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A Stranger Things fan named McKayla claimed that she was catfished by a con artist, posing as the Netflix series star Dacre Montgomery. The single mother and film director from Kentucky shared her story with the Catfished YouTube channel, and she claimed that she sent the scammer about $10,000 in gifts and that she left her ex-husband in the process.
McKayla said she left a post looking to collaborate with other filmmakers on a web forum when she received a message from someone claiming to be Dacre, who played Billy on Stranger Things. She said that she was “obsessed” with the show, and she began messaging the person. “Of course, I’m suspicious from the get-go, until he starts doing things that make me believe that he is who he is,” she said.
Some of the ways that McKayla said that the catfish posed as Dacre included him telling her to tune in for the fourth episode of season four of Stranger Things, where his character Billy makes an appearance. She also said that he’d send her poems similar in style to the ones in his poetry collection DK MH.
She said that they began speaking regularly online, and she’d vent to him about problems in her relationship. She also said that the catfish claimed that he was having relationship issues with Liv Pinnock, who the actor has been dating since 2017. She claimed that the person posing as Dacre later asked her to be his girlfriend.
After their online relationship had heated up, she said that the scammer had given her a big choice. “He gave me an ultimatum. He said, ‘Listen, it’s either your husband or it’s me.’ I said, ‘Look, there’s no competition. You treat me better,’” she said. “So I told my ex-husband. I said, ‘Listen, it’s not working out. You’re not letting me be me. You’re not letting me be free. I think you need to leave.’ So he left. Within two months, he was gone.”
After splitting up with her ex-husband, she said that the person made a claim about Dacre’s girlfriend Liv was very controlling when it came to money. “He said, ‘Well, if I try to use my bank account, she’s over it. It’s joint. So she keeps all the stuff. So I would have to ask her all the time,’” she explained. “He said, ‘Would I be able to ask you to help me here and there if I decide to separate from her?’ And I said, ‘Well, I can’t help much, but I can help a little bit here and there. Before I knew it, it was turning into $100 and $200 gift cards.”
While the scammer claimed that he would eventually pay McKayla back, she said that she eventually realized that she’d sent him “$10,000ish.” She said the scammer did eventually send her money, telling her to put it into a bank account for him.
The team from Catfished did some research and came to the conclusion that the person was likely a “romance scammer,” taking advantage of McKayla by researching points of vulnerability for her. The mom said she didn’t want others to fall for the same scam.
