‘Scamanda’s Amanda Riley Reveals Why She Kept Fake Cancer Scam Going

Amanda Riley spent more than seven years pretending to have cancer before she was finally busted. Despite having her home raided in 2016 and knowing that investigative producer Nancy Moscatiello was doing a deep dive into her, Riley kept up the scam. Now, she’s finally addressing why she continued the elaborate ruse on her blog and in front of members of her community, even when she knew people were starting to catch on.

“She told me that she did try to stop and then was worried about losing everything. But she didn’t,” Charlie Webster, who produced the 2023 Scamanda podcast, which was recently transformed in to a docuseries, told Us Weekly. “She just carried on because then people would ask her [for health updates], right? She just dug herself in deeper and couldn’t get out of it.”

Webster recently spoke to Riley, who is in the midst of a five-year prison sentence after being charged with wire fraud for collecting more than $100,000 in online donations while faking cancer. The podcast host detailed some of the conversation she had with Riley during the Scamanda finale on Thursday, February 20.

“Amanda got really upset at one point in the conversation about her children,” Webster confirmed, referring to the two children Riley shares with Cory Riley, her husband who filed for divorce in January 2024. “She was really crying and very, very upset. Sobbing. She said she’s sorry and she does want to take accountability. She looked well. That was one thing that surprised me.”

Webster reiterated this in the Us Weekly interview, adding, “She has said to me that she is sorry. She regrets everything she’s done every single day.” She also described Riley as “nice,” although admitted that she doesn’t want to be “gullible,” considering what she knows about the former school principal.

Related

'Scamanda': Did Amanda Riley's Husband Know She Was Faking Cancer?

“To me, she’s come across very upset at times, but she’s also conscious that she doesn’t want people to think that she’s acting like a victim,” Webster explained. She also revealed that Riley has not been diagnosed with any sort of mental disorder, and said, “She wants to serve her sentence and then try and figure out, if possible, how to apologize to the people [she hurt].”

During her time in prison, Riley has continued to claim that she has health problems. During her first 18 months behind bars, she was taken to the emergency room 24 times, according to federal court records obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle. U.S. Attorney Michael Pitman revealed that Riley was caught trying to tamper with test results, per healthcare professionals. As recently as April 2024, Riley’s legal team cited alleged diagnoses like cardiac arrhythmia and sleep terrors in a motion to try and reduce her prison sentence, which was denied, according to the Chronicle.

Webster admittedly isn’t sure what to think about Riley’s claims. “I honestly don’t know whether that’s true or not,” she said on Scamanda. Riley is due to be released from prison in December.

Scamanda, Streaming Now, Hulu