AMANDA Riley is a well-known name across America, thanks to her very public and highly publicized battle with cancer which saw people donate thousands of dollars to support her.
However, unbeknownst to those wellwishers, Amanda had faked her entire cancer battle and was using it as a scheme to make money.
The discovery of her plot earned her the nickname “Scamanda”, thanks to a podcast and upcoming TV series of the same name, and she eventually received a five-year prison sentence.
But who really is Amanda and where is she now?
A church scam and a legal battle
Not much is known about Amanda’s early life, before she launched her cancer scam in the early 2010s, except for the details uncovered by investigative producer Nancy Moscatiello and broadcaster Charlie Webster.
Amanda attended the Family Community Church, which attracted thousands of churchgoers every week, many of whom would eventually become the victims of Amanda’s plan.
The producer and broadcaster uncovered that Amanda had been in a legal battle with her husband Cory’s ex-wife Aletta, prior to launching her cancer scheme.
Amanda and Cory had been locked in a bitter custody battle over Aletta and Cory’s daughter, Jessa.
Amanda had met Cory shortly after his divorce from Aletta in 2007 and they tied the knot four years later in 2011.
The couple claimed that Aletta was a bad parent and eventually persuaded the court into handing over full custody of Jessa.
It was also around this time that Amanda’s alleged scam was born and she began to talk about her claims of a cancer diagnosis online.
Lymphoma Can Suck It
Amanda documented her struggle with Hodgkin Lymphoma on a blog called “Lymphoma Can Suck It”, which she launched in 2012.
She would share pictures of herself hooked to IV drips on the site and posted updates about experimental treatments she was receiving.
The blog even had a link which led wellwishers to a donor page, which encouraged them to pay for Amanda’s treatments.
Some of the treatments cost an eye-watering £10,000 a month.
Charity raising events were even held in her name, including Facebook challenges and eBay auctions.
During one auction, a guitar signed by country music legend LeAnn Rimes was sold to support Amanda.
The scam began to unravel in 2015 when Los Angeles-based investigative producer Nancy Moscatiello received an anonymous tip about Amanda’s scheme.
She joined forces with British broadcaster Charlie Webster, who said she found the case “fascinating”.
Charlie said: “Amanda is charming and young – why would she do it? The psychology and human behaviour is what interested me about the story.”
Their research uncovered the bitter legal battle that Amanda and Cory had waged against Aletta and, soon, more inconsistencies in Amanda’s story began to appear.
Nancy said that “things in the blog didn’t seem right”.
She continued: “My sister had stage-four lung cancer years before and a friend of mine helped her by researching clinical trials.
“She looked at the blog and pointed me to inconsistencies, like treatments that were not available at home or could only be administered by a medically trained person – and medicines that could only be kept in a laboratory fridge.”
Police investigation
Nancy took the evidence to the police in September 2015, which caused Amanda to accuse the producer of being in cahoots with Aletta.
In February 2016, police launched an investigation into the case and raided Amanda’s house in September that year.
By July 2020, Amanda was charged with one count of wire fraud for defrauding donors with her fake diagnosis and one count of falsifying information in court documents which had been presented at her bankruptcy hearing.
She initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea when the second charge was dropped.
Where is Amanda now?
In May 2022, she was sentenced to five years in prison and she is currently serving her sentence in a facility in Texas.
She was ordered by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman to pay $105,513 in restitution and she must undergo three years of supervision following her release from prison.
Prosecutors have accused her of still faking illnesses in prison.
The San Francisco Chronicle has claimed that federal court documents revealed that Amanda has been taken to hospital in an ambulance 24 times, during her first 24 months.
Charlie and Nancy’s podcast Scamanda documenting their investigation launched in April 2023 and it exploded in popularity, going on to become the most popular new podcast of 2023 on Apple Podcasts.
A TV docuseries of the same name, with Nancy as an executive producer, will air on ABC.
The series has been delayed to 2025, despite plans to air the show on October 16, 2024.
