Amanda Riley Faked Cancer for Nearly a Decade. Here's How She Got Away with It

Amanda Riley lied about having cancer and defrauded hundreds of donors for more than $100,000

Amanda Riley never had cancer — but she made more than 300 people believe that she did.

Amanda faked a dramatic cancer journey for nearly a decade, soliciting donations from loved ones and strangers to rake in more than $100,000 for medical bills she never had — plus trips, gifts, tickets to events, free babysitting services and more.

Using her blog, social media and strategically shot selfies, Amanda claimed to be battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, alternating between remission and relapses at least four times from 2012 to 2016. During this time, she and her husband even had two sons, who she called "miracle babies."

Amanda's story was detailed in the 2023 podcast Scamanda, which was adapted into an ABC special in October 2024. Both offer a deep dive into Amanda's crimes and her eventual conviction.

So, how did Amanda Riley defraud so many people and how did she get caught? Find out exactly what Amanda Riley did and where she is now.

Who is Amanda Riley?

Amanda Riley was born Amanda Maneri on June 24, 1985, and was raised in San Jose, Calif.

Amanda met Cory Riley and his then-wife Aletta when she was a 17-year-old cheerleader. They hired Amanda to teach dance to Aletta's daughter, who was being treated for cancer and was immunocompromised. Cory was 29 years old at the time, and he and Aletta shared a 6-month-old daughter named Jessa.

In the ensuing years, Amanda's college classmates recalled in a Scamanda bonus episode that she frequently cited illness for her absences from her job as a resident advisor (RA) in college at San Jose State University.

Cory and Aletta divorced, and he later married Amanda. While the exes were amicable at first, their co-parenting relationship grew acrimonious, Aletta said in the premiere episode of Scamanda . Cory and Amanda filed for full custody of Jessa, who Amanda referred to as her "bonus daughter." In court, they claimed that Aletta was unstable and deliberately trying to alienate Jessa from her father. Aletta and Jessa, who is now an adult, both vehemently denied this.

Amanda began her blog, Lymphoma Can Suck It, in 2012, chronicling her alleged battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. She claimed to have been diagnosed with the condition when she gave birth to her first son.

What did Amanda Riley do?

Over time, Amanda developed a following from her blog who she invited to donate to her medical bills online and through fundraisers at her church, restaurants and events. Through her friends and network, she even received a signed guitar from and meet-and-greet with singer LeAnn Rimes . Amanda became a local celebrity in her church and frequently spoke during services.

Despite her claims that she had terminal cancer and was in chemotherapy, Amanda got pregnant again, welcoming her second son in May 2014.

Amanda never actually had cancer. Instead, she used photographs, her blog, social media and the kindness of strangers, friends, coworkers and her congregation to financially support herself and Cory's lifestyle. The scam lasted nearly eight years before Amanda got caught.

"She used her presence on these sites to 'document' her nonexistent medical condition, and to aggressively solicit donations, supposedly to cover her medical expenses," the U.S. Attorney's Office previously told PEOPLE in a statement. "In truth, [Amanda] had no medical expenses. The donations she received were deposited into her personal bank accounts and used to pay her living expenses."

Throughout her cancer hoax, Amanda also received free trips, babysitting, meals and gift cards from her supporters, and most of the couple's close friends and associates believed she really was sick. Amanda and Cory also sought to lower Cory's child support payments to Aletta for Jessa, citing Amanda's medical expenses in court documents as a financial hardship.

She also had jobs: She was a substitute teacher for the 2016-2017 school year at Valley Christian School in San Jose, Calif., and then hired as a full-time English teacher for the 2017-2018 school year. She left the job in February 2017, and it was later revealed it was due to her missing so many days of school for bogus medical treatment.

Did Amanda Riley ever have cancer?

Amanda never had cancer.

Though she alleged that she had Hodgkin's lymphoma and a form of lung cancer (which she said was her lymphoma metastasizing into her lungs), she was never diagnosed with any form of cancer or any other terminal illness.

How did Amanda Riley fake her cancer?

Amanda attended support groups for cancer patients and survivors, it was revealed in Scamanda , and likely used what she learned in these sessions to inform her blog and social media content about her fake cancer journey. In her many selfies for her blog, Amanda sported a shaved head to feign chemotherapy-related hair loss.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California, Amanda forged letters from doctors and falsified medical records, medical bills and certifications.

In terms of her medical records, Amanda didn't have any showing a cancer diagnosis. Instead, she allegedly used an app called FollowMyHealth, in which patients can self-populate fields like medical conditions, prescriptions and physicians' names.

Scamanda investigative producer Nancy Moscatiello noted in a 2023 Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) that most people were reluctant to question Amanda's diagnoses and that many people close to Amanda didn't necessarily read her blog to cross-reference or fact-check her claims.

"I know some of her friends in the medical field have beaten themselves up after hearing the podcast and feel terrible they didn't suspect anything," she explained. "Some weren't reading the blog because they were seeing her all the time and getting direct updates — so they didn't see some of the more ridiculous claims she was making about treatment to the public."

How did Amanda Riley fake hospital visits?

According to Moscatiello, it wasn't actually that hard for Amanda to fake her hospital visits.

"It's really easy to walk around a hospital," Moscatiello said in a bonus episode of Scamanda . She claimed that Amanda would feign illness and fainting to get emergency room admission. Once there, she'd claim to be dehydrated, which would get her an IV, and other times would just walk around hospitals, following signs to get to the wards she needed to keep her ruse going. Much of her "supplies," like syringes, were commonly found in emergency rooms and were disposable items.

Other items, like oxygen tanks, could easily be purchased from medical supply stores, Scamanda host and producer Charlie Webster told Glamour in 2023.

How much money did Amanda Riley steal?

Through wire fraud for her online donations, Amanda was convicted of stealing $105,513.43 from 349 people and entities. However, donations of cash, checks, gift cards, items and services (like babysitters, Jessa's athletic coaches, meals and deliveries) weren't included in those charges.

Moscatiello said in a Reddit AMA that she's traced at least another $80,000 that wasn't from online donations.

How did Amanda Riley get caught?

In June 2015, Moscatiello received an anonymous tip from someone saying that Amanda was scamming their church by pretending to have cancer. The source included a link to Amanda's blog, and Moscatiello began investigating.

"There were things in the blog that didn't seem right," Moscatiello told The Sun . "My sister had stage 4 lung cancer years before and a friend of mine helped her by researching clinical trials. She looked at the blog and pointed me to inconsistencies, like treatments that were not available at home or could only be administered by a medically trained person — and medicines that could only be kept in a laboratory fridge."

She also noted that many of the alleged clinical trials Amanda said she participated in weren't held at the hospitals she claimed to travel to for them.

Moscatiello said on Scamanda that she contacted Cory's ex-wife Aletta, as well as several hospitals where Amanda claimed to have been treated. While most couldn't discuss specific patient histories, they disclosed that some of the procedures and anecdotes in the blog didn't align with typical cancer cases or treatment regimens. Armed with evidence, she presented her findings to financial crimes Detective Jose Martinez at the San Jose, Calif., police department, in September 2015.

Martinez flagged the matter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in February 2016 and there was a raid on the Rileys' home that September. Still, it would be several years before any further action was taken.

In late summer 2017, Amanda found out that Moscatiello was investigating her and filed a civil harassment restraining order against the producer. Amanda falsely claimed that Moscatiello got Amanda and Cory fired from their jobs and harassed their families and friends, Moscatiello said on Scamanda . It took six months for Amanda and Moscatiello to actually go to court because Amanda kept delaying her appearances for alleged medical issues.

After a January 2018 hearing, a judge ruled against Amanda's request for a restraining order, in part because Moscatiello's legal team revealed emails and text messages about Amanda's poor attendance at her job, which led to her dismissal. Moscatiello continued her investigation and shared her findings with Martinez and the IRS.

In July 2020, IRS special investigator Arlette Lyons-Lee officially charged Amanda with wire fraud , citing her blog, social media posts and donation links being specifically for her cancer treatment. Because Amanda never had cancer (but made her followers and supporters believe she did), donations made digitally to support her medical expenses constituted wire fraud.

What was Amanda Riley's sentence?

Amanda initially pleaded not guilty to her falsifying documents and wire fraud charges, but switched to a guilty plea in October 2021. Her attorneys requested a six-month prison sentence, with prosecutorial guidelines recommending 18 months.

At her sentencing hearing in May 2022, Amanda, limping, apologized to those she'd hurt.

"There aren't enough words to adequately express how horrific I feel and how sorry I am that this happened. My heart aches every day thinking I did something that hurt other people," she said. "This is the worst thing I have ever done and the worst mistake I could have made. I don't sleep well at night because this haunts me daily. I can't even look at myself in the mirror without feeling ashamed and I am so sorry."

Amanda also lamented that she "went from being a nobody to being negatively covered in dozens of tabloids and news s" and that she feared using social media because of the negative messages she'd received since her lie was exposed.

She also said she was devastated that she wouldn't be present with her sons, telling Judge Beth Labson Freeman, "Being a good mom is what I have always wanted most in this world and it is my job to love and protect them, so it breaks my heart most of all that the reason they are going to be hurt and not see their mom everyday is because of me."

Judge Freeman was largely unmoved, telling Amanda in part, "Listening to you today I can only imagine what a good act you had for eight years in front of churches, community groups, and in your blog and online and with your children. It breaks my heart to think that your boys will not have their mother with them, but it was your responsibility before you committed these frauds to think about your parental obligations. It is not the court's job to clean that up for you."

Judge Freeman told Amanda that she believed she would scam again and that she found "the public to be at significant risk" from her. Noting that the maximum sentence was 20 years in prison, she sentenced Amanda to five years in prison, three years of supervised probation and to pay restitution plus interest to all 349 donors.

Did Amanda Riley's husband, Cory Riley, know about her fake cancer scam?

It remains unclear whether Cory knew that Amanda was faking her cancer or not, though Jessa claimed on Scamanda that she knew Amanda was lying about her condition. On the podcast, Martinez said he believes that Cory knew Amanda wasn't sick but that there is no way to prove it.

Jessa said on Scamanda that she thinks Cory knew that Amanda was faking her medical conditions.

"He was very — I want to say 'not himself,' but I think I don't really know who he is as a person," Jessa said of Cory. "He kind of just looked numb all the time ... He was always taking us everywhere, he was always going to the gym. With my dad, he'd always just kind of be like, 'Oh, you know, Mandy's sick, and we can't do this.' "

She added of Cory and Amanda, "They would take us to the hospital, almost to kind of prove there was something wrong with her."

Amanda's public defender did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Was Amanda Riley's husband, Cory Riley, charged?

According to Martinez, it would be too difficult for prosecutors to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cory knew Amanda was lying about having cancer.

"I felt he knew what was going on," Martinez said on Scamanda. He added that since Jessa knew that Amanda was lying, he felt it was unlikely that Cory wasn't aware of the scam.

In her Reddit AMA , Moscatiello said she believed Cory was in on the scam as well, but echoed Martinez's stance that it may be difficult for prosecutors to prove that case. Cory has not faced any charges in connection to Amanda's scam and supported her throughout her trial.

Where is Cory Riley now?

Cory lives in Austin, Texas, where he is currently caring for his and Amanda's two sons, Webster told Glamour. The couple moved to the state after Amanda was fired from her job as principal of Pacific Point Christian School in Gilroy, Calif., per the New York Post .

Jessa, who is now married and living close to Aletta, said in the Scamanda finale episode that she hadn't seen her father or Amanda "for a long time," and that she "was really hurt" but also "kind of relieved" when the case was over.

Jessa said that neither Amanda nor Cory have personally apologized to her (outside of Amanda's speech at her sentencing hearing). Jessa claims that Amanda and Cory hadn't even admitted that Amanda doesn't have cancer, instead telling her, "Things are not as they seem."

Where is Amanda Riley now?

Amanda began serving her five-year sentence at Federal Medical Center Carswell, a federal prison in Ft. Worth, Texas, in September 2022. Carswell typically houses inmates with physical disabilities or illnesses, as well as mental illnesses and disorders.

In June 2024, Amanda's legal team filed to reduce her sentence, Moscatiello revealed on Instagram , citing "newly diagnosed mental health issues." Judge Freeman denied the request.

In August, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that in her first 18 months at the facility, Amanda was transported by ambulance to receive medical care 24 times. Prosecutors said that their medical records include evidence that Amanda may have Munchausen syndrome, in which an individual fakes symptoms or makes themself ill to garner attention.

Prosecutors said medical professionals saw Amanda trying to interfere with an infusion pump and holding her breath during an oxygen saturation test.

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