:05:41.680
You might be brought up in a really tough environment.
01:05:45.220
You know, you might a lot of people that are on the street is through domestic abuse or through divorce.
01:05:50.140
But again, you know, who do you know who's real and really needs help and who doesn't?
01:05:56.640
I didn't want it to be a case where you then start to doubt people, but hopefully a way that can showcase these behaviors, because there are red flags that you can look out for and there are genuine people.
01:06:10.500
Yeah. I mean, you don't want to get to the point where somebody is like, I need a month leave of absence because I have some hideous cancer diagnosis.
01:06:17.840
And you're like, I'm going to need to see a note from your doctor.
01:06:20.940
Bob does have cancer. OK. All right. Now, you know, that's not how we've operated in our society.
01:06:26.840
And this problem is not so ubiquitous. We need to change that.
01:06:29.580
But when it comes to actually donating your money, do be careful.
01:06:32.300
We Yahoo responding to the huge popularity of Scamanda podcast.
01:06:36.900
Again, everybody should listen to it. It's such a good summer podcast.
01:06:40.580
You know, like you want something that's like, again, it's not frivolous.
01:06:43.900
As we've been discussing, it's quite serious. But Charlie does such a good job of presenting it in a kind of fun way to, for lack of a better word, you'll enjoy it.
01:06:52.000
In any event, it got their attention and they went on to talk about some of the many, many examples of people who have done this over the last few years who have been caught.
01:07:01.560
Just to tick off a couple tick tocker Madison Russo arrested, charged with defrauding four hundred and thirty nine people out of more than thirty seven thousand dollars after she faked a cancer diagnosis.
01:07:11.500
Nineteen years old, said she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, stage two pancreatic cancer and a tumor the size of a football.
01:07:19.080
She was caught after people with a background in medicine pointed out discrepancy in her story.
01:07:24.800
Taiwanese fitness instructor Mian Bobo confessed she'd lied about having late stage pancreatic cancer for three years.
01:07:33.540
She, too, posted photos of IVs, the hospital, her alleged hair loss, just like Scamanda.
01:07:39.260
Her ruse was up after a man who said he was her ex-husband revealed it was a lie.
01:07:44.780
Rhode Island woman Sarah Jane Kavanaugh pretended to be a former Marine with cancer, received more than two hundred and eighty thousand dollars in donations and benefits over five years before she was caught in twenty twenty two.
01:07:57.200
This person went all in, said she was wounded by an IED in Iraq, developed cancer from the burn pits.
01:08:13.700
You know, God, how do you think it makes people feel that really do have cancer and that have lost people from cancer?
01:08:21.380
Why would you ever want to use that as a thing?
01:08:26.600
Well, maybe not because you've just read people that haven't.
01:08:28.780
So clearly they're not anymore, which is great, but it's again using that cancer ruse because you're not going to question somebody who says they've got cancer because it's awful.
01:08:37.300
So I think I'm sure you're already considering this because the show is such a success.
01:08:43.220
I think part two, you've got to find these other people like we need more stories just like this.
01:08:48.560
You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be one that hasn't been out there, but I would 100 percent listen to a podcast about this tick tocker Madison Russo and how she did.
01:08:55.540
But what's what's act two going to be for you now?
01:09:03.160
I've actually had so many people contact me and that have had stories like this or actually there's a few people that I've looked into that haven't been caught yet.
01:09:15.320
And I'm seeing if there's something I can do around.
01:09:18.960
Where there's like evidence gathering or people are suspicious.
01:09:23.840
But, yeah, if people have a story or want me to look into something, then please, along this line, then definitely please contact me.
01:09:32.900
You can contact me by my website or social media.
01:09:35.780
But, yes, I do have a little thing up my sleeve.
01:09:39.560
Because, again, people absolutely loved and really did enjoy it, which, you know, I'm so grateful for because I think, you know, you all know, Megan,
01:09:51.000
but I think people sometimes don't realize how much work goes in behind the scenes to put these things together.
01:10:00.440
And then to see and hear it being, I don't know, appreciated and received in the way it has just means everything.
01:10:09.220
And if you don't hear it and get this response, then it doesn't really mean anything.
01:10:14.100
And then it was funny because so many people have told me now different stories about Amanda.
01:10:25.540
And there was this poor, this teacher who actually left her teaching career because of Amanda.
01:10:33.260
And, gosh, in the end, I was like, please, please go back into teaching.
01:10:37.560
And actually, somebody messaged me earlier in the week who was like, if this woman, she was anonymous.
01:10:42.580
I can't say her name because she was slightly concerned because she's still in the community.
01:10:46.980
And believe it or not, there are still a few people supporting Amanda in that community.
01:10:56.640
They remind me of something that I've known, which is people who do this kind of thing tend to have a long history of dishonesty.
01:11:02.920
It's if you just dig a little, you know, you go you went back to her college years and those are I'll leave that as a tease.
01:11:09.040
But there was a man I knew in New York City who was accused of not being a Bernie Madoff, but being like a mini Madoff.
01:11:17.620
And they it turned out this guy had he tried he's trying to pass to get it.
01:11:24.840
I think it's called the series seven exam where you get your license to participate in the financial industry in certain ways.
01:11:30.660
And it turned out he had had another person take the exam for him.
01:11:34.560
Now, that's what, 30 years earlier by this point.
01:11:37.740
But I'm telling you, like once you cross that ethical line, you stay on the wrong side of it.
01:11:43.100
It's like once you cross it, it's very hard to get back onto the other side where you were not a criminal.
01:11:52.380
And it's just we've just seen it so many times.
01:11:56.740
It was smart to go back once you realize what you had and see what else we could find in Amanda's past.
01:12:05.400
And I look forward to the next submission and the next scam.
01:12:15.980
I want to tell you that tomorrow we are going to bring you my interview with Governor Ron DeSantis, the very first time he sits down with yours truly.
01:12:23.620
I'd love to hear your thoughts about it once you hear it.
01:12:25.880
So make sure to send me a note after you watch at Megan.