A woman who was convinced she'd sparked up a romance with Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery ended up going through with a divorce from her husband and transferring her new love almost £8,000 even though they'd never met.
McKala, from the US, was married when she first struck up a conversation with a new man on an online forum.
Advert
She'd joined the forum to help express her creative side - something she never felt her husband had supported - and shared a post saying she was 'excited to connect with fellow filmmakers' and was on the lookout for 'creative collaboration opportunities'.
In response to her post, McKala received a message from someone who claimed to be a well known actor - none other than Montgomery, who played Max's older brother Billy in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things.
Though she was 'suspicious' at first, McKala said the pair 'really hit it off' and she slowly became convinced that he really was the Australian star.
'Montgomery' told McKala he was in a relationship, but that his girlfriend was 'controlling' of him, which meant it was tough for him to come and meet McKala in person.
Advert
McKala checked the actor's Instagram page and realised that he wasn't posting anything about his girlfriend, Liv Pollock, so she only became more convinced.
After a few months of chatting, 'Montgomery' told McKala that she needed to choose between him or her husband.
"He gave me an ultimatum, he said it's either your husband, or it's me," McKala said. "I said 'look, there's no competition. You treat me better'."
She then told her husband he wasn't letting her be herself, and told him to leave.
"Within two months, he was gone," McKala said.
Advert
The alleged actor's requests didn't end there though, as he claimed his girlfriend was controlling his bank accounts and asked McKala for financial help.
She obliged, sending him gift cards for $100 (£78) and $200 (£157) dollars, but when she tallied up how much she'd given to him, she realised it was around $10,000 (£7,800).
In an effort to find out the truth about her online relationship, McKala called in the Catfished team for help.
Advert
The team did some digging into the person McKala had fallen for, and realised that he'd been using generic pictures taken from the internet to pass off as his own in a bid to trick McKala.
They determined that he was a romance scammer, telling McKala: "Due to the fact that this guy sent you so many things that are from so many different places all over the internet, we've come to the conclusion that you're speaking to what's known as a romance scammer.
"He's done research on you, and he's basically morphing himself into this person that you want him to be, and also attaching Dacre Montgomery's photos to them."
Though she was upset to learn the truth, McKala reasoned that 'love makes you do crazy, stupid, irrational things'.
Topics: Stranger Things, Netflix, Sex and Relationships
Emily Brown