When Amanda C. Riley, a young mother from San Jose, California, announced in 2012 that she had Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the response was overwhelming. Friends, family, and even strangers stepped up to support her through what seemed like an incredibly tough battle. Her brother set up an online fundraiser, SupportAmanda.com, calling her “a ray of sunshine in all our lives” and asking for donations to help with medical bills and living expenses.
Amanda herself shared updates on a blog called Lymphoma Can Suck It, chronicling her journey and the support she received. From kind gestures like a $1,300 blank check from a fellow passenger on a plane to a meet-and-greet with country music star LeAnn Rimes, it seemed as if Amanda’s cancer story was one of triumph over adversity. But what no one knew at the time was that Amanda didn’t actually have cancer at all.
The truth was uncovered through a series of suspicions raised by a former friend, which eventually led to a full investigation. Amanda’s scam, which brought in over $100,000 in donations, would eventually unravel in a shocking way, making headlines across the country.
This bizarre and heartbreaking tale is the focus of Scamanda, a four-part docuseries that premiered on ABC on January 30, with new episodes streaming on Hulu every Friday. The first episode revealed the identity of the whistleblower, Lisa Berry, who shared her role in exposing Amanda’s deception. After reaching out to investigative journalist Nancy Moscatiello in 2015, Berry’s tip set off a chain of events that would lead to Amanda’s arrest and eventual conviction.
Through a mix of forged medical documents, fake hospital visits, and staged chemotherapy photos, Amanda continued to deceive her supporters for years. She even went so far as to create false social media posts about side effects from treatment, including shaving her head to mimic hair loss caused by chemotherapy.
Investigators eventually uncovered the full extent of Amanda’s lies, with federal agents joining the case after her deception spanned multiple states and drew donations from all over the country. By 2019, Amanda’s house of cards came crashing down, and she was arrested on federal wire fraud charges.
In October 2021, she pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Since being incarcerated, Amanda has continued to fake symptoms in an attempt to manipulate her medical care, with multiple hospital visits and tests showing that she was fabricating her health issues.
The docuseries also explores the emotional toll her actions took on the people who trusted her, and the ripple effect her lies had on the community. It paints a chilling portrait of a woman who not only scammed thousands of dollars but manipulated people’s empathy and goodwill for her own gain.
Now serving her sentence, Amanda is more than halfway through her 60-month term and has been ordered to pay back the money she scammed — though, as of now, she has only paid a small fraction of the restitution. Her release is expected in December 2025.
Scamanda is a must-watch for anyone fascinated by the dark side of deception and the lengths some people will go to in order to manipulate others. The series is available for streaming on Hulu, and new episodes air every Thursday night on ABC.
Greed. Sadly her victims have been used and abused