Woman catfished ‘Stranger Things’ actor loses $10,000, divorces husband | Trending
An American woman’s year-long illusion of being in a romantic relationship with Dacre Montgomery, the actor who plays Billy in Stranger Things on Netflix, has come to light. The woman recently revealed in a video shared on YouTube how she sent thousands of dollars to the scammer and even divorced her husband in hopes of being with him. The woman learnt about the romance scammer after she sought help from a YouTube channel.(screengrab) McKala, a single mother from Kentucky, fell victim to a scammer who posed as the actor on an online art forum dedicated to arts of various kinds. They began communicating through text messages, and over time, McKala developed feelings for the imposter. After a year, the scammer even asked McKala out on a date. He claimed to be in a strained partnership with his real-life partner, Liv Pollock, alleging that she controlled his actions and finances. To make matters more convincing, he stated that they were still together publicly for appearances, even though they had broken up six months prior. “But you have to be quiet because, you know, I’m still with Liv (Pollock, his real-life partner)’,” the 28-year-old explained in the video posted on the YouTube channel Catfished. A channel that exposes people who pretend to be someone else on social media and protects them from scammers. McKala’s belief in the relationship grew stronger as she noticed a lack of public romantic posts between the couple on social media. She began to think that she was genuinely falling for the actor. In her vulnerability, she sent thousands of dollars in gift cards to the scammer. According to McKala’s estimation, she sent him $10,000 (approximately ₹8.3 lakh). The scammer even forced her to choose between him and her husband. Ultimately, she decided to divorce her husband. McKala began to have doubts about the legitimacy of her relationship as time passed without any face-to-face interactions. She eventually reached out to the YouTube channel and came to the painful realisation that she had fallen prey to a scam. Faced with this harsh reality, she severed contact with the imposter. Reflecting on her experience, McKala admitted that love had led her to make irrational decisions. “Love makes you do stupid, unreasonable things. If you’re someone like me, you’re afraid of being abandoned, and you’re a people pleaser,” expressed McKala in the video posted on YouTube. Watch the entire video here: The video, since being uploaded a while back, has accumulated over 4.9 lakh views and more than 14,000 likes. Many even dropped comments after learning about this scam.Here’s how people reacted to this video:A YouTube user wrote, “I don’t even have $10,000 in my bank account. I can’t even fathom sending that much money to a romance scammer, even if I truly believed they were a celebrity.”“Rule number one: don’t send money to the strangers you meet online. Even if they’re celebrities,” added another.A third commented, “The easiest way to test the ‘relationship’ is to tell them you will never send them a dime. Just block all requests for money with a firm ‘no’. And most of the time that person will disappear.”“This literally sounds like exactly what is going on with my father in law. He’s pretty much ruined his life for these romance scammers,” shared a fourth.What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever fallen for a romance scammer? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arfa Javaid is a journal working with the Hindustan Times’ Delhi team. She covers trending topics, human interest stories, and viral content online. …view detail
