Scamanda producer reveals as Amanda Riley pulled Hoax cancer

After an unexpected delay in planning this last fall, ScamandaThe four -part ABC documents that acquire the most popular and most spoken podcast of 2023 are finally premiered on Thursday, January 30.

The show brings a shocking real story to the screen Amanda RileyCharismatic wife and mom from the rich area of ​​Bay Area in California, a community that complicated a brutal, lengthy battle for cancer for money, natal gifts and compassion from thousands of followers, including members of its megachurch.

Riley documented her supposed illness with photographs and emotional passages on her personal blog, where she required gifts in the form of cash and goods for medical treatment, gifts, trips, concerts, celebrities (including one with Leann Rimes) and other advantages. Blog would be her socket: after the investigative producer Nancy moscatiello She received an anonymous tip, she and the authorities began to put into the glaring holes in Riley’s story, and in 2021 she was eventually convicted of fraud.

But as the listeners of the podcast and viewers of the show may notice, retrospect, Riley’s fraud seems to be a bit obvious, not sloppy. In the photographs in the hospital we know, it appears that shining and healthy – not at all as someone undergoing chemotherapy or healing from surgery and other exhaustive cancer treatment. At one point, she claimed on her blog that the oncological doctor had allowed her to give her chemo a drug of clinical control at home so that she could enjoy the holidays. In contact, national renowned cancer centers, where Riley said she was a patient, has no records about her, shows the show. Similarly, charity organizations that provided her money and/or services did not require documentation of her illness before they paid her.

Why were so many people and institutions so easy to deceive? “I don’t think she was necessarily your stereotype of underwater artist,” Charlie Webster, creator Scamanda Podcast and producer show, says Us every week In an exclusive interview. “I don’t think these people were trusting or naive.”

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“We do not question people who have cancer, and we should not,” says Webster about Riley, who spoke of her alleged battle and the spiritual faith of the choir in her church, where they threw literal money on their feet. “She showed a miracle.” She got cancer, but survived. She gathered in the church, moistened in the church, let her an ambulance taken in the church, ”says Webster. “She stood on stage and offered people hoping we all needed in life.”

“She was a woman in their community that suffered from two children.” People gathered to support it, and she was absolutely convincing, ”adds Webster. “Everything is in view of backward view.” How would you question it? You know you would be an average, terrible critical person in the back of the room. ”

The Webster, whose interview with Riley himself is teasing a later episode of the show, also has complicated feelings about the motivation of the protagonist of her real life to fraud. “I am 100 percent convinced that it was not for money,” Webster says. “I think it was an addiction.” I looked at everything from emotional, psychological, evidence (perspective). She realized that this attention came – if you look at social media now, so many people long for “likes”. They give us endorphin. I think it was that on steroids, 10 times more. Although she hurt people emotionally and financially, at that moment she helped people and created hope for people. It was very about this validation, that people adore it. She had this amazing group of people who saw her as anointed. Really yes. ”

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As for Riley’s psychology and the struggle against mental health, including the possibility of showing the lynxes or someone with Munchausen syndrome? “Many people challenged me about why I didn’t mention Munchausen or mental health in a podcast;” The document is mentioned briefly, ”he says. “The reason I didn’t mention it and why I was quite persisting by not going this way is that one I feel that it minimizes the experiences of victims and two, was not diagnosed with anything.”

Scamanda premiere ABC on Thursday, January 30 at 9 pm. The episodes will stream the next day on Hulu.