One of the most talked about podcasts in the current moment is about a woman who faked having cancer. “Scamanda” tells the story of a California woman who lied for seven years about having Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
From 2012 to 2019, Amanda C. Riley collected more than $105,000 in online donations – not to mention cash gifts, free services, trips, and more. Riley was investigated by the FBI and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022.
Riley’s is the latest in a number of high profile cases in which someone has feigned an illness for attention or support. According to the Atlantic, the condition has a name: “Munchausen by internet,” or MBI.
What do these kinds of incidents mean for friends, family, donors, and organizations that raise money and provide resources for people who actually are struggling with an illness? The leaders of local cancer support organizations say stories like Riley’s can have lasting effects their work and on would-be supporters. We discuss it all with our guests:
- Holly Anderson, executive director of the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, and cancer survivor
- Lauren Spiker, executive director of 13thirty Cancer Connect, who lost her daughter, Melissa, to cancer
