LionsgateAmanda Riley holding a #TeamAmanda sign, which she often used to garner online support for her fake cancer journey.

When Amanda Riley started blogging about her battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2012, many people were touched by her story. A young Christian mother of two based in California, Riley was only in her late 20s when she was diagnosed. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is an aggressive form of cancer, too, so many were sympathetic about her predicament.

Amidst sharing optimistic health updates, discouraging setbacks, and her steadfast faith in God, Riley quickly attracted attention with her blog, which was titled “Lymphoma Can Suck It.” It wasn’t long before donations came pouring in from friends, coworkers, strangers, and even celebrities who wanted to help Riley pay for her expensive medical treatment. There was one glaring issue, however: Amanda Riley never had cancer.

The story first started to fall apart in 2019, when an anonymous tipster asked an investigative journalist to look into Amanda Riley. Just one year later, the IRS filed a criminal complaint against the blogger, stating that she had faked her illness to scam her followers out of more than $100,000.