A woman who believed she matched online with a major Netflix star transferred him almost £8,000 and divorced her husband to be with him.
One mum, McKala, from the US, believed she had matched up with Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery, who played Billy Hargrove in the series.
Dacre also appeared alongside Austin Butler in Elvis last year.
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McKala, who is an amateur actress and filmmaker is a single mom from Kentucky, and says she separated from her husband as he was “limiting her creativity” and quickly moved on with the man claiming to be Dacre.
(Image: YOUTUBE/CATFISHED)
She believed the 28-year-old Australian actor had fallen madly in love with her after the pair met on an online forum for artists.
Despite never having met the supposed actor in person, McKala went on to transfer him almost £8,000 – never once questioning why a Netflix star would need the cash.
Eventually, after warnings from her pals, she reached out to YouTube series Catfished – a channel in the vein of the MTV show Catfish, which helps to shed light on Internet scams.
She admitted: “I’m suspicious from the get-go, until he starts doing things that make me believe he is who he is.”
(Image: YOUTUBE/CATFISHED)
‘Dacre’ claimed his current girlfriend was controlling his bank accounts which is why he needed the money, but she began to have more doubts.
He warned her she had to keep their romance secret from his real-life partner Liv.
And McKala was further convinced as the real life pair had stopped posting on Instagram together.
But away from social media, there was no evidence to suggest Dacre and Liv had split, constantly appearing on red carpets together.
(Image: Instagram)
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The Catfished team soon discovered that the person posing as Dacre was using generic snaps taken from the internet to carry out his fake life and pass it off as real.
He also sent McKala a cheque which was found to be fake, including fake signatures.
Eventually, ‘Dacre’ was exposed as a catfish, with McKala confessing: “Love makes you do stupid, irrational things.
“If you’re someone like me, you’re afraid of abandonment and you’re a real big people pleaser.
”These scammers, they just kind of come in and they leech off that.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
