A WOMAN who conned thousands of dollars out of kind-hearted people by pretending she had incurable cancer has not changed at all despite being behind bars, according to the TV producer who first exposed her web of lies.
Serial scammer Amanda Riley, whose shocking crimes were first exposed in the hit podcast Scamanda and now in a new ABC documentary, spent years scamming money, gift cards and free trips from well-meaning members of her community by faking hodgkin’s lymphoma.
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She even shaved her head and visited a multitude of hospitals with pretend symptoms to mock up pictures of herself hooked up to IVs which she posted on a blog.
TV producer Nancy Moscatiello, who began investigated Amanda after a tip off from one of her former friends, was even subjected to restraining orders and lawsuits from Amanda as she sought to continue her scam and “annihilate” anyone who stood in the way of her lies.
Nancy spent years speaking to people in Amanda’s circle in San Jose, California, and trawling through records before hooking up with a local detective and the IRS and ultimately bringing the mom-of-two to justice, where she was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for wire fraud.
But even after serving more than half her sentence Amanda hasn’t changed her ways – and is even feigning illnesses to prison authorities and fellow prison pals.
Nancy told The U.S. Sun: “I don’t think she’s changed yet. I hope I hope she can. I hope she get whatever services she needs to be able to do so.
“At one point she filed a for early release and she was claiming for medical reasons that she couldn’t get the proper care that she needed there in prison.
“And then, in the same breath, the Department of Justice responds and says, ‘Well, hold on. You’ve been in so many months and had 24 trips to the emergency room.
“And then they had statements from these different doctors that witnessed her tampering with the tests, holding her breath, taking off heart test monitors and trying to mess up the tests that they were giving her.
“And so I think that played a big part of why they originally denied any type of medical release.
“And then I hear from prisoners that have been in there with her when they get out, they tell me that she still claims she has heart and lung issues.
“She doesn’t bring up cancer as far as I know … but she does list a bevy of different issues.
“So it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. And that’s the problem right now, that she’s she’s lied about this so much.
“I don’t know if it’ll it’ll ever be possible for people to know what the truth is.”
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Amanda pleaded guilty in May 2022 to wire fraud in which she swindled over $100,000 from 349 people and organisations.
But Nancy believes the true figure she received from her scam was even higher, as this only took into account money that was paid to her online and not other gifts such as cash, gift cards and free services.
She said: “The initial charge was for $105,000, but I estimate she easily received another $150,000 in other ways. And that’s not even getting into goods and services. There was a lot of free everything, free food, gift cards, free tennis lessons for her kids.
“One particular charity organization that specializes in taking old gift cards from people and and giving them out to people in need gave her upwards of a thousand to two thousand just in gift cards.”
Nancy said the worst affected victims of Amanda’s scam were her husband Cory’s ex wife Alita and her daughter Jessa.
Amanda lied in court causing Alita to lose custody of teenage Jessa for 18 months.
During this time Jessa said she had to look after her young stepbrothers all the time, while Amanda pretended to be sick upstairs.
Jessa also revealed how Amanda had told her she may have to give her a bone marrow transplant as she even deceived those closest to her about her pretend disease.
‘DESPICABLE’
“They are the worst victims of all this, Alita lost custody of her daughter for 18 months,” Nancy said.
“You might think, ‘How did that happen with cancer like that doesn’t make sense. She must have done something. No, it was the lying that took place in those court documents and the transcripts that I looked at.
“At first, it was like parental alienation – they were accusing the wife Alita of various things like she doesn’t let Jessa go to school.
“They wanted this full control, and they would say we don’t like her boyfriend at the time, we don’t like this, we don’t like that. Amanda was doing anything she could to pile on and pile on….
“Amanda was showing up at these family hearings with her oxygen tank and saying ‘I was supposed to be at the doctor’s today but I’m here because my stepdaughter is so important’, just really laying it on…
“Then a lawyer that was part of Amanda’s church community, came forward and gave free services and so that was the the turning point of really where that destruction started, because they wanted to just do away with Alita, and by doing so, she had to pay them child support.
“So there was always an underlying money issue right. If you have full custody, you’re not paying child support anymore.
“What she took away from from Jessa and her mom is just despicable.”
Scamanda airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC and streaming next day on Hulu. It will air in the UK on Hulu on Feb 21st.
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