To follow the evolution of this catfish, read from the bottom up.
*Comment submitted 1-10-18
I was just a victim of “Jackson A. Dodson” who is also this exact same person. Every sickening single thing matches up. “Tell me a secret”, “I am a physical therapist who just got done working with the Mets and Cubs”, “I have a Great Dane named Thor and a mix I saved from a dumpster outside McDonalds”, “I have a twin sister named Elle Anderson and two other older sisters”, “my dad just had his second stroke in two weeks and is in the ICU”, “I have a black Jeep wrangler with a hard top”, “my dad is a retired trauma surgeon and my mom is a high school history teacher”, “I’m color blind and don’t like sea food”, “I play the piano, drums and write music for Justin Timberlake,” “I can get us backstage to meet him,” “I have 12 nieces and nephews and they all have made up names for each one of them”, “morning texts every day”... he/she/it has a voice that does not match the pictures and is almost 100% positive this “Julie C” “woman” that is bat shit crazy and living in Ohio, when “she” really needs to be imprisoned with serious mental help.
Fortunately, I was able to see through some of this “too good to be true” bs after about a week of phone calls and all day texts. The details that this sick person is able to come up with on a daily basis are above and beyond. He says he has a Harley back home in Ohio that he and his dad (who is now in the hospital) built together and sends me a pic of Josey Greenwell on a Harley. My dad has one as well, so I thought this was so cool! He said he was cheated on by 3 out of 4 of his past girlfriends. He is a little bit of a nerd who likes Star Wars and his parents and sisters got him a giant LEGO Death Star that I was going to come over for movies, wine and dinner and that we could build together. This was also the night I would be able to bring my little dog over to meet his “two dogs” and have a doggie play date. He had me make a full reservation at a restraint we were never going to and I had to cancel it because his dad was in the ICU and they didn’t know if he was going to make it, so he had to do 80MPH with fake dogs in car driving up to Ohio (he lives in Wrigleyville in Illinois is what he is telling me at this point), only stopping once. When he got to the hospital, he met his dad was unconscious, but he knew he was there because his heart rate monitor went up. He always said dad told him he was the one in the family that was going to give him a heart attack. He let me know when he got back to his moms while she stayed overnight at the hospital to be with the dad. He said fortunately all the schools are closed due to the weather, so his high school history teaching mom could focus on just being with his dad right now. He said he took his photos off of OK Cupid, which was the site I met him on and that he doesn’t normally put all of his eggs in one basket, but he’s going to take a chance because he thinks I’m going to end up getting stuck with him and that I’m probably too good for him. He sent countless pictures of his fake nieces and nephews and new borns in the family. He told me how they all were at his moms for Christmas and he all the adults would stay up late after the kids went to bed to drink and put together toys for them. He got his sisters daughter a big doll house and his nephews a bat mobile or some electronic car they could drive. He said he’s hard to shop for because clothes don’t fit him because he’s so muscular, so his mom and sisters both got him “Alexa/Amazon dots speakers” one for his bathroom and one in his living room. He said he just got a new job working in a private practice physical therapy office because one of his friends tried setting him up with one of the doctors that he knew that worked there, but they ended up just talking about work stuff since there was no real chemistry. It was his first week of work and he would get up early all the time to go to the gym. He had signed a great contract with them, that only had him working 4 days a week Tuesday-Friday. He texted me when he got there on his first day and let me know everyone got there early so they could all get to know each other a little bit. His second day he said they were letting him see patients and he got to work with a 7 year old boy who had just got got for his new prosthetic leg. They got a long so well and the little boy told his mom he thought Jackson was “fun”. Clearly because he’s so good with kids and all his nieces and nephews. We were supposed to go to my first hockey game in Chicago tonight, which he said he got us tickets to (since he knows people from his 7 years being a physical trainer in pro baseball with the Mets and Cubs). He was also going on a final end of the season trip to the Bahamas with some of the Mets/ cubs players at the end of January, because it’s a tradition they go on a vacation before the next season starts every year. He wasn’t able to tell me names though for privacy for them and the “Jersey chasers”. He had a weakness for milk shakes and Diet Cokes which I always found odd since he clearly had an amazing body. He would be eating a kit Kat on the phone some times and asked me if I would judge him if he had pizza rolls for dinner (also odd for such a physically fit man). He wanted to by a blue Tesla after he made his first million and wanted to pay cash price- all pics I have I will include in this email. He was going to get his Harley back once he bought his first house with a garage in Chicago. He lived in apartment right now on the ground floor and had a female neighbor who also had a dog and she would let his does out sometimes for him if he was gone. She supposedly came over once to make sun if him because he was playing and singing loudly along to Kelly Clarkson. He loved country music like me. He had very big feet 13.5 which he told me was 1/2 size bigger than men’s department stores carry and that it’s hard for him to shop for shoes, but he has a lot. His mom calls his Chuck Taylor’s “yatchs”. He always used the “smirky” emoji smily face because that’s the face he always makes in his pictures. He was just in Punta Canta for their last before season starts which I had to google is in the Dominican Republic. His grandfather is excited for him to start his own private practice and he just had given him a giant trust fund. His grandpa says Jackson reminds him so much of him. Lots of talk about when we get to cuddle. He said he needed to find his inhaler one night because he was asthma and it’s very painful. He sent me a photo of what his color blind world looks like to him (attached)- his is called protanopia. He loves the walking dead, but is deathly afraid of clowns. Hates all things sea food. His Great Dane, Thor is 9 years old and when his dad and him went to go pick him up, Thor’s sister, “Maggie” was the only one left in the litter and his dad fell in love with her and took her back home to his mom which she wasn’t that thrilled about but now they love her. His parents were excited about Jackson moving out because he eats so much “lol” “smirky face”. He said his twin sister, Elle Anderson, lived in the same town my friend lives in in Ohio and that she’s 7 months pregnant with a boy, but that Jackson is the only one that knows it’s a boy and he makes a blanket for each niece/nephew with their name on it to surprise his siblings after the baby is all cleaned up the nurses wrap the baby in it and give it to his sisters, so it’s a big secret until they’re born. He’s got old plaques sitting on his spare bedroom floor from publishing deals he’s worked on with Justin Timberlake. His sisters insist on getting box seats in Ohio when he touts in February.... insert where I google phone number. I actually sent this creeps friend on Facebook a message about them and within 2 seconds later got a response back from Julie. How she was able to see it so quickly is unknown, maybe she has some kind of spyware on her friends accounts or uses fake Facebook names and accounts too. It wouldn’t surprise me.
*Comment submitted 12-11-17
Well I got roped into this web of lies as well. Luckily it was only for a week but he matched with me on OkCupid as "Jackson" and told me the whole shpiel - from Cleveland, twin sister, two other sisters, tons of nieces and nephews. Supposedly was a physical therapist who worked for the Red Sox, lived in Fenway, was going to start his own practice one day with the help of his grandfather who was a well known surgeon in Ohio. His dad had supposedly just had a stroke and was still in the ICU. Seemed like a nice kid even when I joked about him being a Catfish. Went out of his way to call me every night and we spent hours on the phone and I'm just horrified that I talked to this stranger who is so terrible -telling them things about myself and my family, even sharing pictures of my adorable nieces! I created a warning account on OkCupid with the photos he sent me and am hoping that other girls will see it and think twice before engaging with this person - whoever he/she is. It's just a nasty, heartless thing to do and I have no idea what they are getting out of it - and around the holidays when people are most vulnerable too. Shame on this person. I hope it catches up with them one day.
Did also tell me he had a stutter when he got nervous and that he had brain cancer in high school.
The phone number is (216) 236-3530. I definitely should have realized something was up when I called It one night because I got that weird google message thing someone else had mentioned.
Basically told me he was the physical therapist for the Red Sox and lived in the Fenway area of Boston. Went to the Ohio state university. Has a twin sister Elle, and sisters Madison and Kennedy and nieces and nephews including the ones other people mentioned - Amelia Jett Meyer, etc. also said Elle was having her 5th baby who would be named Lincoln. Said mom was a HS history teacher and dad was a surgeon, grandfather was as well. Also told me his dad had just had a stroke and was in IcU because he kept having tremors and they couldn’t figure out why. (And I sent him an eCard because I’m an idiot ugh) he was planning to go home to Cleveland for Christmas but also had a tripped planned this weekend for Nashville with friends who were performing with Garth Brooks. He said he was interviewing for a private practice and just accepted the job (also in Boston) for a two year contract and was hoping to start his own PT practice - with help from his grandfather because he hadn’t touched his “trusts” yet. Told me he was a super nerd who was wicked into Pokémon and Star Wars. Also that he has a Great Dane named Thor and had just rescued a puppy he named Loki that had been tied to a dumpster outside of McDonald’s. So basically - verbatim what she/he told everyone else.
*Comment submitted 3-8-16
I started talking to "Ben Hillard on Feb 9 through Ok Cupid. Screen name bth317850. Phone number 216-245-80**. Was pretty casual at first - random hello's throughout the day. Went on for about a week and a half until I said it would be easier to talk over the phone. We exchanged numbers. He mentioned kik would be easier, but I was weary of kik as I see it a way for husbands to communicate without their wives knowing. I told him that. He said fine, so we texted. I asked or more pics, but his phone was broke somehow and couldn't send pics. I called the number, no one picked up but it said "the google voice subscriber you are trying to call is not answering" or something like that. It was a slight red flag, but I myself have a google voice number that I use for work sometimes, so I brushed it off. Anyway, I was out one night and ask if he wanted to meet up, it was a Tuesday. He said that he fell at work hit his head, got a concussion and needed stitc hes. Of course I was concerned, but wished him well. We decided to try for the weekend. Then he tells me his nephew has cancer behind his eye and he is worried for his family and his twin sister Elle. He needed to go home to Ohio over the weekend. Of course, I understood and said family comes first. I was no rush to meet him or rush into a relationship so i let it slide. He returned on Tuesday March 1. We had our fist phone call about a week or two before. It did sound like a man, but just very soft spoken. There was always a TV on in the background as well and I had to ask several times for him to turn it down so I could hear him better. We started talking every day on the phone for 3+ hours a night around Feb 27. Once we started talking more he told me there was something he had to tell me. It was the baby situation. He got a girl pregnant when he lived in NYC and she thought it was someone else’s but turns out it wasn't the guy who she thought it was. She had to ask Ben and 2 other guys to do paternity tests. He would know within days if it was his and the BM(baby momma or birth mom as we decided) was at this point 8 months pregnant - due April 3rd. I was taken back, upset - but we all make mistakes, right? I said let’s just play this by ear and take things day by day. By this point, I felt a strong connecting with him and felt that I wanted to pursue this because I thought he was worth it. He told me Wednesday morning that he got the call and it was his. Things got more serious after this. We discussed names, colors for the nursery (he was color blind so I helped with colors) and many other things. He had decided that Saturday would be our first date. We would go to TopGolf or Escape adventures or maybe a whiskey bar since he loves whiskey. By Thursday, he didn’t want to wait until Saturday to see me so asked what I was doing Friday. I didn’t have many plans so we decided to do dinner and then go to Target to do a baby registry since he said his parents would be buying him all the big things and he needed help picking colors out. Crazy first date, but what if this child became mine someday? What if Ben and I worked out and I decided to adopt and be the mom since the BM wanted nothing to do with the child. By lunch on Friday he told me was worried because he missed a call from the BM. He kept trying to call her sister but no answer. He finally got in touch with the doctors and they said she was having some contractions and had preeclampsia. I googled “preeclampsia” and realize the only cure is to deliver the baby as it is dangerous. I understood because my younger sister was 6 weeks early because my mom was preeclampsia. I FREAKED out and said I needed to see him before all this started. I needed to know he was real. (He didn’t like me questioning him). He had to rush to the airport to catch the next flight to NYC. I told him I would meet him at the airport that we could ride there together, but no. He had to go. He was sorry. I spent Friday night crying and worried and upset for myself. I never got to meet the man who seems so perfect, so wonderful, so caring. But we talked and said if we are meant to be, this is just a bump in our journey and we would be together soon. He sent me pics of the baby. She was small. 4.3 lbs. Did not give me the length. All Saturday I stayed in texting him because I knew he probably needed me. He said his dad bought him a flight to come back to Chicago on Saturday for a few hours but I told him I couldn’t accept that as his daughter needed him more than I did. We talked about me going to NYC to just get dinner, but luckily my friend said absolutely not! I wouldn’t have done it, but it was out there. I told him how important it was for me to see him, to see his face, to see him smile and talk. He knew, but there was just so much going on, but we would absolutely FaceTime on Sunday. N ope – Sunday comes around and another excuse. He didn’t have time to go to apple/ATT to get a new phone. I was pissed. At this point I told him that didn’t understand and if I am so important to him he will find a way. He was mad and said “I give up”. I said, “that easily, wow.” He said it’s not that I won’t facetime with you, it’s that I can’t and I don’t understand how you don’t understand the difference. We argued about it for hours, but eventually I just let it go. My friends and I are extremely skeptical at this point…more so than ever. My friend found a reverse image search and so we put in some of the pics he sent me. BAMMM…Josey Greenwell. I sent a screenshot of what I found to “Ben” and he told me to fucking calm down and he would explain himself when he had a chance. Then I came across this website and saw all the other stories. I said “whoever you are, forget me!” Haven’t heard from “him” since. Right now , I feel hurt, deceived, heartbroken, and embarrassed. I put my heart into this for about a week and a half – even started knitting a baby blanket. How could you do that to an innocent child as well. He sent me 6 pictures of this preemie! I prayed for her! I want this person taken out and no woman should go through this again.
Name given: Ben Andrew Hillard. Yes, he said he lived in Chicago. Worked as a physical therapist for the Chicago Bears, and lived near the stadium. I said, oh, so South Loop? He said Yes. okay, that lines up. He has 3 sisters, Kennedy, Maddie and his twin sister Elle. Again, all named after Presidents because his mom is a history teacher and his dad is a Trauma Surgeon. Older sister has 4 kids, middle has 3 kids and twin has 4 kids. Has a Great Dane named Thor. He drives a jeep wrangler, 4 door, hard top. (again, one of my favorite cars, how did "she" know). His mom raised the kids as his dad was always working. He does not have a good relationship with his dad as his dad was always very hard on him. He told me his Twin's son, Alex, had cancer behind the eye and they were operating one weekend so he wanted to surprise her and come home. Of course I said, family always comes first. He also told me how he had brain cancer in high-school so this was something he needed to be there for Alex, and stayed until Tuesday so he could be there for the first "treatment"- I guess I assumed chemo.
He moved to Chicago 6 months ago from NYC where he worked for the Jets. Went to Ohio State for undergrad and for physical therapy school. Conveniently, he knew from my okc profile that I went to Michigan State so we had this flirty banter going on about that. After we started talking more seriously, he told me there was something he needed to let me know. Of course there is a catch I thought to myself... this gorgeous, amazing, humble man cannot be perfect! It was the BM. He told me there was a possibility the baby could be his. Next day, he told me he got the call and that it was his. I was accepting and thought, this baby needs love and how great she will have this support system. Baby was born Friday night, he named her Sunday: "Haddie James Hillard". I helped pick the name out. I was very surprised that he wanted my input on all of this, but I let it slide. I told him I didn't mind taking a back burner as there is a lot going on and starting a new relationship at the same time as a new baby will be very difficult. He told me that he wouldn't do it if he didn't feel that I was worth it. He knew that if he let me go he would be missing out on something for the rest of his life. Every girls fairy-tale!!!
I love country music and that's all I listen to, but I have never heard of Josey Greenwell/Nate Green. He did mention to me that he writes songs on the side. I googled "Ben Hillard songwriter" and nothing came up. I questioned him about it and he said he writes under a different name...a lot of people do that, right? I had no idea.
*Comment submitted 10-15-15
I have a story about "Jackson Stephen Spence". Apparently this person is talking to multiple girls in Seattle. Mine becomes a little different when we started talking on the phone and he started crying to me and telling me he loved me. Went on for about 2 months on and off. Never met for various reasons ("Nash" was sick, he was sick, getting scanned for cancer, had to go to Ohio to be with his family, his Dad had a stroke, found out that "he" had cancer again and had to fly back to ohio to be with family), wanted to buy a house with me...a ton of crap. I found this website and sent him a screenshot and ended all communication.
I am truly baffled by all of this. What does she get out of this? Attention?? I had the weirdest experience with "him". Right before I found your site, I had a phone conversation with "Jackson" about them finding out that the spot on his stomach (not lungs that he told other girls lol) was indeed cancerous. "He" cried and yelled and hung up on me after I said I wanted to know more. Then he called me back, told me he loved me, and needed me. Such an intense conversation. I dont understand what she got out of that....
Number is a Cleveland number: 440.409.7279. Screen name on OKC was: sta850117. Asked me to use kik, per the usual. Jay M was the screen name on Kik.
I think the worst part about this was the fact that I was CONSTANTLY asking or accusing him of not being real. Each time, he would get mad and we would argue and fight. He asked me to delete my OKC account bc he wanted to be exclusive (what the hell?) after about a week. I kept it going for quite some time. After a fight each day on that one topic, I said screw it and deleted it...I was barely on it anyway, but still. Why would she want me to do that, knowing that this wasnt real?
*Comment submitted 10-7-15
I’d like to share my story as well!
10-2-15
I met Jackson Andrew Spence on OKCupid a few weeks ago. He used images of Nate Green and also of a little boy that was “his son” named Nash. Like all the other stories, mine is almost identical!
Went by Jackson Andrew Spence age 29
Lives in Seattle
Works as a Physical Therapist for the Seahawks
Has three sisters-Maddy, Kennedy, and a twin named Elle
Has a 2yr old boy named Nash
His girlfriend in NYC got pregnant and didn’t want to keep the baby
Has two Great Danes-Thor and Maggie
He had a brain tumor when we was in high school, now is getting scanned for lung cancer
Mom and sisters all had breast cancer
Family of doctors, dad is a surgeon, uncle is a plastic surgeon, sister is a nurse practitioner
Owns a 5 bdr house in Seattle that he “wants to grow into with someone”
Wants 4-5 kids
Could never meet up, always getting injured when we were supposed to meet
Cut his hand taking a shower when the glass door fell off the track-had to rush to the ER
*Comment submitted 8-15-15
So at the beginning of June I started talking to Abe on OKCupid. I was surprised because he was so attractive (pictures of Josey Greenwell) and well educated; he said was a physical therapist so he had listed completed medical school. I work in the medical field so I thought that was great to have someone to talk sciencey stuff with. Eventually it came out that he worked with the Denver Broncos (I'm in Denver and that's where he claimed to live). He said he even got to work out with some of the players. He claimed to work with one of the baseball teams from NYC before. But if he wanted to settle down and start a family, baseball was too much traveling so he had taken the new job. He said he had moved here back in January, but it's too cold here and needed someone to keep him warm. We talked about his dog Thor, a great dane, a lot because I also have a big dog. He told me how he's a certified service dog so he can fly him home to Ohio with him. It was especially nice since his parents have Thor's sister Maggie. We ended up talking about my tattoos and how one is special to me because it's about how I had cancer two years ago and it upended my life. After I told him about that he told me that he had had cancer. Brain cancer. But not to worry because before the "treatments" (I'm assuming he meant chemotherapy but he used a lot of generalities which really bothered me because I'm very medical detail oriented... this will also come back into play) they had frozen some sperm so he can still have kids one day. He also told me all about how he was supposed to have a full ride to UNC for baseball but didn't go because of a girl. I also learned all about his three sisters. Kennedy, Madison, and his twin Elle. Same story about being named after presidents. Can someone please explain Elle though?
Anyways we made plans for our first date on the coming Saturday. It was supposed to be the Luke Bryan concert because it was at the stadium where the Broncos play so he could get us in to the team suites or pressbox or something a long those lines. Didn't hear from him that afternoon or evening. Long after the concert had started I finally got a message on kik. Said he had food poisoning and was puking his guts out. Luckily I was with friends already and went out to the bars without him. I felt bad the next day when he told me how he had spent the night in the ER. He needed a day to recover and then we were going to have a date. That following Monday we were supposed to have the date he messaged me saying he was puking again and this time there was blood so he was going back to the hospital. No date. The next day his mom flew out to take care of him. He ended up having to have an endoscopy to check the ulcers. I've had stomach ulcers and an endoscopy before so again I didn't think some of the things he was saying were quite right but it was close enough so I let it slide. With his mom there we couldn't go out or hang out even though I was more than happy to just come hang out if he wasn't feeling well.
The following Tuesday his mom was finally supposed to fly out. I was at work when he said he was going to take a shower. Two hour later I hadn't heard anything. Finally I message him and told him I wasn't waiting for dinner anymore and was just heading home from work. He replied saying we might need to go to the ER again. Or have me come there to meet him. His shower door had fallen off and shattered and cut his hand. Miraculously his mom's flight had been cancelled, she took a cab back to his place, saw the blood and mess, and came to the ER so he didn't need a ride anymore. He told me nerves and tendons had been cut and he would need surgery to fix it but he'd see specialists the next day. At this point I didn't believe it anymore and called him out on it. I even looked up if any flights out of DIA had been cancelled; none to Ohio. He got really upset and defensive. Made me feel bad about checking up on what he was saying. Sent me pictures of some cut up hand with 30 something stitches in it. In the end I was the one apologizing for doubting things.
So he finally had surgery to fix his hand on Friday. Said it was only a 40 minute surgery and successful. Seemed a little short to me, but what do I know, I've only sat in on about 20 surgeries in the past month... He told me he would need physical therapy to make sure he got all function back. He also told me about how he hates anesthesia and is really grumpy afterwards. We commiserated about that because I've had a hard time with anesthesia from my surgeries. His mom stayed a while longer to help him recover. Before she left she made him tell me something important because she thought I deserved to know.
So at this point he started to tell me about an ex from NY. She's pregnant. It might be his but he's waiting for paternity tests to come back because she was sleeping around when they broke up. Turns out it's his and she's due Aug 22. At this point that's two months away. BM (Baby momma, that's all he ever called her) doesn't want anything to do with the baby because she's on the fast track to some big career in finance so kids are not in her future. He says he has to take custody of her because his baby isn't going up for adoption, especially since he didn't know if he'd ever even be able to have kids. We talked about the baby for a few days. We talk about the legal stuff making sure baby momma doesn't ever have any contact. Also about how his dad was worried that baby momma was just going to try to take his money because it's no secret he comes from money (this will also come back around again). What kinda stuff we need to buy. He's picking out a camo diaper bag because he's just a country boy. Gross but whatever. Also he's color blind so I have to help pick everything out. We'll get a base for the car seat for in my car too. Whoa. Serious here.
All this time there's complications with baby momma and he's freaking out because she won't go to the doctor. We finally decide to have a date. I get totally stood up because some crazy stuff happened at work with some of the Broncos players getting hurt during practice. And then one of the players grabbed his hand ripped out stitches. He has to go back to the ER to get stitches. I was kinda wondering why his hand wasn't splinted and wrapped up so the nerves and tendons could heal but whatever not my hand not my problem. Also baby momma was being admitted to the hospital.
There were a few more days of wondering if the baby was coming or not. Eventually they decide the baby has to come out the next day via c section because things are getting dangerous. He takes the red eye to NYC, spending the evening packing instead of having a date with me. Whatevs, a baby is pretty important but I offered to bring take out over while he packs even. His parents were also driving from Ohio to meet him there. So the baby girl was born the morning of July 1. She was 4 pounds 9 ounces. No length though? He called me right away to tell me before his sisters or anything. Even sent me pictures of a little premie baby not even cleaned off yet and then wrapped up. Then in the incubator with an oxygen mask. Lots of pictures from the NICU. But he's decided that the first time I see the two of them together will be in person, no pictures of him holding her. Ass. Every girl swoons over a guy holding a baby duh.
*Comment submitted 8-7-15
This is still happening. It only took a week and a half but I realized, like many others, that I was being catfished. The information I received matches what I've read in other comments, however, "his" location has changed, he's using a new name, and he's now claiming to live in Chicago and work for the Bears.
I started talking to "Abe" at the end of July. He messaged me on OkCupid and although his profile had very little information, I was intrigued because he was seemingly very attractive (used pictures of Josey Greenwall). We messaged for a bit through OKC and even talked about how he usually likes to approach things - he said something to the effect of "doesn't it go, message, text, phone date, coffee date, and then wedding?" I laughed at that and thought it was cute. So then we exchanged numbers and began texting, but when I tried to send him a picture of my dog and it didn't go through, he suggested we use kik. I downloaded the app and we began texting through that. We'd talk throughout the day. It would always start with a "Morning" from him. He would tell me about work, how his coworker was pissing him off, how he had meeting with his clients - he said he worked for the Bears in sales. I'm a pretty skeptical person, but he knew details about the events that were happening a t Soldier Field, even things that were happening months from now (I confirmed what he was saying against the online calendar and it all matched up perfectly).
We talked about his dog, Thor, a great dane. How his parents went to get a dane puppy and when he saw Thor he knew he had to get him. We talked about his mom being a history teacher, and he would always joke about how his mom didn't want him online dating because she didn't trust it. We talked about his three sisters, and his twin Ellie and he sent me pictures of him (again pictures of Josey Greenwall) holding a baby. Once when we were messaging, I asked how his day was going and I told me that a good friend of his had died. I was stunned and felt so terrible for him.
I also checked the phone number he gave me and when I saw that it was an Ohio number (where he claimed he was from) I felt some validation, and like the gullible girl I am, decided not to bother with a google image search.
We eventually talked on the phone and I was also surprised by his voice - I was expecting it to be deeper and manlier. But again, disregarding the red flag, I continued to talk to him.
Finally we decided to get together for a dinner date. It was impossible to get him to choose a place - he had me send him some suggestions and then he said he'd check the menus (he had mentioned previously what a picky eater he was). So the day of our date I asked him if he had decided and he said that he was talking to a friend who suggested we do something other than dinner. He suggested we go rock climbing. I was all for it. I told him that yoga pants on a first date was new for me and he made a comment about being an ass man. ew.
Anyway, around 3pm he messaged saying "shower time." When I was finally off work I asked what the plan was because he had never confirmed what rock wall we were going to or where to meet, and I didn't get a response. Finally I get a message from him saying that he was at the ER and that while he was showering this glass door fell and cut him up pretty badly.
At that point I knew I was being catfished. I had even made comments to him in the beginning about being paranoid of getting catfished. I did the google image search and came upon this website which confirmed my instinct. I immediately reported the profile on OKC and deleted our message and kik. I felt played.
Thankfully this was only a week and a half of my life, but the deception still stings. It's also eye opening, as the more comfortable I felt, the more personal information I shared about my life, which I know realize could have been very dangerous.
I hope that sharing this story will be helpful to others and possibly serve as a cautionary tale to other women. I'm glad in this situation that there was information available on this website exposing this fraud and liar. I hate that this is still happening and I know it won't be the last time, but hopefully with this information out there other women will be able to quickly come to the same realization that we all did and not end up getting taken advantage of.
*Comment submitted 1-9-15
Plenty of Fish username: capt5185
Name: Jackson Andrew Samuels
I started talking to Jackson almost exactly a month ago. I had looked at his profile because he was clearly attractive (using the pictures of Josey Greenwell), but didn't message him because he lived in NYC and I live in the Jersey suburbs. He messaged me.
We started talking through the app. We exchanged phone numbers the next day. He used 516-900-4761. The first few days it was just texting. I was actually in Manhattan for training two days that week, but he was home in Cleveland because his grandfather had a stroke and he was checking on his mom. Family oriented - check.
We talked on the phone the first time while he was home. I was surprised by his voice – I thought it’d be deeper based on the pictures, but I never once considered that it was a woman. We’d watch TV together and just talk.
At some point after those first couple days, he had issues sending me pictures via text because he had an iPhone 4 "and it wouldn't send iMessages or apparently pictures" so he suggested I download kik, which he'd used when he lived in Europe, working for Victoria's Secret, to talk to his sisters – Kennedy, Madison and Elle (his twin). I have traveled pretty extensively, so worldly – check. His mom is a history teacher and named them all after presidents, except Elle who is named after a wife (I actually looked up a list of president’s wives and didn’t actually see an Elle – should have known then). He claimed to currently work for the Mets in Corporate Sales.
We were supposed to go rock climbing that weekend for our first date. Active – check. We talked all afternoon and then he was going to help his friend move. I was on my way to the train station when he told me that he "may have a trip to the ER on his hands". At first I thought he meant he had to bring his neighbor to the ER...then I realized he was talking about himself. Similar to the women below, his shower door had slid off the hinges and shattered. He texted me the whole time he was there, while bleeding through two towels, and then we talked on the phone that night. We talked about why I got mad at him, that I’d found it suspicious, but I said if you were legitimately injured then ok. He sent me pictures of a stitched up hand.
We talked every day for much of the day. He’d message me good morning. He’d ask how work was. He had to have surgery that Friday because the shower door severed a nerve in his hand. His dad flew in because he was an ER doctor. That Saturday I was going to be in the city with friends to watch a basketball game at a bar. He was going to meet up with us. I sent him the address of the bar. Then an extended period of time passed, the game ended and I asked what was up – if we were going to do something. He claimed to have a bad relationship with his dad and while he was getting ready his dad said let’s go get a whiskey. He felt he had to because he was actually “trying to be a dad”. I have father issues of my own that I actually hadn’t even mentioned yet, so I understood. We texted for the rest of the day.
Then it was Christmas. He went home to Ohio. He told me about his favorite holiday traditions, he suggested country songs for me to listen to because I wasn’t huge into country music. On the Tuesday before Christmas, he called me from the car (allegedly) on the way to lunch with a friend. We talked for about a half hour. He called me after lunch on his way home. He told me two stories about his ex-girlfriends. He was big on asking me to tell him secrets as a way of getting to know each other. From the beginning I had told him I don’t really have secrets because I like to talk too much, so I would just give him fun facts about myself. He contributed as well. I was in no way doing all the talking. After we were on the phone for like 2 hours in total, we hung up and I walked out of my apartment to get my mail. I get a text from him saying “I do have a secret. It’s kind of big and I don’t know if I should say anything”. I said “Tell me. I really don’t, so you should probably put it out there.” That’s when I got the story that a couple girls below got about his ex being pregnant. He had told me they broke up because it turned out she was dating other guys so he wasn’t sure if it was his, but he could get the paternity test results any day. His sisters said not to say anything until he knew for sure, but he wanted to tell me because the ex didn’t want to have anything to do with the baby. She’s 25 and is moving quickly up the ladder in Finance (sort of like myself, but apparently I was ready to throw that out the window). But he wanted to keep the baby if it was his – he didn’t feel right having his own kid out there somewhere. Responsibility – check. I had questions about whether they were having unprotected sex and if this was a real concern, what he would do if she decided she wanted to be in the baby’s life, but ultimately I said we don’t know anything yet so there’s no need for us to stop talking.
Christmas Eve of course he got the call. He wanted me to guess if it was his or not via text. Obviously I wasn’t going to do that. I made him call me. I can relate to the having tried to call and he never answered. He told me it was his. I was awful on the phone, but he just seemed like this really fantastic guy. I didn’t want this to stop us from being together. So I told him that I wasn’t going anywhere.
He was coming back to the city on the Sunday after Christmas. We were supposed to have a date night. True to form he wasn’t very responsive as I tried to nail down a time that I would meet him in NYC. Finally he messaged me and told me he had just gotten home (10 hours for a 7 hour drive). I told him we didn’t have to do dinner, that we could just hang out, but that I really felt strongly about meeting him in person if we were going to keep talking like we were. We had tried and failed two times at this point. He told me he had gotten in a huge fight with his dad and to send him the train times for him to come to me. I did. And then about two hours passed. He “fell asleep”. I was SUPER pissed. And I made that clear. He said ok then – good luck. Then stupid me said “Why do you always assume I’m giving up? I’m mad, but I never said that I was giving up. I just feel strongly about meeting you.” And then I gave him an out “If you don’t really want to meet me, this is your opportunity because I want a relationship not a phone/texting thing”. I was more direct with him than I’d ever been with anybody. He said “I do” and I swooned again. We didn’t talk much that night, but the good mornings continued the next day.
Then we get to New Year’s Eve. He was going to come watch football with me and a couple of my friends. He was going to bring Thor (the service dog also mentioned below) because he’s afraid of fireworks. I checked multiple times to be sure he was actually coming. I asked what kind of beer he wanted. He said he’d bring Jack too (his favorite whiskey). I was pumped. Then I head out to dinner with my mom, sister and brother before game time and I get a text that he has four missed calls from BM (“Baby Mama” – what he and his family are referring to the ex as). Obviously I know what’s coming. She’s having the baby. They’re inducing her a month early because the her blood pressure is high. I do research. I figure out this is possible. I decide the universe is working against us, but I keep talking to him. I’m super supportive. I tell him what he needs for the hospital (because apparently this whole situation woke up motherly instincts I didn’t know I had). We talk about names. We had talked about them previously. Aria and Scarlett were on the “short list”. I threw Olivia out there, but he claimed to have a niece Olivia. And then when we get to middle names he’s clueless. I say Grace. He likes it. So now I’ve helped name this child. My mom and sister both tell me that night to walk away, but I don’t listen. I help him through it. She’s born just before midnight. Barely 5 lbs. But he couldn’t remember how long – another red flag. There really were so many.
So the past week he’s spending his days in the NICU with Aria Grace. He’s sending me pictures. That’s what gets me the most is that this woman is using pictures of some poor little premature baby. The baby was having digestive issues so she allegedly had surgery on Tuesday. I was completely distracted at work all morning worrying about the two of them. He told me he cried when she was out and ok. I kept assuring him he was going to be a good dad and everything was going to be ok. I felt invested. I knew it was crazy, but I still felt it. He told me that day that a nurse hit on him. I said I can’t imagine that it’s the first time and he said it was here. I told him I couldn’t really help with that. He said “You did. I told her I had a girlfriend.” I said “Oh really now? Cool J.” I wasn’t going to go around telling people I had a boyfriend I hadn’t met, but I did turn my claddaugh ring around and I was all smiles.
I asked him to send me a picture of him with the baby. Wednesday, he sent me a picture of “him” holding the baby, but it’s just his chest down. I thought it was a little weird, but he said “I’ve decided you can’t see me with her until it’s in person”. I thought it was adorable. We’ve spent 3+ hours on the phone every night this week when he gets home from the hospital. His dad came from OH for Aria’s surgery, so I did find it weird that he was on the phone with me so much, but he did tell me they didn’t get along so maybe they really did just not speak when they were in his apartment together.
Then yesterday, his old boss from Victoria’s Secret was in town. He had told me earlier in the week that they’re desperate to get him back to manage marketing for a new line. They had lunch and dinner yesterday. Couldn’t tell me the names of restaurants. Just that they had pasta for lunch and steak for dinner. We were on the phone for almost four hours last night. We decided that I would go there tonight so we could be together for real. I knew it wouldn’t happen. He “couldn’t think of any reason why not” – until I’m getting on the train right and those headaches he’s been getting turn into the cancer other women heard about below? I was supposed to remind him to call the doctor today to get his meds refilled.
My friend had updated her mom on the situation last night. I won’t say it hasn’t occurred to me that he was catfishing me. I knew there were holes, but he was hot and just seemingly perfect. We had the very similar interests, the same values. I was ready to help him raise this adorable little girl. And then my friend’s mom mentioned seeing something about catfishing on Dr. Phil. Again, it had occurred to me. I had tried to search for his pictures, but didn’t really know how to do it. We had talked about him not having Facebook, which is fine – some people don’t, but he also didn’t have a LinkedIn and given this awesome career he’d had that was odd to me. So this morning I decided to google his phone number. And I stumbled across this website.
Thank you all so much for posting your experiences. I pride myself on being a smart girl, but I really feel like an idiot here. I’m just glad it’s only 30 days of my life wasted to this insane woman who gets off on lying to us. I thought I could have loved Jackson, but I kept saying I was cautiously optimistic and I’m so glad for that. Trust issues for the win, I guess.
It’s been almost four months since the last post and I wanted to share my story because it is still happening. Be careful out there. I know I’ll never be online dating again.
I was just a victim of “Jackson A. Dodson” who is also this exact same person. Every sickening single thing matches up. “Tell me a secret”, “I am a physical therapist who just got done working with the Mets and Cubs”, “I have a Great Dane named Thor and a mix I saved from a dumpster outside McDonalds”, “I have a twin sister named Elle Anderson and two other older sisters”, “my dad just had his second stroke in two weeks and is in the ICU”, “I have a black Jeep wrangler with a hard top”, “my dad is a retired trauma surgeon and my mom is a high school history teacher”, “I’m color blind and don’t like sea food”, “I play the piano, drums and write music for Justin Timberlake,” “I can get us backstage to meet him,” “I have 12 nieces and nephews and they all have made up names for each one of them”, “morning texts every day”... he/she/it has a voice that does not match the pictures and is almost 100% positive this “Julie C” “woman” that is bat shit crazy and living in Ohio, when “she” really needs to be imprisoned with serious mental help.
Fortunately, I was able to see through some of this “too good to be true” bs after about a week of phone calls and all day texts. The details that this sick person is able to come up with on a daily basis are above and beyond. He says he has a Harley back home in Ohio that he and his dad (who is now in the hospital) built together and sends me a pic of Josey Greenwell on a Harley. My dad has one as well, so I thought this was so cool! He said he was cheated on by 3 out of 4 of his past girlfriends. He is a little bit of a nerd who likes Star Wars and his parents and sisters got him a giant LEGO Death Star that I was going to come over for movies, wine and dinner and that we could build together. This was also the night I would be able to bring my little dog over to meet his “two dogs” and have a doggie play date. He had me make a full reservation at a restraint we were never going to and I had to cancel it because his dad was in the ICU and they didn’t know if he was going to make it, so he had to do 80MPH with fake dogs in car driving up to Ohio (he lives in Wrigleyville in Illinois is what he is telling me at this point), only stopping once. When he got to the hospital, he met his dad was unconscious, but he knew he was there because his heart rate monitor went up. He always said dad told him he was the one in the family that was going to give him a heart attack. He let me know when he got back to his moms while she stayed overnight at the hospital to be with the dad. He said fortunately all the schools are closed due to the weather, so his high school history teaching mom could focus on just being with his dad right now. He said he took his photos off of OK Cupid, which was the site I met him on and that he doesn’t normally put all of his eggs in one basket, but he’s going to take a chance because he thinks I’m going to end up getting stuck with him and that I’m probably too good for him. He sent countless pictures of his fake nieces and nephews and new borns in the family. He told me how they all were at his moms for Christmas and he all the adults would stay up late after the kids went to bed to drink and put together toys for them. He got his sisters daughter a big doll house and his nephews a bat mobile or some electronic car they could drive. He said he’s hard to shop for because clothes don’t fit him because he’s so muscular, so his mom and sisters both got him “Alexa/Amazon dots speakers” one for his bathroom and one in his living room. He said he just got a new job working in a private practice physical therapy office because one of his friends tried setting him up with one of the doctors that he knew that worked there, but they ended up just talking about work stuff since there was no real chemistry. It was his first week of work and he would get up early all the time to go to the gym. He had signed a great contract with them, that only had him working 4 days a week Tuesday-Friday. He texted me when he got there on his first day and let me know everyone got there early so they could all get to know each other a little bit. His second day he said they were letting him see patients and he got to work with a 7 year old boy who had just got got for his new prosthetic leg. They got a long so well and the little boy told his mom he thought Jackson was “fun”. Clearly because he’s so good with kids and all his nieces and nephews. We were supposed to go to my first hockey game in Chicago tonight, which he said he got us tickets to (since he knows people from his 7 years being a physical trainer in pro baseball with the Mets and Cubs). He was also going on a final end of the season trip to the Bahamas with some of the Mets/ cubs players at the end of January, because it’s a tradition they go on a vacation before the next season starts every year. He wasn’t able to tell me names though for privacy for them and the “Jersey chasers”. He had a weakness for milk shakes and Diet Cokes which I always found odd since he clearly had an amazing body. He would be eating a kit Kat on the phone some times and asked me if I would judge him if he had pizza rolls for dinner (also odd for such a physically fit man). He wanted to by a blue Tesla after he made his first million and wanted to pay cash price- all pics I have I will include in this email. He was going to get his Harley back once he bought his first house with a garage in Chicago. He lived in apartment right now on the ground floor and had a female neighbor who also had a dog and she would let his does out sometimes for him if he was gone. She supposedly came over once to make sun if him because he was playing and singing loudly along to Kelly Clarkson. He loved country music like me. He had very big feet 13.5 which he told me was 1/2 size bigger than men’s department stores carry and that it’s hard for him to shop for shoes, but he has a lot. His mom calls his Chuck Taylor’s “yatchs”. He always used the “smirky” emoji smily face because that’s the face he always makes in his pictures. He was just in Punta Canta for their last before season starts which I had to google is in the Dominican Republic. His grandfather is excited for him to start his own private practice and he just had given him a giant trust fund. His grandpa says Jackson reminds him so much of him. Lots of talk about when we get to cuddle. He said he needed to find his inhaler one night because he was asthma and it’s very painful. He sent me a photo of what his color blind world looks like to him (attached)- his is called protanopia. He loves the walking dead, but is deathly afraid of clowns. Hates all things sea food. His Great Dane, Thor is 9 years old and when his dad and him went to go pick him up, Thor’s sister, “Maggie” was the only one left in the litter and his dad fell in love with her and took her back home to his mom which she wasn’t that thrilled about but now they love her. His parents were excited about Jackson moving out because he eats so much “lol” “smirky face”. He said his twin sister, Elle Anderson, lived in the same town my friend lives in in Ohio and that she’s 7 months pregnant with a boy, but that Jackson is the only one that knows it’s a boy and he makes a blanket for each niece/nephew with their name on it to surprise his siblings after the baby is all cleaned up the nurses wrap the baby in it and give it to his sisters, so it’s a big secret until they’re born. He’s got old plaques sitting on his spare bedroom floor from publishing deals he’s worked on with Justin Timberlake. His sisters insist on getting box seats in Ohio when he touts in February.... insert where I google phone number. I actually sent this creeps friend on Facebook a message about them and within 2 seconds later got a response back from Julie. How she was able to see it so quickly is unknown, maybe she has some kind of spyware on her friends accounts or uses fake Facebook names and accounts too. It wouldn’t surprise me.
*Comment submitted 12-11-17
Well I got roped into this web of lies as well. Luckily it was only for a week but he matched with me on OkCupid as "Jackson" and told me the whole shpiel - from Cleveland, twin sister, two other sisters, tons of nieces and nephews. Supposedly was a physical therapist who worked for the Red Sox, lived in Fenway, was going to start his own practice one day with the help of his grandfather who was a well known surgeon in Ohio. His dad had supposedly just had a stroke and was still in the ICU. Seemed like a nice kid even when I joked about him being a Catfish. Went out of his way to call me every night and we spent hours on the phone and I'm just horrified that I talked to this stranger who is so terrible -telling them things about myself and my family, even sharing pictures of my adorable nieces! I created a warning account on OkCupid with the photos he sent me and am hoping that other girls will see it and think twice before engaging with this person - whoever he/she is. It's just a nasty, heartless thing to do and I have no idea what they are getting out of it - and around the holidays when people are most vulnerable too. Shame on this person. I hope it catches up with them one day.
Did also tell me he had a stutter when he got nervous and that he had brain cancer in high school.
The phone number is (216) 236-3530. I definitely should have realized something was up when I called It one night because I got that weird google message thing someone else had mentioned.
Basically told me he was the physical therapist for the Red Sox and lived in the Fenway area of Boston. Went to the Ohio state university. Has a twin sister Elle, and sisters Madison and Kennedy and nieces and nephews including the ones other people mentioned - Amelia Jett Meyer, etc. also said Elle was having her 5th baby who would be named Lincoln. Said mom was a HS history teacher and dad was a surgeon, grandfather was as well. Also told me his dad had just had a stroke and was in IcU because he kept having tremors and they couldn’t figure out why. (And I sent him an eCard because I’m an idiot ugh) he was planning to go home to Cleveland for Christmas but also had a tripped planned this weekend for Nashville with friends who were performing with Garth Brooks. He said he was interviewing for a private practice and just accepted the job (also in Boston) for a two year contract and was hoping to start his own PT practice - with help from his grandfather because he hadn’t touched his “trusts” yet. Told me he was a super nerd who was wicked into Pokémon and Star Wars. Also that he has a Great Dane named Thor and had just rescued a puppy he named Loki that had been tied to a dumpster outside of McDonald’s. So basically - verbatim what she/he told everyone else.
*Comment submitted 3-8-16
I started talking to "Ben Hillard on Feb 9 through Ok Cupid. Screen name bth317850. Phone number 216-245-80**. Was pretty casual at first - random hello's throughout the day. Went on for about a week and a half until I said it would be easier to talk over the phone. We exchanged numbers. He mentioned kik would be easier, but I was weary of kik as I see it a way for husbands to communicate without their wives knowing. I told him that. He said fine, so we texted. I asked or more pics, but his phone was broke somehow and couldn't send pics. I called the number, no one picked up but it said "the google voice subscriber you are trying to call is not answering" or something like that. It was a slight red flag, but I myself have a google voice number that I use for work sometimes, so I brushed it off. Anyway, I was out one night and ask if he wanted to meet up, it was a Tuesday. He said that he fell at work hit his head, got a concussion and needed stitc hes. Of course I was concerned, but wished him well. We decided to try for the weekend. Then he tells me his nephew has cancer behind his eye and he is worried for his family and his twin sister Elle. He needed to go home to Ohio over the weekend. Of course, I understood and said family comes first. I was no rush to meet him or rush into a relationship so i let it slide. He returned on Tuesday March 1. We had our fist phone call about a week or two before. It did sound like a man, but just very soft spoken. There was always a TV on in the background as well and I had to ask several times for him to turn it down so I could hear him better. We started talking every day on the phone for 3+ hours a night around Feb 27. Once we started talking more he told me there was something he had to tell me. It was the baby situation. He got a girl pregnant when he lived in NYC and she thought it was someone else’s but turns out it wasn't the guy who she thought it was. She had to ask Ben and 2 other guys to do paternity tests. He would know within days if it was his and the BM(baby momma or birth mom as we decided) was at this point 8 months pregnant - due April 3rd. I was taken back, upset - but we all make mistakes, right? I said let’s just play this by ear and take things day by day. By this point, I felt a strong connecting with him and felt that I wanted to pursue this because I thought he was worth it. He told me Wednesday morning that he got the call and it was his. Things got more serious after this. We discussed names, colors for the nursery (he was color blind so I helped with colors) and many other things. He had decided that Saturday would be our first date. We would go to TopGolf or Escape adventures or maybe a whiskey bar since he loves whiskey. By Thursday, he didn’t want to wait until Saturday to see me so asked what I was doing Friday. I didn’t have many plans so we decided to do dinner and then go to Target to do a baby registry since he said his parents would be buying him all the big things and he needed help picking colors out. Crazy first date, but what if this child became mine someday? What if Ben and I worked out and I decided to adopt and be the mom since the BM wanted nothing to do with the child. By lunch on Friday he told me was worried because he missed a call from the BM. He kept trying to call her sister but no answer. He finally got in touch with the doctors and they said she was having some contractions and had preeclampsia. I googled “preeclampsia” and realize the only cure is to deliver the baby as it is dangerous. I understood because my younger sister was 6 weeks early because my mom was preeclampsia. I FREAKED out and said I needed to see him before all this started. I needed to know he was real. (He didn’t like me questioning him). He had to rush to the airport to catch the next flight to NYC. I told him I would meet him at the airport that we could ride there together, but no. He had to go. He was sorry. I spent Friday night crying and worried and upset for myself. I never got to meet the man who seems so perfect, so wonderful, so caring. But we talked and said if we are meant to be, this is just a bump in our journey and we would be together soon. He sent me pics of the baby. She was small. 4.3 lbs. Did not give me the length. All Saturday I stayed in texting him because I knew he probably needed me. He said his dad bought him a flight to come back to Chicago on Saturday for a few hours but I told him I couldn’t accept that as his daughter needed him more than I did. We talked about me going to NYC to just get dinner, but luckily my friend said absolutely not! I wouldn’t have done it, but it was out there. I told him how important it was for me to see him, to see his face, to see him smile and talk. He knew, but there was just so much going on, but we would absolutely FaceTime on Sunday. N ope – Sunday comes around and another excuse. He didn’t have time to go to apple/ATT to get a new phone. I was pissed. At this point I told him that didn’t understand and if I am so important to him he will find a way. He was mad and said “I give up”. I said, “that easily, wow.” He said it’s not that I won’t facetime with you, it’s that I can’t and I don’t understand how you don’t understand the difference. We argued about it for hours, but eventually I just let it go. My friends and I are extremely skeptical at this point…more so than ever. My friend found a reverse image search and so we put in some of the pics he sent me. BAMMM…Josey Greenwell. I sent a screenshot of what I found to “Ben” and he told me to fucking calm down and he would explain himself when he had a chance. Then I came across this website and saw all the other stories. I said “whoever you are, forget me!” Haven’t heard from “him” since. Right now , I feel hurt, deceived, heartbroken, and embarrassed. I put my heart into this for about a week and a half – even started knitting a baby blanket. How could you do that to an innocent child as well. He sent me 6 pictures of this preemie! I prayed for her! I want this person taken out and no woman should go through this again.
Name given: Ben Andrew Hillard. Yes, he said he lived in Chicago. Worked as a physical therapist for the Chicago Bears, and lived near the stadium. I said, oh, so South Loop? He said Yes. okay, that lines up. He has 3 sisters, Kennedy, Maddie and his twin sister Elle. Again, all named after Presidents because his mom is a history teacher and his dad is a Trauma Surgeon. Older sister has 4 kids, middle has 3 kids and twin has 4 kids. Has a Great Dane named Thor. He drives a jeep wrangler, 4 door, hard top. (again, one of my favorite cars, how did "she" know). His mom raised the kids as his dad was always working. He does not have a good relationship with his dad as his dad was always very hard on him. He told me his Twin's son, Alex, had cancer behind the eye and they were operating one weekend so he wanted to surprise her and come home. Of course I said, family always comes first. He also told me how he had brain cancer in high-school so this was something he needed to be there for Alex, and stayed until Tuesday so he could be there for the first "treatment"- I guess I assumed chemo.
He moved to Chicago 6 months ago from NYC where he worked for the Jets. Went to Ohio State for undergrad and for physical therapy school. Conveniently, he knew from my okc profile that I went to Michigan State so we had this flirty banter going on about that. After we started talking more seriously, he told me there was something he needed to let me know. Of course there is a catch I thought to myself... this gorgeous, amazing, humble man cannot be perfect! It was the BM. He told me there was a possibility the baby could be his. Next day, he told me he got the call and that it was his. I was accepting and thought, this baby needs love and how great she will have this support system. Baby was born Friday night, he named her Sunday: "Haddie James Hillard". I helped pick the name out. I was very surprised that he wanted my input on all of this, but I let it slide. I told him I didn't mind taking a back burner as there is a lot going on and starting a new relationship at the same time as a new baby will be very difficult. He told me that he wouldn't do it if he didn't feel that I was worth it. He knew that if he let me go he would be missing out on something for the rest of his life. Every girls fairy-tale!!!
I love country music and that's all I listen to, but I have never heard of Josey Greenwell/Nate Green. He did mention to me that he writes songs on the side. I googled "Ben Hillard songwriter" and nothing came up. I questioned him about it and he said he writes under a different name...a lot of people do that, right? I had no idea.
*Comment submitted 10-15-15
I have a story about "Jackson Stephen Spence". Apparently this person is talking to multiple girls in Seattle. Mine becomes a little different when we started talking on the phone and he started crying to me and telling me he loved me. Went on for about 2 months on and off. Never met for various reasons ("Nash" was sick, he was sick, getting scanned for cancer, had to go to Ohio to be with his family, his Dad had a stroke, found out that "he" had cancer again and had to fly back to ohio to be with family), wanted to buy a house with me...a ton of crap. I found this website and sent him a screenshot and ended all communication.
I am truly baffled by all of this. What does she get out of this? Attention?? I had the weirdest experience with "him". Right before I found your site, I had a phone conversation with "Jackson" about them finding out that the spot on his stomach (not lungs that he told other girls lol) was indeed cancerous. "He" cried and yelled and hung up on me after I said I wanted to know more. Then he called me back, told me he loved me, and needed me. Such an intense conversation. I dont understand what she got out of that....
Number is a Cleveland number: 440.409.7279. Screen name on OKC was: sta850117. Asked me to use kik, per the usual. Jay M was the screen name on Kik.
I think the worst part about this was the fact that I was CONSTANTLY asking or accusing him of not being real. Each time, he would get mad and we would argue and fight. He asked me to delete my OKC account bc he wanted to be exclusive (what the hell?) after about a week. I kept it going for quite some time. After a fight each day on that one topic, I said screw it and deleted it...I was barely on it anyway, but still. Why would she want me to do that, knowing that this wasnt real?
*Comment submitted 10-7-15
I’d like to share my story as well!
10-2-15
I met Jackson Andrew Spence on OKCupid a few weeks ago. He used images of Nate Green and also of a little boy that was “his son” named Nash. Like all the other stories, mine is almost identical!
Went by Jackson Andrew Spence age 29
Lives in Seattle
Works as a Physical Therapist for the Seahawks
Has three sisters-Maddy, Kennedy, and a twin named Elle
Has a 2yr old boy named Nash
His girlfriend in NYC got pregnant and didn’t want to keep the baby
Has two Great Danes-Thor and Maggie
He had a brain tumor when we was in high school, now is getting scanned for lung cancer
Mom and sisters all had breast cancer
Family of doctors, dad is a surgeon, uncle is a plastic surgeon, sister is a nurse practitioner
Owns a 5 bdr house in Seattle that he “wants to grow into with someone”
Wants 4-5 kids
Could never meet up, always getting injured when we were supposed to meet
Cut his hand taking a shower when the glass door fell off the track-had to rush to the ER
*Comment submitted 8-15-15
So at the beginning of June I started talking to Abe on OKCupid. I was surprised because he was so attractive (pictures of Josey Greenwell) and well educated; he said was a physical therapist so he had listed completed medical school. I work in the medical field so I thought that was great to have someone to talk sciencey stuff with. Eventually it came out that he worked with the Denver Broncos (I'm in Denver and that's where he claimed to live). He said he even got to work out with some of the players. He claimed to work with one of the baseball teams from NYC before. But if he wanted to settle down and start a family, baseball was too much traveling so he had taken the new job. He said he had moved here back in January, but it's too cold here and needed someone to keep him warm. We talked about his dog Thor, a great dane, a lot because I also have a big dog. He told me how he's a certified service dog so he can fly him home to Ohio with him. It was especially nice since his parents have Thor's sister Maggie. We ended up talking about my tattoos and how one is special to me because it's about how I had cancer two years ago and it upended my life. After I told him about that he told me that he had had cancer. Brain cancer. But not to worry because before the "treatments" (I'm assuming he meant chemotherapy but he used a lot of generalities which really bothered me because I'm very medical detail oriented... this will also come back into play) they had frozen some sperm so he can still have kids one day. He also told me all about how he was supposed to have a full ride to UNC for baseball but didn't go because of a girl. I also learned all about his three sisters. Kennedy, Madison, and his twin Elle. Same story about being named after presidents. Can someone please explain Elle though?
Anyways we made plans for our first date on the coming Saturday. It was supposed to be the Luke Bryan concert because it was at the stadium where the Broncos play so he could get us in to the team suites or pressbox or something a long those lines. Didn't hear from him that afternoon or evening. Long after the concert had started I finally got a message on kik. Said he had food poisoning and was puking his guts out. Luckily I was with friends already and went out to the bars without him. I felt bad the next day when he told me how he had spent the night in the ER. He needed a day to recover and then we were going to have a date. That following Monday we were supposed to have the date he messaged me saying he was puking again and this time there was blood so he was going back to the hospital. No date. The next day his mom flew out to take care of him. He ended up having to have an endoscopy to check the ulcers. I've had stomach ulcers and an endoscopy before so again I didn't think some of the things he was saying were quite right but it was close enough so I let it slide. With his mom there we couldn't go out or hang out even though I was more than happy to just come hang out if he wasn't feeling well.
The following Tuesday his mom was finally supposed to fly out. I was at work when he said he was going to take a shower. Two hour later I hadn't heard anything. Finally I message him and told him I wasn't waiting for dinner anymore and was just heading home from work. He replied saying we might need to go to the ER again. Or have me come there to meet him. His shower door had fallen off and shattered and cut his hand. Miraculously his mom's flight had been cancelled, she took a cab back to his place, saw the blood and mess, and came to the ER so he didn't need a ride anymore. He told me nerves and tendons had been cut and he would need surgery to fix it but he'd see specialists the next day. At this point I didn't believe it anymore and called him out on it. I even looked up if any flights out of DIA had been cancelled; none to Ohio. He got really upset and defensive. Made me feel bad about checking up on what he was saying. Sent me pictures of some cut up hand with 30 something stitches in it. In the end I was the one apologizing for doubting things.
So he finally had surgery to fix his hand on Friday. Said it was only a 40 minute surgery and successful. Seemed a little short to me, but what do I know, I've only sat in on about 20 surgeries in the past month... He told me he would need physical therapy to make sure he got all function back. He also told me about how he hates anesthesia and is really grumpy afterwards. We commiserated about that because I've had a hard time with anesthesia from my surgeries. His mom stayed a while longer to help him recover. Before she left she made him tell me something important because she thought I deserved to know.
So at this point he started to tell me about an ex from NY. She's pregnant. It might be his but he's waiting for paternity tests to come back because she was sleeping around when they broke up. Turns out it's his and she's due Aug 22. At this point that's two months away. BM (Baby momma, that's all he ever called her) doesn't want anything to do with the baby because she's on the fast track to some big career in finance so kids are not in her future. He says he has to take custody of her because his baby isn't going up for adoption, especially since he didn't know if he'd ever even be able to have kids. We talked about the baby for a few days. We talk about the legal stuff making sure baby momma doesn't ever have any contact. Also about how his dad was worried that baby momma was just going to try to take his money because it's no secret he comes from money (this will also come back around again). What kinda stuff we need to buy. He's picking out a camo diaper bag because he's just a country boy. Gross but whatever. Also he's color blind so I have to help pick everything out. We'll get a base for the car seat for in my car too. Whoa. Serious here.
All this time there's complications with baby momma and he's freaking out because she won't go to the doctor. We finally decide to have a date. I get totally stood up because some crazy stuff happened at work with some of the Broncos players getting hurt during practice. And then one of the players grabbed his hand ripped out stitches. He has to go back to the ER to get stitches. I was kinda wondering why his hand wasn't splinted and wrapped up so the nerves and tendons could heal but whatever not my hand not my problem. Also baby momma was being admitted to the hospital.
There were a few more days of wondering if the baby was coming or not. Eventually they decide the baby has to come out the next day via c section because things are getting dangerous. He takes the red eye to NYC, spending the evening packing instead of having a date with me. Whatevs, a baby is pretty important but I offered to bring take out over while he packs even. His parents were also driving from Ohio to meet him there. So the baby girl was born the morning of July 1. She was 4 pounds 9 ounces. No length though? He called me right away to tell me before his sisters or anything. Even sent me pictures of a little premie baby not even cleaned off yet and then wrapped up. Then in the incubator with an oxygen mask. Lots of pictures from the NICU. But he's decided that the first time I see the two of them together will be in person, no pictures of him holding her. Ass. Every girl swoons over a guy holding a baby duh.
*Comment submitted 8-7-15
This is still happening. It only took a week and a half but I realized, like many others, that I was being catfished. The information I received matches what I've read in other comments, however, "his" location has changed, he's using a new name, and he's now claiming to live in Chicago and work for the Bears.
I started talking to "Abe" at the end of July. He messaged me on OkCupid and although his profile had very little information, I was intrigued because he was seemingly very attractive (used pictures of Josey Greenwall). We messaged for a bit through OKC and even talked about how he usually likes to approach things - he said something to the effect of "doesn't it go, message, text, phone date, coffee date, and then wedding?" I laughed at that and thought it was cute. So then we exchanged numbers and began texting, but when I tried to send him a picture of my dog and it didn't go through, he suggested we use kik. I downloaded the app and we began texting through that. We'd talk throughout the day. It would always start with a "Morning" from him. He would tell me about work, how his coworker was pissing him off, how he had meeting with his clients - he said he worked for the Bears in sales. I'm a pretty skeptical person, but he knew details about the events that were happening a t Soldier Field, even things that were happening months from now (I confirmed what he was saying against the online calendar and it all matched up perfectly).
We talked about his dog, Thor, a great dane. How his parents went to get a dane puppy and when he saw Thor he knew he had to get him. We talked about his mom being a history teacher, and he would always joke about how his mom didn't want him online dating because she didn't trust it. We talked about his three sisters, and his twin Ellie and he sent me pictures of him (again pictures of Josey Greenwall) holding a baby. Once when we were messaging, I asked how his day was going and I told me that a good friend of his had died. I was stunned and felt so terrible for him.
I also checked the phone number he gave me and when I saw that it was an Ohio number (where he claimed he was from) I felt some validation, and like the gullible girl I am, decided not to bother with a google image search.
We eventually talked on the phone and I was also surprised by his voice - I was expecting it to be deeper and manlier. But again, disregarding the red flag, I continued to talk to him.
Finally we decided to get together for a dinner date. It was impossible to get him to choose a place - he had me send him some suggestions and then he said he'd check the menus (he had mentioned previously what a picky eater he was). So the day of our date I asked him if he had decided and he said that he was talking to a friend who suggested we do something other than dinner. He suggested we go rock climbing. I was all for it. I told him that yoga pants on a first date was new for me and he made a comment about being an ass man. ew.
Anyway, around 3pm he messaged saying "shower time." When I was finally off work I asked what the plan was because he had never confirmed what rock wall we were going to or where to meet, and I didn't get a response. Finally I get a message from him saying that he was at the ER and that while he was showering this glass door fell and cut him up pretty badly.
At that point I knew I was being catfished. I had even made comments to him in the beginning about being paranoid of getting catfished. I did the google image search and came upon this website which confirmed my instinct. I immediately reported the profile on OKC and deleted our message and kik. I felt played.
Thankfully this was only a week and a half of my life, but the deception still stings. It's also eye opening, as the more comfortable I felt, the more personal information I shared about my life, which I know realize could have been very dangerous.
I hope that sharing this story will be helpful to others and possibly serve as a cautionary tale to other women. I'm glad in this situation that there was information available on this website exposing this fraud and liar. I hate that this is still happening and I know it won't be the last time, but hopefully with this information out there other women will be able to quickly come to the same realization that we all did and not end up getting taken advantage of.
*Comment submitted 1-9-15
Plenty of Fish username: capt5185
Name: Jackson Andrew Samuels
I started talking to Jackson almost exactly a month ago. I had looked at his profile because he was clearly attractive (using the pictures of Josey Greenwell), but didn't message him because he lived in NYC and I live in the Jersey suburbs. He messaged me.
We started talking through the app. We exchanged phone numbers the next day. He used 516-900-4761. The first few days it was just texting. I was actually in Manhattan for training two days that week, but he was home in Cleveland because his grandfather had a stroke and he was checking on his mom. Family oriented - check.
We talked on the phone the first time while he was home. I was surprised by his voice – I thought it’d be deeper based on the pictures, but I never once considered that it was a woman. We’d watch TV together and just talk.
At some point after those first couple days, he had issues sending me pictures via text because he had an iPhone 4 "and it wouldn't send iMessages or apparently pictures" so he suggested I download kik, which he'd used when he lived in Europe, working for Victoria's Secret, to talk to his sisters – Kennedy, Madison and Elle (his twin). I have traveled pretty extensively, so worldly – check. His mom is a history teacher and named them all after presidents, except Elle who is named after a wife (I actually looked up a list of president’s wives and didn’t actually see an Elle – should have known then). He claimed to currently work for the Mets in Corporate Sales.
We were supposed to go rock climbing that weekend for our first date. Active – check. We talked all afternoon and then he was going to help his friend move. I was on my way to the train station when he told me that he "may have a trip to the ER on his hands". At first I thought he meant he had to bring his neighbor to the ER...then I realized he was talking about himself. Similar to the women below, his shower door had slid off the hinges and shattered. He texted me the whole time he was there, while bleeding through two towels, and then we talked on the phone that night. We talked about why I got mad at him, that I’d found it suspicious, but I said if you were legitimately injured then ok. He sent me pictures of a stitched up hand.
We talked every day for much of the day. He’d message me good morning. He’d ask how work was. He had to have surgery that Friday because the shower door severed a nerve in his hand. His dad flew in because he was an ER doctor. That Saturday I was going to be in the city with friends to watch a basketball game at a bar. He was going to meet up with us. I sent him the address of the bar. Then an extended period of time passed, the game ended and I asked what was up – if we were going to do something. He claimed to have a bad relationship with his dad and while he was getting ready his dad said let’s go get a whiskey. He felt he had to because he was actually “trying to be a dad”. I have father issues of my own that I actually hadn’t even mentioned yet, so I understood. We texted for the rest of the day.
Then it was Christmas. He went home to Ohio. He told me about his favorite holiday traditions, he suggested country songs for me to listen to because I wasn’t huge into country music. On the Tuesday before Christmas, he called me from the car (allegedly) on the way to lunch with a friend. We talked for about a half hour. He called me after lunch on his way home. He told me two stories about his ex-girlfriends. He was big on asking me to tell him secrets as a way of getting to know each other. From the beginning I had told him I don’t really have secrets because I like to talk too much, so I would just give him fun facts about myself. He contributed as well. I was in no way doing all the talking. After we were on the phone for like 2 hours in total, we hung up and I walked out of my apartment to get my mail. I get a text from him saying “I do have a secret. It’s kind of big and I don’t know if I should say anything”. I said “Tell me. I really don’t, so you should probably put it out there.” That’s when I got the story that a couple girls below got about his ex being pregnant. He had told me they broke up because it turned out she was dating other guys so he wasn’t sure if it was his, but he could get the paternity test results any day. His sisters said not to say anything until he knew for sure, but he wanted to tell me because the ex didn’t want to have anything to do with the baby. She’s 25 and is moving quickly up the ladder in Finance (sort of like myself, but apparently I was ready to throw that out the window). But he wanted to keep the baby if it was his – he didn’t feel right having his own kid out there somewhere. Responsibility – check. I had questions about whether they were having unprotected sex and if this was a real concern, what he would do if she decided she wanted to be in the baby’s life, but ultimately I said we don’t know anything yet so there’s no need for us to stop talking.
Christmas Eve of course he got the call. He wanted me to guess if it was his or not via text. Obviously I wasn’t going to do that. I made him call me. I can relate to the having tried to call and he never answered. He told me it was his. I was awful on the phone, but he just seemed like this really fantastic guy. I didn’t want this to stop us from being together. So I told him that I wasn’t going anywhere.
He was coming back to the city on the Sunday after Christmas. We were supposed to have a date night. True to form he wasn’t very responsive as I tried to nail down a time that I would meet him in NYC. Finally he messaged me and told me he had just gotten home (10 hours for a 7 hour drive). I told him we didn’t have to do dinner, that we could just hang out, but that I really felt strongly about meeting him in person if we were going to keep talking like we were. We had tried and failed two times at this point. He told me he had gotten in a huge fight with his dad and to send him the train times for him to come to me. I did. And then about two hours passed. He “fell asleep”. I was SUPER pissed. And I made that clear. He said ok then – good luck. Then stupid me said “Why do you always assume I’m giving up? I’m mad, but I never said that I was giving up. I just feel strongly about meeting you.” And then I gave him an out “If you don’t really want to meet me, this is your opportunity because I want a relationship not a phone/texting thing”. I was more direct with him than I’d ever been with anybody. He said “I do” and I swooned again. We didn’t talk much that night, but the good mornings continued the next day.
Then we get to New Year’s Eve. He was going to come watch football with me and a couple of my friends. He was going to bring Thor (the service dog also mentioned below) because he’s afraid of fireworks. I checked multiple times to be sure he was actually coming. I asked what kind of beer he wanted. He said he’d bring Jack too (his favorite whiskey). I was pumped. Then I head out to dinner with my mom, sister and brother before game time and I get a text that he has four missed calls from BM (“Baby Mama” – what he and his family are referring to the ex as). Obviously I know what’s coming. She’s having the baby. They’re inducing her a month early because the her blood pressure is high. I do research. I figure out this is possible. I decide the universe is working against us, but I keep talking to him. I’m super supportive. I tell him what he needs for the hospital (because apparently this whole situation woke up motherly instincts I didn’t know I had). We talk about names. We had talked about them previously. Aria and Scarlett were on the “short list”. I threw Olivia out there, but he claimed to have a niece Olivia. And then when we get to middle names he’s clueless. I say Grace. He likes it. So now I’ve helped name this child. My mom and sister both tell me that night to walk away, but I don’t listen. I help him through it. She’s born just before midnight. Barely 5 lbs. But he couldn’t remember how long – another red flag. There really were so many.
So the past week he’s spending his days in the NICU with Aria Grace. He’s sending me pictures. That’s what gets me the most is that this woman is using pictures of some poor little premature baby. The baby was having digestive issues so she allegedly had surgery on Tuesday. I was completely distracted at work all morning worrying about the two of them. He told me he cried when she was out and ok. I kept assuring him he was going to be a good dad and everything was going to be ok. I felt invested. I knew it was crazy, but I still felt it. He told me that day that a nurse hit on him. I said I can’t imagine that it’s the first time and he said it was here. I told him I couldn’t really help with that. He said “You did. I told her I had a girlfriend.” I said “Oh really now? Cool J.” I wasn’t going to go around telling people I had a boyfriend I hadn’t met, but I did turn my claddaugh ring around and I was all smiles.
I asked him to send me a picture of him with the baby. Wednesday, he sent me a picture of “him” holding the baby, but it’s just his chest down. I thought it was a little weird, but he said “I’ve decided you can’t see me with her until it’s in person”. I thought it was adorable. We’ve spent 3+ hours on the phone every night this week when he gets home from the hospital. His dad came from OH for Aria’s surgery, so I did find it weird that he was on the phone with me so much, but he did tell me they didn’t get along so maybe they really did just not speak when they were in his apartment together.
Then yesterday, his old boss from Victoria’s Secret was in town. He had told me earlier in the week that they’re desperate to get him back to manage marketing for a new line. They had lunch and dinner yesterday. Couldn’t tell me the names of restaurants. Just that they had pasta for lunch and steak for dinner. We were on the phone for almost four hours last night. We decided that I would go there tonight so we could be together for real. I knew it wouldn’t happen. He “couldn’t think of any reason why not” – until I’m getting on the train right and those headaches he’s been getting turn into the cancer other women heard about below? I was supposed to remind him to call the doctor today to get his meds refilled.
My friend had updated her mom on the situation last night. I won’t say it hasn’t occurred to me that he was catfishing me. I knew there were holes, but he was hot and just seemingly perfect. We had the very similar interests, the same values. I was ready to help him raise this adorable little girl. And then my friend’s mom mentioned seeing something about catfishing on Dr. Phil. Again, it had occurred to me. I had tried to search for his pictures, but didn’t really know how to do it. We had talked about him not having Facebook, which is fine – some people don’t, but he also didn’t have a LinkedIn and given this awesome career he’d had that was odd to me. So this morning I decided to google his phone number. And I stumbled across this website.
Thank you all so much for posting your experiences. I pride myself on being a smart girl, but I really feel like an idiot here. I’m just glad it’s only 30 days of my life wasted to this insane woman who gets off on lying to us. I thought I could have loved Jackson, but I kept saying I was cautiously optimistic and I’m so glad for that. Trust issues for the win, I guess.
It’s been almost four months since the last post and I wanted to share my story because it is still happening. Be careful out there. I know I’ll never be online dating again.
*Comment submitted 9-2-14
Mine started on OKCupid on December 13, 2013. I remember it so specifically because it was Friday the 13th(go figure) and I always said that was why "he" was so unlucky with our "relationship". Anywho, he was originally using the pictures of Josey Greenwell and he messaged me first. I could probably find the original messages actually... He started the whole conversation asking about how many tiny humans I had. I have two kids and called them tiny humans on my profile. It was a cute and clever message and we talked about his family and how much he loved kids. He told me that he worked for the Tampa Bay, buccaneers selling the ad space in the stadium and making commission off of that, plus his salary of course. He did mention that he used to work at Victoria's Secret and I will come back to that later in the story. Right after we met online he flew home to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family which seemed normal to me. When he got back we planned to meet for lunch and then he disappeared for many hours only to finally and give the same story he told the other woman about how his shower door fell on him and basically ripped his arm up and his neighbor took him to the hospital. And that he was fine and didn't need me up there because he knew I needed to take care of my kids. He had to have idk 30/40 stitches or something in his arm/ hand but they couldn't promise not having nerve damage so since his dad(an ER doctor) knew a surgeon in Ohio he flew out to have emergency surgery on his hand. And that's when is got even crazier. He was stuck in Ohio doing multiple surgeries and physical therapy when he was in the car one night with Grant when they were hit by a drunk driver and shattered his knee. He was texting me "the whole time" and I didn't know until he said "I need you to know I will be okay babe. Elle is going to take the phone now" I still had no idea what was going on. This was when Elle his twin sister called me and told me Theo had been in an accident and I was the only thing keeping him calm until they got him out of the car. This was mid January at this time. That's when the seizures started, but one night he had sent me a picture of "him" and his hurt arm would have been bandaged and it wasn't and I tried everything I could to debunk it and decided to google image search his pictures and found josey greenwell. I was FURIOUS. It was like 1 in the morning and I blew up his phone and he picked up and I just told him off. He explained the same thing as the other woman that is was because of his job and stuff and his friends made him join the site and stuff. Blah blah. He then sent me the other pictures claiming he was really him. Who I know is Chad Hollmer now but whenever I google image searched any picture he sent me nothing matched it's weird. Anyways to say I never let him forget what he did was an understatement but the fool I was we kept talking. The seizures got worse and that's when they found the mass. This is all kind of a blur because it was so long ago but basically they said it was brain cancer and that's where my friends and I just started thinking the whole thing was just a big joke and more so kept it going just to see what he would come up with next. He did the whole chemo brain surgery thing and then grant his brother came back to Tampa with him. He would disappear or say he was in the hospital and I would call the hospital "in his area" and tell him they said he wasn't in the hospital. He would then be like well I just left, blah blah blah. All this time I was still doing my own thing dating other people and not really worrying about theo and I was on a date one night at a bar and telling him all the bullshit that was theo and he had HEARD the story before!!! Lol so I told theo that and he FLIPPED OUT. Saying it was obviously someone from the hospital and he was going to sue and what was my friends name and stuff I just laughed. The distance only grew between us because I kept catching him in lies but he would always pop back up. Then in April he came to me saying his ex from New York was expecting a baby and she didn't want it and he was going to take custody if he was the father. Of course he was the father and she went to New York to get the baby and named her Haddie. He even SENT me pictures of this baby!!! Saying he wanted us to be a family and when he got home we could get the kids together and stuff. Then he drives to ohio from New York with haddie. Then when trying to come back to Tampa found out Haddie is deathly allergic to peanuts and almost died and had to go back to Ohio. Who lies about a baby?!? Anyways, this was maybe in May/ June. He would disappear for a week then reappear. I had reactivated my okcupid account at this point and he says he saw it because of one of his friends and he called me and screamed at me and told me to never talk to him again. Lots of vulgar language. I just laughed. Of course that wasn't the last of it. Up until last week he would still appear every few weeks. And around August 11th, my birthday. He said he was coming home and we HAD to make it work and whatever. I showed my friends and told him sure( it is still a running joke at this point just to see who the hell this person is). A week passes and I don't hear from him and I'm actually dating a real person now and have pictures posted on social media like Facebook and Instagram of us together. All public with nothing to hide and I got a text from him... I will attach them just so you can see for yourself the joke that is... "Theo". Needless to say, I haven't heard from him since. Lol I have 3 numbers that he used. All were google numbers. The first was 937-506-0638. Then it changed to 216-285-0441. And the last one was 516-900-4761. We originally spoke primarily through kik and his name was tcosu85 but I started to refuse to speak to him through that so we would text through his phone number. There are many many gaps in this story that I am missing. Like his brother grant texting me telling me I was an awful person for not believing him and asking him to leave me alone and stuff. Lol there is this huge sense of relief since I finally got rid of him. I've literally been trying for months to get him to stop calling me and stuff. My stories very much so mirror the girl on here and most of the family history stuff matches what he told me too. I did message Chad Hollmer and had a small conversation with him. Such a weird feeling talking to the actual person in the pictures. Lol anyways I would be happy to help in any way I can. Any questions you have or want any more information is fine. Only at the beginning of the relationship was I even emotionally invested so I don't know if I would say I am as devastated and hurt as some of the women on this site and I hope I can help someone else. My story lasted 9 months to the day and I am so glad to have it over! :)
**The conversation slideshow below starts with "Are we still on for Tuesday?" You can hover over to click pause and use the arrows to navigate**
Mine started on OKCupid on December 13, 2013. I remember it so specifically because it was Friday the 13th(go figure) and I always said that was why "he" was so unlucky with our "relationship". Anywho, he was originally using the pictures of Josey Greenwell and he messaged me first. I could probably find the original messages actually... He started the whole conversation asking about how many tiny humans I had. I have two kids and called them tiny humans on my profile. It was a cute and clever message and we talked about his family and how much he loved kids. He told me that he worked for the Tampa Bay, buccaneers selling the ad space in the stadium and making commission off of that, plus his salary of course. He did mention that he used to work at Victoria's Secret and I will come back to that later in the story. Right after we met online he flew home to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family which seemed normal to me. When he got back we planned to meet for lunch and then he disappeared for many hours only to finally and give the same story he told the other woman about how his shower door fell on him and basically ripped his arm up and his neighbor took him to the hospital. And that he was fine and didn't need me up there because he knew I needed to take care of my kids. He had to have idk 30/40 stitches or something in his arm/ hand but they couldn't promise not having nerve damage so since his dad(an ER doctor) knew a surgeon in Ohio he flew out to have emergency surgery on his hand. And that's when is got even crazier. He was stuck in Ohio doing multiple surgeries and physical therapy when he was in the car one night with Grant when they were hit by a drunk driver and shattered his knee. He was texting me "the whole time" and I didn't know until he said "I need you to know I will be okay babe. Elle is going to take the phone now" I still had no idea what was going on. This was when Elle his twin sister called me and told me Theo had been in an accident and I was the only thing keeping him calm until they got him out of the car. This was mid January at this time. That's when the seizures started, but one night he had sent me a picture of "him" and his hurt arm would have been bandaged and it wasn't and I tried everything I could to debunk it and decided to google image search his pictures and found josey greenwell. I was FURIOUS. It was like 1 in the morning and I blew up his phone and he picked up and I just told him off. He explained the same thing as the other woman that is was because of his job and stuff and his friends made him join the site and stuff. Blah blah. He then sent me the other pictures claiming he was really him. Who I know is Chad Hollmer now but whenever I google image searched any picture he sent me nothing matched it's weird. Anyways to say I never let him forget what he did was an understatement but the fool I was we kept talking. The seizures got worse and that's when they found the mass. This is all kind of a blur because it was so long ago but basically they said it was brain cancer and that's where my friends and I just started thinking the whole thing was just a big joke and more so kept it going just to see what he would come up with next. He did the whole chemo brain surgery thing and then grant his brother came back to Tampa with him. He would disappear or say he was in the hospital and I would call the hospital "in his area" and tell him they said he wasn't in the hospital. He would then be like well I just left, blah blah blah. All this time I was still doing my own thing dating other people and not really worrying about theo and I was on a date one night at a bar and telling him all the bullshit that was theo and he had HEARD the story before!!! Lol so I told theo that and he FLIPPED OUT. Saying it was obviously someone from the hospital and he was going to sue and what was my friends name and stuff I just laughed. The distance only grew between us because I kept catching him in lies but he would always pop back up. Then in April he came to me saying his ex from New York was expecting a baby and she didn't want it and he was going to take custody if he was the father. Of course he was the father and she went to New York to get the baby and named her Haddie. He even SENT me pictures of this baby!!! Saying he wanted us to be a family and when he got home we could get the kids together and stuff. Then he drives to ohio from New York with haddie. Then when trying to come back to Tampa found out Haddie is deathly allergic to peanuts and almost died and had to go back to Ohio. Who lies about a baby?!? Anyways, this was maybe in May/ June. He would disappear for a week then reappear. I had reactivated my okcupid account at this point and he says he saw it because of one of his friends and he called me and screamed at me and told me to never talk to him again. Lots of vulgar language. I just laughed. Of course that wasn't the last of it. Up until last week he would still appear every few weeks. And around August 11th, my birthday. He said he was coming home and we HAD to make it work and whatever. I showed my friends and told him sure( it is still a running joke at this point just to see who the hell this person is). A week passes and I don't hear from him and I'm actually dating a real person now and have pictures posted on social media like Facebook and Instagram of us together. All public with nothing to hide and I got a text from him... I will attach them just so you can see for yourself the joke that is... "Theo". Needless to say, I haven't heard from him since. Lol I have 3 numbers that he used. All were google numbers. The first was 937-506-0638. Then it changed to 216-285-0441. And the last one was 516-900-4761. We originally spoke primarily through kik and his name was tcosu85 but I started to refuse to speak to him through that so we would text through his phone number. There are many many gaps in this story that I am missing. Like his brother grant texting me telling me I was an awful person for not believing him and asking him to leave me alone and stuff. Lol there is this huge sense of relief since I finally got rid of him. I've literally been trying for months to get him to stop calling me and stuff. My stories very much so mirror the girl on here and most of the family history stuff matches what he told me too. I did message Chad Hollmer and had a small conversation with him. Such a weird feeling talking to the actual person in the pictures. Lol anyways I would be happy to help in any way I can. Any questions you have or want any more information is fine. Only at the beginning of the relationship was I even emotionally invested so I don't know if I would say I am as devastated and hurt as some of the women on this site and I hope I can help someone else. My story lasted 9 months to the day and I am so glad to have it over! :)
**The conversation slideshow below starts with "Are we still on for Tuesday?" You can hover over to click pause and use the arrows to navigate**
*Comment submitted 5-9-14
I was contacted by "Theo" on Feb. 1st. I live in MD and had just really started the dating website thing. I was in a relationship for 10 years prior to this that had just ended last year. I had dated a man previously from the website in Dec. but things didnt work out. "Theo" contacted me and we immediately clicked. He wouldnt text with me at first so we did the kik thing, the screen name he used was, Tcosu85, where he sent me pictures of himself. I now know the 3 people he sent me pictures are of Josey Greenwell and Chad Hollmer. I also have another picture that his "sister" Elle just put up yesterday, I have google image searched and cannot locate who this person is. I literally today just told him to f off. The past 3 weeks, I knew something was not right. Ive been lying to my friends and family for months. I told them we met, I knew they wouldnt support this. He told me a lot about his "life" with Hanson. He claimed to be the god father of Taylor Hanson's son River. I heard the train that the person who left a comment from 1-2-2011 mentioned. The one thing that is now added, 4 weeks ago, Theo told me he found out he was fathering a child. We talked in depth about options and even named her. The birth mother wanted nothing to do with her, he could afford to give her a better life. So we agreed, we would do it together. I told him I would, but that he had to come back to MD to do this. I told ALL my family and friends. Im mortified at this point and ashamed that I lied to them. To be honest, youre the only person who knows that i was truly catfished by this person. I cant tell them all I lied, they would be angry. He kept most of the same stories... when we first started talking, he worked for the Baltimore Orioles, the night of our first date, his shower door came off the hinges and he had to go to the ER. I tried to come but his "neighbor" was with him so he was okay. His dad flew in days later because he had to have surgery on his hand from this, again, he wouldnt let me come help. To be honest, from the beginning things felt off, i was in a vulnerable spot and I couldnt believe someone like him would want me. I fell for it totally. he healed from his hand, we talked constantly, all day and all night. We started calling and "sleeping" together. Jesus I cant believe i did this. I know better but I couldnt seem to help myself. The night of our second date, his sister went collapsed and they had to take the baby out in Cleveland. He was on his way to my house, i had to calm him down and get him to turn around and go to the airport in Baltimore. He said his dad bought a ticket for him and his service dog Thor, his great dane, to fly out. He called me when he landed and everything. Once he was there was when the cancer was revealed. He even called me when he was going into surgery!!! Looking back, nothing about this made sense. He was able to come home that very night, because his sisters and dad were all in the medical profession. Im so embarrassed, we talked about children together, picked out names, etc. I kept encouraging him to fight thru his cancer but things just stopped adding up. Then i was suppose to drive out to Cleveland and the day i was suppose to leave, he gets into a car accident on his way home from Chemo. I couldnt get a hold of him for hours, Finally i do and he tells me. Tells me to wait to come out the next day because his dad wants him to focus on his drs apt for his knee. jump to the next day, and guess what, his whole family gets into a car accident on the way home from dinner. Everyone is injured, again, tells me not to come. Thats when my friends started telling me things werent right, Im so sad to say, I defended it. My gut was telling me something was wrong. Then about 2 weeks later, it was a monday, he tells me, we have to talk. My ex called me this morning, shes pregnant and i believe the baby is mine. I took a DNA test and will now shortly. We talked about options, etc. I had a personal history that made me okay with doing this since the birth mother according to him, didnt want the baby. Im so ashamed, i told all my friends, my family. I bought things for this baby, my parents did as well. I just though, okay, there is NO way someone would make up a baby! But then, the excuses kept happening, and thats when i caught on. For the past 3 weeks, every day I have been catching him in something. Last Friday, I finally came to my senses and google searched his images, I figured out then, he was lying. I immediately confronted him, he had a whole message and sorry, told me he would meet me immediately. Said sorry for doing this to us, I was heartbroken but i still just wanted to believe. I thought, okay, maybe he just lied about the picture. thats when he revealed he had lied about his picture, as well as he never told me he had a brother names Grant and that also, the baby, who we named, had been born. I didnt want to admit defeat, i had told my entire friends and family already, i was willing to look past it, if he would just meet me. Once again, every day it was an excuse. This is when his "sister" elle got very involved, the kik name she used was ellep385. we messaged constantly, she revealed that he previously had cancer, so while he was stupid to lie, to believe in him and keep things going. Everyday we have been screaming and fighting. Last night I told him was my final straw if he didnt meet me in person, he went me this huge long message, that was basically a marriage proposal to me, and then he also revealed that he actually had cancer 4 times. It started when he was 4, 14, 25 and now. He revealed he had a brother, Lincoln, who was gay and committed suicide 3 years ago and would have been 18 this June. Thats when i was like your so full of shit. I researched ways to have multiple kiks, i finally figured out this morning you could do it on PC. I also looked into his phone number this morning, it was a google voice number, he told me, he had previously worked for Victoria Secret and that they set it up. Well i figured out this morning that wasnt the case. I had finally told him last night, I couldnt do this anymore. That it was emotionally un healthy for me. As of 10 am this morning was when i told him to leave me alone, i sent the link to website actually as my proof on how i knew he was fake. His number imed. didnt work, he has stopped reading and answering all the kiks. I tried calling his number, it wont go through anymore. So from Feb. 1st of 2014 to 10am this morning... I was Julie's latest victim.
*Comment submitted 1-6-14
I too was this person's victim for almost 3 months. It went on that long because I wanted to see what else this person was going to throw at me. This person also started talking to me on POF and I thought it was too good to be true...what was that good looking of a guy doing on a dating site. I consider myself attractive, but this guy was model material. He was new to Kansas City and worked in the marketing department for the Royals and was hoping to switch jobs and work for the Chiefs. His name was Jefferson Robbins. He had 3 sisters and they were all named after President's...Kennedy, Reagan, Jefferson and his twin Elle...Elle had me thrown as a President's name. I'm pretty aware of the president's and I know there was no Elle. His comeback was that it was the name of the wife of a President. He was going home to Ohio the week after we started talking, so we planned on meeting once he came home. He ended up getting a sinus infection while he was there a nd his dad (an ER Doctor) did not want him flying home, listing all the things that could go wrong if he did. So, he stayed at his parents while he recovered. Every time he was on the verge of coming home, he couldn't because of his breathing (he had a bout of pneumonia a few years before that put him in the hospital, and had problems ever since). He was finally well enough to travel home, but his dad drove him back...from Cleveland to KC. So we planned on meeting. We were going to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. I kept texting to find out what time he'd be over and finally got a text saying he might need me to come to the hospital. He was showering and when he was trying to get out, the shower door came off the tracks. He tried grabbing the door and his hand went through the glass door. Luckily his dad was still with him when this all happened, but he could never tell me the hospital. I was a little suspicious, but kind of let it go. We made plans for later that week, but his dad didn't feel he was well enough to be going out. It was just excuse after excuse. Then he kept getting sick, or was just never getting better. He was allergic to the stitching in his hand, so that caused an infection. They did several blood tests and discovered that his white blood cell count was really low...fast forward past the MRIs and CT scans and they discover he has spots on his lungs. His dad flies back to come speak with the doctors and they go over the treatment plan (of course I ask detailed questions, but he said they basically talked over his head, so he was just going along with it). Oh, his mom flew back too. So they made plans to all fly back to Cleveland for surgery so their close friend could oversee the surgery. They even flew his dog back...a great dane named Thor, who had a sister named Maggie that lived with his parents. Luckily for him, Thor was able to fly on the plane due to certifications he got when he was a puppy (basically he was a service dog). He even went into detail about Thor on the moving sidewalks in the airport and how his mom took a video...one that he'd send me later of course. That was his excuse if I asked for something, like a picture of his hand...I'd see it later in person, or to send me a video- he'd send it later.
My story is very similar to everyone else's with the approach on POF, the KIK messenger. He did want to call me a few days after we started talking. I thought his voice didn't match his pics at all...thought he sounded a little wussy. His voice was higher pitched, but I didn't think it sounded like a woman's though. When we first started talking his goodbyes were very abrupt. All of a sudden he had to go...he'd text me later and would tell me he had to pee or something. Also, he could call me at anytime, but whenever I tried calling him, he never picked up, except one time, after I mentioned him never answering. He told me to call back and then he answered. I asked him multiple times why he never answered when I called and even told him it was weird and kept pushing for an answer and he got angry and said he just didn't. I tried people searching for his email and his phone number and really couldn't come up with anything...except both numbers he gave me (one all of a sudden h ad issues when he flew back to Ohio for surgery and then somehow his number changed to something completely different). His first number was 216-264-6080...which suddenly changed to 937-506-0638. The AT&T store couldn't tell him why his number changed either. This was the night before his surgery. His "sister" Elle texted me right after surgery to let me know how everything went. then he texted me later. I kept trying to ask for the hospital or his parent's address to send flowers and he would avoid the question until I finally called him out on it. He told me he wasn't giving it to me because he didn't want any flowers. He stayed in Ohio from December 9th until the 30th. Then of course he immediately was admitted to the hospital for coughing up blood. His dad flew there to be with him and they immediately started him on chemo (he'd been taking chemo drugs while in Ohio). Again, I asked multiple times what hospital, I offered to come sit with him. He would never tell me the hospital, he either avoided it by not answering back or told me he'd check to see if I could come visit. I'd had my suspicions and kept having bad dreams that he was someone else, so I finally had enough. I told him I couldn't continue talking to him if he couldn't meet me in the next few days. I didn't care if it was at the hospital, his house, wherever. I told him I didn't understand that why after 3 months and as crazy as he was about me, why we hadn't met. There really wasn't an excuse for it. I told him we shouldn't be planning a future if we couldn't even be together in the present. His response " we'll figure something out". I told him I was done. I wasn't wasting my time on someone who wouldn't meet me . His response was sorry he didn't respond right away....he was puking from the chemo.
Started googling all day about being catfished and stumbled across the Dr.. Phil episode and then subsequently this blog. Same guy, same MO with some variations, and the same voice....just sickening and very sad. I did have somewhat of a guard up, so fortunately was not as hurt as some have been. I half believed "him" but wanted to see what excuse he'd come with next. Sad someone has to live through someone else instead of experiencing life on their own. I forgot to mention that he told me his mom, a history teacher, had breast cancer twice...another obvious reason why he would now have cancer, and he ran marathons in support of breast cancer. I did get the whole story about his sister going into pre-term labor and got the pics of all the nieces and nephews. He had to babysit Jett while his sister was in the hospital. Everything that was bad happened to this guy, like 2 or 3 of his close friends died or were put on life support on a few weeks time. I'm sure he couldn't use the drunk driving story on me, because I was involved in a drunk driving accident during the time "Jefferson"and I were talking, I was the driver and no one else was involved, but that would have probably been way beyond coincidental for him to have also been involved in a drunk driving accident and for him to continue speaking to me after that.
I did confront him about the Dr. Phil thing today, but I emailed him and sent him a text last week basically telling him I was done talking to him unless he would meet me within the next few days. I knew he was full of crap and wanted to see what excuse he'd come up with, but he didn't, just said we'd figure something out or would just avoid it all together. I had said something along the lines of, "I want to meet you very soon, Jeff, because I can't continue a relationship via phone and text", he must have forgotten which name he was using because he said "Jeff???" And I asked if that was his name, or should I call him something else, he tried to play it off like he thought my auto-correct had messed up. Anyway, after he blew off my texts about meeting, I told him I have up and was done. His response "holy shit, sorry I didn't respond right away, I was puking" and then he went on to say, to forget it and he wasn't arguing with me about it. Didn't hear from him again until about 1:30 in the morning when he called "crying" about how much pain he was in from the chemo. I was just irritated at this point, I couldn't even remember what I said, just basically he'd be fine, I was half asleep. It was a lot of him moaning and crying and I didn't say anything, then I heard the phone hang up and haven't heard from him since. I think that was Friday or Saturday night. I did notice that he wasn't talking to me near as often this last month. Pretty much after he had surgery on his cancerous lungs, I would maybe hear from him a few times a day and he liked to call me at bed time do we could "fall asleep together". The first time it was cute, after that, it was just irritating. I think around the same time, I started having bad dreams about him being someone else (that good old intuition) and I told him about them so maybe he thought then that I was onto him/her.
Just a sickening feeling and very sad that this woman devotes all her time to lying and manipulating people. She must have a very sad life indeed if she had to live a life as someone else.
*Comment submitted 7-25-13
Hello! I just wrote you a comment but would like to give you more information. I never saved anything from him, so I don't have screen shots. I was super pissed when I wrote my first comment so would love to add more info: When I was speaking to him last year, I also spoke to him on the phone. I remember being very creeped out by his voice. The voice did not match the pictures. I even thought for a second that it sounded like a woman pretending to be a man. "Marc Brooks" also claimed he was a famous musician and had a lot of money. He was in the works with Lady A on a new project and wrote many songs for famous country artist. He claimed to have bought a house in Covington, LA and even gave me specific areas. This is crazy to me because he really had to do his research to find out the street names he was claiming to live close by. He also made it clear that he was looking to get married. He claimed his mom was on his case about finding a wife since he was the only single family member. He stated over and over how important marriage was to him and how he couldn't wait to cherish his wife. (Music to a single lady's ears, right?) He had three sisters- Morgan, Leslie, and Steph (his twin.) I don't remember date of birth. He claimed that he gave Steph and her husband his condo in OH and he decided to move down south for a change. He found me on POF by the screen name similar to the msoub. His kik name was also the same. We texted nonstop everyday. I actually started to slack on my work and questioned how he kept a job with so much texting. He claimed to go to OH to get the rest of his items and had 3 friends driving back with him. He would go to lengths as to "leave the restaurant" so he could talk to me. One night while they were staying in a hotel, he was speaking to me on the phone. He paused and said "Sorry, I was taking my medicine." I bet this person is on some serious medication! Once he arrived back "home" they unpacked. He literally had a picture for every single emotion/instance/etc. I would say I love to swim, and he would send a pic of himself (Josey) by his pool in his mansion of a home. He claimed to workout most of the day and that he couldn't talk to me at times because he would run 8 miles. Working out was very serious in his routine. We made plans on May 5th (cinco) and he had to cancel because he had an emergency at home. His sister went into labor very early and Lucy (his niece) was born. I too, got the picture of the small baby and a finger. He cried on the phone!!!! While he was in OH, he kept making plans to come back home so we could meet. I even offered to come to Ohio and WE LOOKED UP FLIGHTS AND HOTEL INFORMATION! He claimed his mother was a doctor at the hospital the baby was. I can't remember the name- but I did google the hospital and call and no such lady ran this hospital. If I remember correctly at one point the baby wasn't doing well and stopped breathing. He sobbed on the phone. I am still scared from this as I have no idea how someone can lie to such extents. I was working one evening when he claimed to be at a bar with all of his friends/family. He text me every step of the way, and said he was leaving soon. he asked to call me, and I told him I was busy at work. About an hour later I get very random text such as "babe." "talk to me." babe. Please' "they are taking the phone away." His "sister" Leslie texted me. I had no idea what was going on, and she was under the impression I knew. She had to "break the news to me" that Marc was hit by a drunk driver and was being CUT OUT OF THE CAR by firemen. I was so sick and sad I had to leave work. I was so worried for him and devastated. His "sister" would text me saying that HE WAS SCREAMING FOR ME AT THE HOSPITAL! I didn't sleep for days. What a bastard! The sister ended up calling me and told me that it was very compelling to her and his family that he cared about me so much. He would WAKE UP FROM SURGERY calling out for me. I have nightmares about this still! There were many times I almost spent my hard earned money to fly to Ohio. When he was finally settled in from his total knee replacement, he sent me a video of him singing "girlfriend". It was the first every live footage I had seen of him. I probably watched that video a million times. This is how I ended up busting him. I googled "girlfriend cover" and Joseys page popped up. I was so confused. I really thought for a minute that the person I was talking to was really Josey and that this was just his stage name/presence. I cannot believe I fell for this. I confronted him on a live phone conversation. he told me he would explain, but it would have to be later as he had to go to therapy. he would cry on the phone to me about not being able to walk ever again. Finally, he confessed that he was using Joseys pictures. He claimed that a friend suggested he put up fake pictures and if he found anyone he liked, to then expose himself. he sent me about 5-6 pictures of a very tall man that was also very good looking (and a model.) I knew he was lying, but continued to talk to him to see how far this sick bastard would take it. We continued to talk for another 2 months (4 total months now.) He claimed that he was doing much better but all the sudden had a blod clot. He would have to go back into the hospital and have surgery after surgery. The blog clots were very serious that they were starting to spread to his lungs. He was worried that he would die in his sleep and never get to meet me. I began getting very frustrated with him for not wanting to face time or skype. I was desperate to see him and take care of him. We even made plans for when his parents drove him back home that I would stay with him in his house and take care of him. Finally, he was mobile enough to move around. He went MIA for a few days and claimed that he was working with Lady A and didn't have cell service wherever he was. He would send pictures of his hurt leg and him on crutches. It was very unlike is to go a day without speaking, so when I didn't hear from him for 4 days I lost it. Called the whole thing off and went bonkers on him. Of course, he claimed to be "in route" home and he was only 5 hours away. He manipulated me and made me feel awful about losing it on him. Bastard! We made plans that I would meet his mom and get the key to his house from her. I was to unpack all of his boxes so the house was comfortable for him when he got home. How does one make this stuff up??????? What happens next is fuzzy, I had already known this guy was a fake but still kept talking to him. Finally, I called him out once and for all. he claimed that the reason he had been quiet was because he had been diagnosed with brain cancer. I called him every name in the book and how he was a sick bastard for putting people through this. He kept telling me how awful of a person I was for speaking that way to someone with cancer. (FYI- after he came "back to Louisiana Leslie never answered the phone on the number I had for her) The day after he told me had cancer, the Dr. Phil show aired. I was following Josey on FB and saw he posted about it. I was shocked, and called Marc out again and never heard from him since. Speaking of Fb, Marc claimed not to have one because he didn't have time. I got a request from a "Marc Brooks" on Fb and the profile picture was his blue shoes (that ended up being on Joseys fb.) I wish Josey would step forward and press charges. What can be done? I have tried calling the number I had for him and it is disconnected. has anyone spoken to Julies parents? any information on what they say? For this person to have done this to so many people (and apparently still doing it) is seriously mentally ill. I don't understand the motive. I hope my story helped!
*Comment submitted 7-9-13
Hey, this is still going on and I just yesterday (July 8) realized I was being catfished.
My story matches the one from the end of June from "Max." I was originally contacted on OkCupid by the account oihom on June 27. We messaged a few times on there and then started texting. The number is 614-398-0167. When I got the first message I of course googled it and it was from Ohio, so I stopped looking further because it matched where "max" said he was from. "Max" said he had moved to NYC in April for a job.
I was hesitant to text much because I wanted to meet in person quickly. My red flags were up because when we would talk about where we were out for dinner or what bars we liked, I never got a specific response. It was always like, "just a little local bar."
The first text was on June 27 as well. "Max" told me a little about having 3 sisters, including one who was a twin, and how he flew back and forth to Ohio regularly to see them. He worked in marketing for a women's fashion line. His birthday was July 3 and friends were coming into NYC to celebrate. He also would talk alot about how his mom was pressuring him to get married and he thought he would be married by now. "Max" was very curious about the type of guy I was interested in.
For about a week, literally almost every single morning "Max" would send a message that said something like, "good morning hope you slept well!" I wouldn't respond much because of being busy. For the July 4 holiday and then long weekend we didn't text.
Then yesterday, July 8, we were texting throughout the day. "Max" told me his last name was Anderson. He went home to Ohio because a sister had a baby who was in the hospital. He asked me to download kik, a texting app, so he could send pictures. He sent me a picture that he "just took," and also pics of the baby.
I sent this pic to my friend who googled it by image and immediately found it was Josey Greenwell the singer.
"Max" and I were still texting and so I messaged them and said, I just found this singer I think you'd really like, Josey Greenwell? Its weird though because you look a lot like him.
I haven't heard anything since. This person knows they are caught and they read it because kik shows when a message is read.
This is actively going on and I hope someone does more google searching than I did before starting to talk with someone! Spread the word!!
I have all the messages if you would like screenshots of any of them. the OkCupid profile is now disabled, but i have those messages as well.
*Comment submitted 6-28-13
Just to give you some background on myself, I dated someone for two and a half years who I met online. He was who he said he was and we spent most of our time together. I was certain this was the person I'd spend the rest of my life with. Turns out the person that I was very much in love with created a completely different life while he was with me. He had several online profiles, had sexual relations with men and women for money, was in rehab, lied about his profession, etc.... I was devastated when we broke up & it took extensive therapy and much support from family and friends to get me back to a healthy state of mind.
Needless to say I was very cautious going into the online scene again. I made an account on Ok Cupid about a month ago and kind of just looked around. About 5 days ago I got a message from "oihom. " It was the first message I received that sounded well written and not creepy and the pictures of "Max" certainly persuaded my decision to message back. We had some small talk through the site. Max said he lives in NYC and works for the marketing team with Victoria Secret but was hoping to get a job with ESPN in the future. He said he travels back and forth to Ohio a lot and was currently in Ohio because his twin sister had a baby that was severely premature.
We exchanged numbers and started texting. The number was 1-614-398-01**. Given my history I automatically googled the number and it was in fact from Ohio. Max insisted I download an app Kik to text. His kik name was max7385 and Max A would come up when we chatted. He said that it makes sending pictures easier. Once I downloaded it he would send pictures of his nieces and nephews. Their names were Ameilia, Lucy, Anderson (the premmature baby) and Jett. He also sent me pictures of two dogs of his Stella & Penny. He managed to even send me a picture of a premmature baby. He said he was extremely close with his sisters and his parents. All his sisters were married w. children. Max claimed to be 27 turning 28 on July 3. His friends were coming to the city to celebrate since he moved here in April and they were excited to see his place and party.
We tried to make arrangements to talk on the phone but he always claimed to "pass out." Only two days in my intuition told me something wasn't right. He seemed too perfect. He claimed to play guitar and would send me pictures of him playing. Said he goes to the gym and runs about 8-10 miles a day. I mentioned meeting up and I said "I would like to meet up this weekend so I can have some reassurance you're real. It would be awkward to be like the TV show Catfish lol" his response was "well I'm a real boy. And I don't watch that reality tv shit. " I asked if he had a Facebook and he claimed he didn't use it because he's "social media retarded". All of these red flags made me go to work. So I used the google image search and searched his photos on google and I found myself on Josey Greenwell's Facebook and Instagram pages. I then came across a post on his wall about the Dr. Phil episode and I found myself on your blog page.
I did not say anything to "Max" because it would be a waste of my time. However I knew I had to reach out and raise some type of awareness. I would love to have a bigger part in raising awareness about "cat fishing" because I have been a victim and my first relationship really put me through hell but made me so much smarter which is why I was able to catch this myself only three days in. I truly think girls need to learn how to avoid the heartache and fear these cat fishing people cause. Is there anything we could do?
*Comment posted to Dr. Phil 4-27-13
Wow, I am completely shocked! this women is still messing with innocent people. My sister was recently a victim. although he went by the name max with her, but the same pictures and stories.Thankfully she realized early that something wasn't right. I will never understand sick people like this who pray on others emotions.
*Comment submitted 2-11-13
I met Julie working in a restaurant. She was different, but very nice. She liked to go out and do things and was pretty easy going. Like any restaurant you work in, you become friends with your co workers. We would hang out after work, go to the bars, concerts, out to dinner, etc. I considered Julie a pretty good friend of mine.
Julie introduced David to a friend of ours at work. They talked for about a month when I had an online group chat with all of them: Julie, David, the girl, and myself. Julie told me David liked me and wanted to talk to me more. Eventually he and the girl stopped talking and him and I started. Julie said that she knew him and his family well, especially his one sister, Christina. This was in 2005.
David and I talked just about every day, all online. He would never give me his phone number. He either didn’t have a phone, it was broken, he was sick, etc. Every time we would plan to meet there was some excuse. Someone in the family was sick, his son was in the hospital, the restaurant was busy, he broke his foot, the car broke down. You name it, I heard it. Every time I felt the red flag go up, I asked Julie about it since she knew him. She reassured me that he cared about me and all these bad things kept happening to him. She was truly a cheerleader of our relationship.
David had told me he helped manage a restaurant his parents previously owned called Zanders. It was in Marietta, OH, where he lived at the time. I took a trip down there after being sick of all the excuses, and there was no such restaurant. He said it was unlisted and in a different part of town then I was in.
I asked Julie to give me his phone number over and over but she said if he hadn’t given it to me, that was not her place. Being good friends, I respected that.
At one point Julie gave me a CD from David. He told her to give it to me. She also brought me DVD and shirt for my birthday. The DVD was a Hilary Duff movie, which David called me Duff all the time.
When I started to get annoyed with never seeing David, I decided to continue to live my life while in the relationship. I would talk to boys and go out with them. One time, I was out with Julie, and she got extremely mad at me for kissing a boy bc I was suppose to be dating David.
A friend of mine and her boyfriend of the time thought all the David/Julie activity was suspicious. He decided to create a fake myspace profile and send Julie a message. He thought the layout of their pages were very similar, along with the interests, musical information and conversation styles. The message read something like “ I know what you are doing and its not right. Its ok that you like Kelly but you cant keep toying with her. You need to tell her whats going in, if you don’t, I will.” This was 8 months into me meeting David. Another message followed “You are him, he is you. Tell her already” Obviously this did not go over well. Julie was pissed my friends did it, David was mad they questioned him, and I took Julie and David’s side. It really put a dent in my relationship with David and my friendship with Julie.
A while after this, I was in a game room with David on his birthday. While we were playing a game I saw Devon’s screenname show up in the room. David told me to get out immediately, that she was the crazy ex girlfriend. I listened, but not without writing her screenname down first. When I looked up her myspace profile, I found a bunch of journals written about a boy; someone she had never met but loved. It all sounded way too familiar. I kept it quiet but continued to search. Eventually my computer froze, and when I went back to the journals, they were all deleted.
Later down the line, I continued to look things up about David, most in which was unsuccessful. At one point, I received a message from a girl on myspace. She asked me if I was dating David, and if we had ever met. It was an odd question, considering usually you meet the people you are dating. I didn’t tell David, but continued to talk to the girl. I found out she was talking with him also, and they too had never met. The difference was, she had spoken to him on the phone. I was furious. Why would he talk to her and not me? When I asked for the number she had, I decided to call it because I wanted to hear his voice. Julie answered the phone. I didn’t realize it at first, but it was her phone number.
I decided not to confront Julie until I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to go about it. Somehow I thought maybe it still wasn’t possible, that my information was somehow all incorrect.
I slowly started to break away from her, something she realized right away. We went out to dinner one night, and I told her what happened. She cried in my car and said she didn’t know why these girls were doing this to her; basically that she was being framed.
After a while, I realized there was no way Julie’s story was right, and eventually I broke away from both her and David completely. David would still send me IMs that me missed me, but usually I would ignore them. At work, there was a lot of tension with Julie. One day she handed me a phone number and said “this is what you always wanted.” It was suppose to be David’s number, just a little too late.
At one point, we found the picture used for David’s sister, Christina, on fakerbusted, proving she wasn’t who they said. Julie had no response to this, considering at one point they were best friends.
About a year or 2 later, David messaged me saying he finally got a phone and wanted to call me. I decided to let him, mostly because of my curiosity. When I called the number it said you couldn’t call in without the caller dialing your number first. Eventually he called me. It was by far the weirdest voice I had ever heard. There was no way that voice matched his pictures.
Once I figured everything out, I often put away statuses up that were a dig to Julie, knowing she would look. She sent me a message once, asking if we could talk because she knew my status was in reference to her. This all went via instant message, and I still got excuse after excuse. Most of her answers being “I don’t know.” The proof that was blatant she had no response to. In a nutshell I told her I was done and there was no way we would ever be friends again. She told me she missed our friendship more than anything, and would always be here for me anyway.
After that I blocked everything out. I deleted any emails or conversations I had saved, along with any pictures of David and his family.
About 4 years later, Devon messaged me about the Dr. Phil show showing interest in our story. I decided to tell my side, astonished this was still happening. However, that was not enough. It was time to finally confront Julie. I messaged her that after all these years I had plenty of unanswered questions and I wanted to talk to her about them. She decided to meet me face to face.
I asked Julie if there was anything she wanted to tell me. She said no. I asked every incriminating question I had on her. Every answer was “I don’t know.” She claims that someone is pretending to be her, pretending to be him. She said she has lawyers working on it (Apparently for 7 years since nothing has happened). I asked why she told me she knew David and his family. She said because he asked her to, and that was her biggest regret. She said the pictures of the dogs were stolen from her online pages. She also said she didn’t remember giving me a phone number for him. She had no answer as to why all the phone numbers found for David, Shaun, or Jackson are listed in her name. She lied; a lot. I told her I didn’t believe anything she said, and that never in my life had I met someone as shitty as her. Julie then blocked me from facebook and removed most of our common friends (looking even more incriminating).
I ran into Julie at the grocery store after. We didn’t speak. Jackson (her new persona) told one of the girls he ran into his ex at the same time.
After the show aired and the Manti Teo story evolved, catfishing was really an area of interest. When Fox 8 ran the story on her, many people we used to work with came to me to ask questions. Most were shocked, but not overly surprised. Turns out you never know who people truly are.
*Comment submitted 1-26-13
I am a victim of "Jackson William Avery", as found out today. I am furious and disgusted. My privacy has been severely invaded and I am horrified that there are so many victims. How can we pursue legal action against this person?
*Comment submitted 1-18-13
Hi I am a complete victim of the catfish Jackson William Avery from Plenty of Fish and live in California. It started this April and went to August and the story was the exact same....the sisters, the twin, car accident, cancer, knee surgery, talking for hours, texting and sharing pics all day on KIK, always had excuses, couldnt skype, same birthday, etc. But nothing was adding up and I knew it wasn't him but couldn't find any information on "her." Well I have his Kik name as Jackson A. Facebook Jackson Avery. Pof name was JacksonOSU85 I believe. He said he was from outside of Akron, Ohio. 27 years old. Birth date is May, 31, 1985 with his twin Stephanie. Older sisters Leslie and Morgan. Parents were Sharon and Steven and both doctors. Nephew Jett, Nieces Lucy and Amelia. He moved to Carlsbad, CA for a teaching position where he was going to teach History and be a football coach. He had 2 dogs named Penny and Stella. So disgusting and disturbing. How did you find this person? Can we press charges? So many girls are affected from so many cities! This person pretended to like everything I liked, wanted the same things and promised so much. They just manipulated me and I'm such a compassionate person and I felt bad continually questioning someone when they are going through such hard crazy things. But things weren't adding up and he wasn't a teacher when I looked him up nor were his parents doctors. And he used the name Jackson Avery because it's they Grey's Anatomy character and that's all you get when you google them. Thanks for your help.
*Comment submitted 1-11-13
I have unfortunately been fooled by this person. I met "him" on pof. He has told me his name is Jackson Andrews and it is the same story with the being a history teacher in the Tampa area. The story I am currently getting is that he was in a really bad car accident hit by a drunk driver, complete knee replacement, broken ribs, and is staying in Ohio with his parents for the time being. I watch Dr. Phil all the time and I can't believe I missed this episode. As of yet, I only was asking what high school he taught at, and he was someone hesitant on naming one so I started my research this evening...found this site.
*Comment submitted 1-3-13
I was contacted on 12/25/12 by Jackson Andrew Arthur on POF. I started getting suspicious because I couldn't find him or his family online, so I kept digging and finally found this website and the Dr. Phil show that just recently aired. He just pulled the "got hit by a drunk driver" story on me this week and I've been a mess over it. He said that he just came home from the hospital tonight and he even had his sister texting me while he was in surgery. I literally cried four times within two days while at work. What is crazy to me is that I have talked to him on the phone for multiple hours. This whole thing is so messed up! I felt so stupid at first, but now I'm just mad. What can be done to stop this person? It's just sickening that someone can do this to people. Can you please tell me what the motive is? Have you or anyone else figured that part out? Thank you for having this website. I feel fortunate to have found this out now instead of a couple months down the road when I had already fallen in love with him. Obviously that is what he/she was trying to do. I just kept thinking, is this guy too good to be true? Please let me know what I can do to help stop this person. This has to be stopped. It is really messing with good peoples' emotions.
*Comment submitted 1-3-13
About 5 weeks ago I was contacted on POF by a guy, I no longer have his sn. We talked for 5 weeks and I decided to google and was led to this sight and him not being who he says he is..... He went by Jackson William Avery.... I also have a list of family names he gave me and I got 2 long drawn out stories about why he had to bail on our dates..... Good times.
More of her story:
I made the mistake of reactivating my POF account. A guy emailed me his sn was ja3185. He sent me a few paragraphs showing interest so we starting talking, I gave him my number and it began. He went by the name of Jackson William Avery. I work with animals, so first time we talked on the phone he fed me a story about how he got his dogs---he wanted a Great Dane but there was a family there with a little boy so he gave the dog to that family and adopted a beagle instead. He later adopted a Pom mix. He told me about the Great Danes his parents have and sent a pic, sent a pic of a papillon that his parents have and his sis has a pit. The dog names he gave me were Stella, penny, Gracie, Thor and Maggie. He told me about his family and how close he was with them. Saying he was a momma's boy. His sisters are Stephanie, Leslie and Morgan. Gave me all their men's names and kids. For our first date his excuse to not go was he had the flu. Second date was he said his mom called and the 2 mo. Old baby Sophia had to be rushed to the hospital and have open heart surgery. The day before he was supposed to fly home we had a phone conversation where I subtly said I didn't think he was a real person, too good to be true etc. the following day I received a text from "his sister" Stephanie. She wanted to call me because something happened. She called and said he had been t boned by a drunk driver and listed his injuries: knee replacement, broken ribs, broken finger, ankle and stitches on his chin. When I talked to his sister I also mentioned to her that I didn't think he was real and my friends were giving me a hard time about it. He later texted me very upset that I'd accuse him of being fake. I apologized and never brought that up again..... There were a ton of red flags but I just didn't want to listen cuz he seemed so perfect. I was reading a book called "the rules of online dating" after reading the safety chapters I decided to google his phone number and found out everything and looked up Josey Greenwell. Unfortunately I fell for him, head over heals. Butttt I'm continuing to talk to her and am going to try to do something to get the work out so this doesn't happen to other women.
Red flags:
Bailed literally an hour ish before the date
When on the phone seemed distracted
Took like 3 weeks for him to send me a pic of his dogs
Lived in Carlsbad in 6 bedroom house? Is a hs history teacher and football coach in Carlsbad, wouldn't give me the school name, said it was a private school
Didn't send current pic
Would say something was supposed to happen, like stitches out on a certain day and on that day wouldn't say "it went great"
Didn't give me much update on sick baby
No Facebook, erased pictures, then erased POF
Wanted to text through an app KIK
Said his sis was a photographer and that's why his pix looked like model shots
He wasn't cocky about his body
He talked a lot about his fam, names etc. but didn't ask a whole lot about mine
Couldn't find anything on google on him or his doctor family
He said he was a singer songwriter, said helped lady antebellum write a song.said he was writing a song about me
First time I called, it made me state my name before he would take the call
When I'd call he wouldn't answer, then he'd call right back almost every time
In one of his pictures he had a ring on his left ring finger---he had a clever explanation for it though
He said he sent a pic of him "right now" in the background there was an iron on the wall, I questioned it and he had an explanation
Said camera phone didn't work, but would randomly "work"
Said name was Jackson Avery---greys anatomy
When I asked what time his flight was he "didn't know" and explanation was because his mom arranged it
Other things I remember
Said he was color blind
Doesn't like fish
*Comment submitted 12-29-12
Hi there,
Of course I was shocked when I learned of this. We met in mid July 2012 . We were supposed to spend Thanksgiving (2012) together because he had a break from chemo but that never happened. We talked to my parents over the phone that week and he stated that we were going to fly out there for Christmas. This made my family so happy. Anyways, the week before this last week there was a lot of arguing going on between us and I started asking questions he couldn't answer and so we all but stopped talking. He told me he was trying to figure out how to get down here for Christmas still. He stated he was driving down but had to turn around because his dad had a stroke. I didn't talk to him for a total of 2 days, that put red flags up for me. I told him I was done and not going to have to question the person I was with like I did my last boyfriend. He again made promises to be down here but I was done at that point. This was Christmas day.
Here is the story he gave me:
His name is Jackson William Anderson. He is named after his mom because Jackson is her maiden name. His birthday is May 31, 1985. He is a republican. He has 3 sisters, one of which is a twin. Their names are Morgan, Leslie, and his twin is Stephanie. They are all married and each have a child, Amilea, Jett, Lucy and Leslie is preg again. (I was told in Oct. that her appendix burst and they had to do an emergency c-section. They named the baby Sophie) He was born in London England and moved outside of Cleveland,Ohio (Westlake) when he was 13. He played football in high school and honestly wasn't a very good student until his jr year when he told me his girlfriend at the time made him want to be a better student. All of his family are doctors. He fought with his dad a lot when he told him that he wanted to be a teacher and not a dr and they didn't talk for 3 weeks. He went to Ohio State. He is a high school history teacher and this would have been his 5th year of teaching. He took a job in Mt. Pleasent, SC for this and to coach football. On July 23rd he got into a car wreck from being hit by a drunk driver. I texted all day with his sister Leslie while he was in surgeries and recovering. He had a complete knee replacement, broken ribs, hurt ankle and a few other minor injuries. He was trapped in the car for 2 hours while they got the other car off of him and then worked on getting him out. As a result of the crash they also found out that he has a brain tumor. He has had bad headaches for the last 5 or so years and they did tests before but couldn't find a cause. Because of his health issues he resigned his job teaching and his dad was living with him in SC because of the extent of the injuries. He started taking Chemo pills and they were making him very sick. He couldn't drive and so he was having to try and get his dad to bring him down and have us meet. He used Josey Greenwell's pictures and sent pictures of all of the kids, Amelia, Jett, Lucy and Sophie. He was in SC until he started chemo and then went back to OH so he could be close to his family while he was doing treatments. He stayed with his sister Stephanie most of the time except for the 'chemo days' where he would stay with his parents. I would text with his mom to see how he was doing but it was always on his phone. I spoke with Leslie one night when they were all supposed to come down to meet me but ended up in the ER in Charleston. He made all the claims to love me and that he couldn't wait to meet the kids I taught, I'm a 1st grade teacher. He was always with Lucy.
I met him on POF and his acct name was ja3185. We met July 11, 2012. Phone number I had for him was 216-202-52**. It is a Cleveland area code I do know that. The answer machine was a google subscriber recording.
After my aunt had called me I did try to call him and I ended up leaving a message saying that he never wanted to be a liar but that he was. I said I didn't hate him because I felt sorry for him and to please delete everything I had sent him and to not contact me. He used the kik messenger and his name on it was Jackson A. He sent me a message at around 3 that morning saying he was confused and I just told him he wasn't. That he had made choices to hurt people and he knew exactly what he was doing. I told him that it was a basic thing that I teach my 1st graders, tell the truth, don't lie because it will hurt you or other people. I told him that I didn't know what had happened in 'his' life to make him feel like this is ok but its not. He has made choices to lie and deceive people with intention to hurt them but that he could make the choice to stop it. I doubt he read any of it, I can only hope he did and that someday it will sink in.
*Comment posted to Dr. Phil 12-27-12
When one of my best friends called and told me to look up Dr. Phil's show from today, only to find that the man I've been talking to for over a year now was being exposed as a catfish. I began talking to "Shaun" in December of last year, just before he went home to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family. We made plans to spend New Year's Eve together as he was supposed to be back in Arizona by then but the night before his flight home, he told me he was involved in a horrible car accident. This obviously postponed his return home and was the first of many, many excuses I got as to why he wasn't coming back. He and I would talk for at least an hour everyday and I fell in love with "him". Each time he was supposed to come home and didn't raised a suspicion in me that he wasn't who he said he was but the reason for the delay was always something so serious that I felt badly questioning him. I tried on numerous occasions to get him to talk with me on Skype but he didn't have his own laptop and his Iphone wasn't equipped to do Facetime. After 6 months of talking, I finally had to cut ties because I just couldn't continue getting my hopes up that he was actually coming home...so I moved on. About a month ago I got a text from "Shaun", saying he wanted to meet me. After having seen the show Catfish, I was very skeptical that he actually was who he said he was so I went along with the plans to meet. Of course, he never showed up and had excuses as to why he wasn't there. And today, I finally know for sure that my gut feelings were correct. I feel sorry for this person that they are so insecure in the person that they are that they feel the need to live their life as someone else. It was eerie for me to see the video feed of Josey after thinking for so many months he was the one I was sharing so much of my time with. I feel truly sorry that this person victimized him as well. Thank you Dr. Phil for exposing this person and finally ending this chapter in my life.
*Comment submitted 12-10-12:
Hello I am in Forida and saw Dr Phil. I was shaking because last year my friend dated a Marc Thomas from Ohio....bar owner, teacher (was going to move to Fl to teach but had a car accident, ) and in music industry....twin sis Stephanie, blood clot leading to cancer, knew group Hanson...I`was shocked! Do you think this person has ever used Marc Thomas as a name? I am convinced its the same jerk from POF please help, this jerk almost broke up our friendship because we were convinced he was a fake!
*Comment submitted 8-3-12:
Where do I begin?!
I read the personal stories on your blog and my story is super close of a mix of 2 of the stories posted on there. Mine is close to the one posted on 5/1 and 3/8.
I met him on POF like the others went by the name osusm85, he included pics of Josey Greenwell as I just later found out. I can't believe I let it go on as long as it did, I'm so disgusted w/ him and ashamed of myself!! I am now totally CREEPED out. He still doesn't know that I know. I had decided to Google his phone number the other day because he kept having phone issues where it would say the wireless user is unavailable. I had tried to do research/snooping online earlier into it but never found anything for some reason I don't know why if this blog has been up for awhile. I wish I knew sooner!!
He told me that his name was Shaun Matthew Sanders, dob 3/14/1985. He had 3 sisters Morgan, Leslie, twin Stephanie. The 2 oldest sisters were married and Morgan had a daughter Amelia (which he sent pics of). His dad was originally from London and was a pediatrician and mom an ICU nurse. He told me he had been living in OH but had bought a house out here in AZ in north scottsdale to start a teaching job (American History high school teacher). He said he bought the house in Aug, but was back in OH during the holidays and right before he was suppose to fly back to AZ, he got into a car accident, hit by a 19 y/o drunk driver as his twin sister Stephanie was driving him home from the bar. So as the other stories, he had a knee replacement surgery and later sent me a pic of his stapled up knee. He claimed he had to do physical therapy in OH for it. Just the same as one story his twin sister found him unconscious at home and he was rushed to the ER and ended up w/ 4 blood clots. He even had "stephanie" call me and so I actually spoke to some girl and she told me what happened and that he was still unconscious in ICU waiting for him to wake up. So due to this happening he had to stay in OH longer, then later on he found out his mom had breast cancer, got a double mastectomy and boob job. Then he told me had to get a biopsy done on a spot found on his brain they found back in Oct...told me he had migraines from it, gave that same story. After the biopsy he found out it was a malignant tumor, so had to decide on surgery or chemo/radiation. Him and his "dad" attempted to fly out to get back settled in AZ, but in route he had a seizure on the plane so had to turn around and drive back to OH. Then they decided to drive out later to AZ, which apparently took him 3 wks to finally arrive due to keep having to be admitted to hospitals for seizures. "Shaun" even had his dad txt me from his phone to give me updates on his situation a few times. After finally claiming to getting to AZ he still had an excuse to not see me, something always came up or he didn't want me to see him sick while doing his chemo. I even talked to this "stephanie" person on the phone again when he was admitted to a hospital here in AZ. He would never give me the name of the hospital either. Oh yeah and he did say that "stephanie" got pregnant and it was by her bf she had been on/off for, so they decided to get married. Stephanie eventually came out here to see Shaun because he was so sick and ended up in ICU again. At some point she ended up having her baby out here early due to it being a high risk pregnancy so she had it prematurely and again he sent pics of a premature baby, her name was Lucy. Meanwhile he's been doing chemo this whole time and at dr appts everyday. So now his "dad" and "stephanie" are out here living w/ him....a month later his "mom" comes out to see him and ends up staying too. He had told me the same things he had told the other girls, that he loved me, wanted to get married, he even said he wanted me to move in w/ him. He kept talking about the future. He had so many back stories to everything, its unbelievable!! Like one of the other girls he also would fall asleep on the phone w/ me a few nights a wk and I could hear him sleeping/snoring/tossing around. He mentioned he had 2 dogs Stella/Penny and I did hear dogs barking in the background quite a few times.
I try to confront him about why he would never meet me, but he would just continue to give me his lame excuses that he didn't want me to see him sick or that he was throwing up all the time or ended up in the hospital. He sent me sooooooooooo many pics of this Josey Greenwell and videos of him singing too, it makes me sick!
Apparently after 2-3 months of chemo his tests came back he was cancer free, he would always tell me after he finished his chemo we would finally meet. Well that obviously never happened, he made up more excuses. I grew tired of this BS and we started slowly stop talking/texting. All my friends knew something was up, even a few of them kept saying it sounded like that movie "Catfish"....which now it totally is and freaks me out that I've been part of this mess! Just recently he told me Leslie now had her baby bc she was pregnant during all this time and the baby's name is Jett, which he also sent pics of.
Like the other stories he clamied to be a singer/songwriter, teacher and owned a bar in OH called Showcase. He mentioned working w/ Hanson as well.
He used the same number as the others 216-496-85**. He did make a facebook a few wks after we first starting talking, then a month later it was deleted, which he claimed he got locked out of it, but he used all the same pics/videos he had sent me of Josey Greenwell on there. I now realize all the txt msg sounds I would hear coming from his phone while we would be talking were probably from all the other girls he was doing this with, but he would claim it was his mom or sisters txting him.
I have more BS lies that he told me that I could tell you, but I think you get the picture. I'm just thankful I finally fell upon your blog and I really hope this starts to get more and more attention so others don't suffer as I did. It's been an emotional roller coaster!! I feel like I should be on some kind of Dateline special now, how sad.
I hope this guy/girl or whoever finally gets his identity revealed!! I'm still debating on if I should tell him I figured out his sick lie or play his game back to mess w/ his head or just let it go and ignore him if he contacts me. He did text me tonight and I didn't really respond to it, trying to figure out my plan to bust him!
If you need any more info, I will be happy to help! This psycho needs to be stopped. I don't even get his motive behind all this, he never asks for money and I don't see any other benefit he gets besides maybe him being an attention whore. Crazy pathological liar is all I have to say.
*Comment submitted 5-23-12:
Hes at it again. "Marcus" says he lives in Ohio and that he is moving to Seattle to start his teaching career. We have been talking for a few months now and met on Plenty Of Fish. We also have spoken on KIK may times. He has claimed that he is coming to see me and that he can't wait for us to be together. He says he is currently in the hospital in Ohio for "spots on his brain". Im finally glad that my fears have been confirmed. this site has saved me!
*Comment submitted 5-1-12:
OMG! Unreal. A friend of mine came across this site and sent it to me. I have been talking to "Marcus Robert Brookshire" for almost 2 months now! His story to me is almost identical to the most recent entry on this site. He uses the phone number: 216-496-85** . He has been contacting me via "KIK" and the name mbosu85 was what he was listed as on Plentyoffish.com. He even created a Facebook account for the name "Marcus Robert". I'm sure he has a number of them. He used Josey Greenwell's pics for me. He claimed to be originally from London, moved to OHIO at 13 and recently moved to Westwood, MA in December for a elementary music teacher and football coaching position. He sent me pics of a beautiful house he "bought" (500K he claims). He told me he had 3 sisters, Morgan, Leslie and a twin Stephanie. All three are married Morgan has a daughter Amelia (8 months i think he said) and Leslie was pregnant. Stephanie, he claims, was being stalked and got attacked by her stalker, WHILE PREGNANT). He goes on to say she's in a coma and then has to deliver the baby at 28 weeks because she can't get surgery until the baby is out. He cries! and is very convincing. He even has pictures of premature babies that he sends to make it even more believable! He planned to meet me several times and each time "something" came up. He has an unbelieveable amount of photos and videos of Josey Greenwell which makes him even more convincing. He made future plans with me, such as going to concerts and planning trips back to London in the summer. He also claimed to be very close to Hanson and be the godfather of one of Taylor's kids. He claims to know many famous people. This guy/girl is CRAZY! I am disgusted with the amount of effort he puts into his stories and lies and am thankful my friend found this site when she did. Thank you for making this site available and for doing your best to get this guys identity revealed. I'm not sure what I should do next. Let's get this guy out to the public so this craziness stops. These poor girls don't deserve it. I didn't deserve it.
*Comment submitted 4-19-12:
I talked to this person for about a month after I was contacted by he/she on pof. He said his name was Marcus Brookshire and he was from Ohio. From there on out-- it was nothing but lies. Hurt in a car accident and leg crushed on way home from being out for he and his twins bday, knee replacement, headaches, sick 24/7... And sent me pictures of Josey greenwell. Came upon this page... Called him on it and haven't heard from him since. He used kik messenger to talk to me and used the name mbosu...started talkin 2nd week of march and figured out the bs last week. So disgusted. He showed me pictures of a little girl he said was his niece, Amelia.
*Comment submitted 3-19-12:
He's claiming he lives in Westwood, MA now, goes by the Plenty of Fish account profile name: mbosu85 and still has that phone number. "He" used the name Marc this time had a profile set up complete with height of 6'1 said he moved to MA from Cleveland, was a Browns fan, is a teacher for 5th grade music class but is also going to be coaching football in Westwood. Said he was home in Cleveland visiting his family this weekend.
*Comment submitted 3-8-12:
His name was Shaun Matthew Sanders, born on March 14, 1985. He was indeed a HS American History teacher. Penny and Stella (2 dogs he owned). He used pictures of Josey Greenwell. Three sisters: Morgan, Leslie (who was married to Matthew) and his twin sister Stephanie. Mother is an ICU nurse, Father is a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. "Shaun" was in Ohio over Christmas, was in a car accident and ended up needing a total knee replacement. He then was found unconscious by his twin sister one night ... taken to the ER and eventually they found out that he had a PE (pulmonary embolism) ... he ended up needed to be on warfarin therapy to thin his blood. Meanwhile, his mother found out she had breast cancer (ergo she got a double mastectomy and a boob job). Meanwhile, his sister Stephanie got a boob job ... then found out she was prego!! THEN ... Shaun found out he had BRAIN CANCER (Medulloblastoma to be exact). He has an entire story about a "horrible headache" he had in October which revealed a brain lesions which was 3cm long. They are using the phone number 216-496-85**. They claimed they loved me, wanted to marry me, sent me naked pictures of a man's body ... even told me HE BOUGHT A RING. Like the above post, he claims to be a singer, has toured with the Hanson's (is best friend's with them and godfather to one of their son's). He likes twizzlers, Subway, Chipotle, Wendys ... enjoys playing words with friends and scramble with friends. For two months HE FELL ASLEEP on the phone with me, I could hear him snoring, breathing, etc ... he would text me all day, want me home at night to watch redbox movies with him ... he always had an excuse to not be able to skype and promised time and time again to get a new computer. "Shaun" is the owner of Showcase bar ... that is what he is claiming now.
*Comment submitted 1-16-12:
Ooooohh. I can't believe I am only just now finding this. I first got involved with David in July 2008. I busted him first on his "band," which was really Ingram Hill out of Memphis, after we made plans to meet 4 times and all 4 times he had a different excuse. He then re-contacted me months later with a different story and new pics- this time Josey Greenwell. I promptly emailed Josey on myspace (the cool thing at the time) letting him know there was someone pretending to be him, same as I did with the lead singer of Ingram Hill. I'm not sure what either guys did with that information. All of the info I have read thus far is the same I knew of David as far as siblings except he said he was still raising his younger brother Trevor who I believe would be a senior in high school now and at 15 attempted suicide but was doing much better last time we talked, which I'm embarrassed to say was maybe august 2011. I always knew there was something screwed up but he stuck with the story of being so sick and so close to dying and then to top it off he was going through a divorce because come to find out, his "wife" had cheated on him, and neither Liam nor Kennedy were his biological kids. Most of me was calling total bullshit, but I couldn't bring myself to literally say it and then it turns out the guy really is on his deathbed. But oh man, I can't believe this has been going on since 2002. I did google searches and background searches using his name but could never find anything incriminating...until now. Wow. I just never understood why it would be a scam...he never asked me for money, so I couldn't figure out a motive for him to make this kind of stuff up. I really hope you find this person. What a sick and twisted thing to do to all these girls.
*Comment submitted 12-18-11:
"Matthew David Zane" is at it again. I met him on a dating website called plentoffish.com. He was in fact using photos of singer, songwriter, and model Josey Greenwell. He is now going by the name of Marcus David Sanders and now has a new number (216)496-85** which is registered to Julie C. He has a different story now too... He is a 26yr old man living in Ohio who claims to be moving to the Baltimore area to relocate for another teaching position and head football coaching job in Dundalk MD. He still claims to be a history teacher, he said he has 3 sisters this time, and he is a twin- he says his twins name is Stephanie and she lives with him in his town house along with his 2 dogs, Penny the beagle and Stella a tiny dog. We talked for about a month, then when we were supposed to meet he got into an accident, he claimed he got clipped my a semi and an suv hit him on the drivers side and crushed his leg. My friends did a photo google search of him and we found out he was claiming to be Josey Greenwell- he is still claiming that hes a huge music fan- he sings, plays the piano, guitar and drums. He says he knows Hanson and fabricated many stories about touring with them and their children. He told me he loved me, and even cried on the phone when I busted him. He then sent me pictures of a different guy claiming that was really him. He even sent me pictures of this "guy" in a hospital bed. I dont know who this guy is he is claiming to be now but I will post pictures. This guy is sick, 8 years and he is still at it. Please girls be safe this guy/girl is a sick person.
*Comment Submitted 2-8-11:
Soooo. I logged into Yahoo after years of not doing so [4 or 5] and see Zane8402 ... so curious about Dayvid's [yes, D-a-y-v-i-d] whereabouts, I googled the screenname and stumbled across this website.
My jaw dropped as soon as I started reading the details since it was everything this person told me about themselves. We were involved in a brief online relationship back in 2004-2005ish? Maybe? They warned me of their voice being "prepubescent" and I was skeptical since it sounded like a raspy woman but I couldn't tell them that of course.
The pictures they used were of the "Josh" person and they claimed to be a HS history teacher. Mykal was in and out of the hospital during our "relationship" as was he for his "heart condition". He claimed to have a pet alligator and all of his siblings lived together in the same house minus 2 or so.
He was on the website TheDilly where I met him and had quite a few admirers on there as well.
He claimed to be 1st cousins with Dan from O-Town and how he had the band over to his house before. This is when I starting doubting who they were since they knew I was fond of the band back then and was trying to impress me. I started to try and "dig" to see if I could find anything but I guess they covered their tracks well back then.
So I guess there's some more info to add! Hope I helped!
*Comment submitted 1-2-11:
Wow, reading all of this has pretty much left me in shock. I met "David' on myspace in October of 2006. We talked every single day all day long for almost a year i think it was maybe a little more and all the info listed on there is the same exact thing he said to me. I'm literally in shock b/c i thought i was the only one. And the fact that its all the same information for all the same people is crazy. The picture of him of Josh P i think it was listed as on your site? It was really disturbing to see all the pictures he sent me on this site, he is really sick and i thought i was the only one. If i would have had this when i was looking for info when i was talking to him i would have been saved from a lot of distress.
It looks like you already found the same information as I did for him. The name his phone is under is Julie C she lives at 15*** Woodbrook Ave Maple Heights, Oh 44137 with no David links to that, just - John C 53 yrs (216-581-16**), Julie C, Mark (was 18 at the time), Virginia (49 yrs old) - this was checked out like 2-3 years ago so the ages are older of course. A train goes by his house around 2 am if i remember correctly.
I dont see how he and Julie could be the same person, i'm really interested to see that one? He sounded young and hopefully a guy haa...please keep these posts coming we need to uncover him. I almost went and got a secret undercover agent but didnt have the money. Like the ones you get when someone is cheating on you, please help us all figure out this and end it i'm so much in shock.
If anyone can find this jerkoff that would greatly be appreciated! I would like to know the truth even though i have moved on, but the lies just need to be unhidden so i can understand what really happened.
Wow, this is nuts. This is the information I have:
David Matthew Zane (Alexander) ?
*Cell #: 216-323-52** : I think his number is registered under his
friend who is a girl. Said this was so bc he has a bad past, etc...
*aol screen name : dm115
*old Myspace url ... www.myspace.com/dm115
Now a cxl acct
*We have been "talking" on and off since Oct 06
Never met in person yet, alw an excuse
*Says he is about 6'5
*Says he was originally born in England
Cleveland Ohio/ Marietta Ohio/ Twinsburg Ohio
a Train goes close by his house at 2 am if I rem correctly
Dob - 1/15
24 yrs old
Son Mykal - about 5 or 6
Brother - Trevor - teenager
Sisters - Christina (21 or 22), Beth, Ali...and others
said he has 2 twin little sisters (girls) who were very young when his
mom died
Said he owned a resaurant or more ....called it Zanders, but then when
I spoke with his sister she advised their last name is Alexander....his
was "zane" bc diff parents? Restaurant Alexanders? Said he was selling
it maybe.
His dad "lives" in Arizona
He said his mom died of breast cancer about 3 or more yrs ago ....then
a couple months later his step dad died
Said he went to Marietta College - teaching/social studied -said he was
subbing for school for awhile
Says he's good friends with Hanson the band, and has known them....says
he sometimes helps out with stuff for them
*Comment submitted 6-8-10:
Hi- I just wanted to let you know that "David" has popped back up on in Yahoo messenger zane8402. I was affected by his scam from August 2008- June 2009. Everything on your website is about 90% accurate of what I experienced. As of June he had driven out to AZ to live in the house he owned from his deceased parents. He went with his brother, Trevor, son, Mykal and all the pets. That was the last I heard from him since I stopped communicating with him last summer.
*Comment submitted 6-21-14:
My interactions with "David" started around the year 2000. We met through a website called PicRave.com.... kinda like Myspace. At that time he was 18. When we first started talking he had a girlfriend named Julie but if I remember correctly, she didn't live close to him and eventually ended up moving to Lake Havasu, AZ. Eventually they broke up and he started pursuing me. At this time, David lived close to Canton, OH. I had just moved to Columbus but had family that lived in Akron that we would go visit quite often. He told me he lived with his mom and other siblings and that his dad lived in Arkansas. He told me he had one kid, Mykal Adamm, that he had sole custody of. But at first, he told me that Mykal was his little brother because he didn't want to scare me off because he was a single father at such a young age. He told me that Mykal's mom was a girl named Ashley and that one night they were out driving and she got out of the car while they were stopped on the street and she got hit by a car and died. (More on that story later.) At this time, David was working and going to school to become a history teacher. He did call me once and left me a voice mail and all he said was "Hey, it's David" and hung up. This was my first red flag because his voice sounded like a prepubescent boy. When I asked him about it he said that was just his voice but I didn't press the issue any further because I really didn't think anything of it. We communicated a lot via AIM (his user name was something but then he changed it to D01m15z84). Eventually we started chatting on Yahoo Messenger (his user name was zane8402). We talked for a while and eventually it got to the point where I was comfortable enough to meet him. I had planned to go see my family in Akron, and David lived in the next town over from where my Aunt lived. We had it all planned out. I called him when I got to my Aunt's house and he didn't answer the phone. This went on for a few hours and I finally gave up. The next day when I got home I got online and he started telling me this story about how he had to go to the hospital because he was having chest pains and it turned out he was having "another" heart attack because he forgot to take his heart medicine that morning. I worked in a doctor's office, I was somewhat familiar with medicine. When I asked him what the name of his medication was he told me he didn't know because his mom does all that for him- another red flag. He also told me that he was bipolar, had epilepsy, and suffered from migraines. He told me he took Lithium, Prozac and Topomax. We continued to talk and swap pictures back and forth. We tried video chatting but every time his "webcam wouldn't work because it's a cheap one". At this point we were calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend, saying "I love you" all the time... blah blah blah... We made several plans to meet up but it never worked out. Mykal was sick, Mykal was having seizures, he was sick, one of his siblings were in trouble. (BTW, how he kept all those "brothers and sisters" straight is beyond me.) Eventually I just started to distance myself and quit talking to him after about 6 months of going back and forth with him. A few months later, he emailed me wanting to get back in touch. We emailed back and forth and eventually started talking again on AIM and Yahoo. He planned to come and see me one weekend, which didn't happen because he had to go to the hospital again due to another heart attack. At this time, I had an account on LiveJournal.com, my user name on there was sailorryan. With LiveJournal you had to get a code to activate an account and you could either get one from another user or you could pay for them. David ended up getting an account activated, so on his LiveJournal.com page, the Kelly he is talking about is me. I ended up giving my account to another girl because I lost interest in it after a while. David and I continued to talk but never on the phone. We would lose touch and then start talking again off and on for 3 years. I eventually ended up moving back to Alabama in 2004. At this point, I no longer had any contact with David. Well, of course, he started contacting me again around 2005. We only talked through Yahoo Messenger. Eventually he started calling me. And he actually sounded like a man. We lost touch again but then eventually starting talking again. This was our cycle. At this point he was no longer a history teacher, instead he owned a restraunt called Zander's. He also told me that his mother had passed away from breast cancer. He also told me that he was now living in Cleveland with his sisters and Mykal. There is a picture floating around somewhere of him wearing an Auburn hat (blue hat with an orange AU on it), he told me he bought it because it made him think of me. All the pictures he would send me were all of the same guy. He would send shirtless pics a lot. On one occasion, he told me that he was having some problems with Ashley's (Mykal's mom) parents. He said they were trying to get custody of Mykal. He then told me that he didn't want that to happen because he didn't want Mykal to have any sort of contact with Ashley because she was addicted to cocaine and heroin. When I caught him in that lie, he told me this story of how he has to tell people that Mykal's mom is dead because he doesn't want Mykal to eventually try and contact her when he is old enough to. At one point, he told me that he was dating a girl but I don't think he ever told me her name. Two days later, he was texting me telling me he caught her cheating while they were out at a club. He started to try to pursue me again, even telling me he was flying to Alabama and we were going to spend Valentine's day together. Which, let's be realistic here, I knew it wasn't going to happen. He even gave me a flight schedule and told me what time he would arrive in Birmingham. I had hoped I would finally get to meet him but I knew in the back of my mind that it wasn't going to happen. The day before he was supposed to be here, he told me that Mykal "wasn't acting right" and felt like he was going to start having seizures so he didn't want to leave him. After that we just sort of lost touch again. Around 2007, he popped up on my Yahoo Messenger again. At this point he told me that he now has another kid named Liam, and one more on the way by a girl named Jennifer. He did tell me that they were engaged to be married but hadn't set a date. We talked off and on on Yahoo. He was in Arkansas because he his brother died in a car accident. The only phone number I remember him using was a 216 number and then he started blocking his number when he called me. The last time we talked was around 2008 I think when I confronted this person and eventually got blocked on Yahoo. So there you have it, that's my David story.
General Information (What was known prior to this website being created)
**Information used by this individual from 2002-2011**
This person goes by the name David (also Dayvid) Matthew Zane and states sometimes he uses Matthew Zane. He claims to either live in OH or AZ. He states his birthday is 1-15-84 or March 14, 1985 and he is 6'+. He says he has a son Mykal and tells some people he is married to or dating someone named Jennifer and they have another child together. As of May 2010, David is claiming there is a new baby addition to the family. To others, he may state he is single, dating, or will accuse ex-girlfriends of stalking and harassing him. As of December 2010, David claims to have been married to "Jennifer" for just over a year and they have two children together in addition to Mykal. Their names are Liam and Kennedy. The different photos added to this website are photos that David has used claiming to be him over the years. There is also a blog posted of a letter that was sent to the parents of the individual we believe has created this David Matthew Zane character. Her name is Julie C who lives near Cleveland OH and has had 3 of the same phone numbers as David. Feel free to contact us using the CONTACT US page because the people creating this website are people who were involved with David since at least 2003 and have done a lot of research and put forth a lot of effort to make this stop. All of the information/details provided on this website are available to the public via Google searches or other search engines.
David claims to have several siblings whom he claims are half siblings. Their names are Allison (Alli), Christina (Tina), Trevor, Erin, Beth, Stephanie and her twin sister, Julie (?), all from his biological mother. His siblings from his biological father are Kathy, Steve, and there may be a couple more (two more sisters). Tina used to have a Myspace profile using pictures of a girl named Shannon Bond, a commonly used photo by other fakers. This was proven when her picture was posted on www.fakersbusted.com
He states that Alli, Tina, and either Beth or Erin are married. He says that Alli, Tina, Beth, and Erin all have children.
David claims that he has heart problems and a brain tumor and is in and out of the hospital. He claims that his son Mykal has seizures and is also constantly in and out of the hospital. He may tell some people that Mykal has died.
David states that he is the owner and manager of a privately owned restaurant chain called Alexanders that he inherited from his stepfather. David claimed that he played professional soccer in the UK and was unable to continue due to an injury and was also a History teacher at a local high school.
David claims that both of his parents are deceased and that he has raised his siblings since he was 19 or 20.
He claims to be friends with and have hung out with John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw, and Hanson. He claims to have gone on tour with Hanson and has written music for other musicians. David has also told some girls that his cousin is Dan from O-Town.
David claims to love music and is very knowledgeable about iphones and computers. David says he’s loves the Boston Red Sox and hates the Yankees. He says he is a history major and enjoys learning about the Holocaust. He says his favorite war is WWII.
David states he loves Hanson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Mark Broussard. He claims to like all kinds of music and says he’s very talented with singing, playing the piano, and playing guitar.
He states the name of one of his bands is Random Acts.
He has stated he likes Dexter, True Blood, Grays Anatomy, House, Law & Order.
He has talked about Night by Elie Wiesel about the Holocaust but otherwise claims he dislikes reading.
He might say that his hero is his mother, Kristen.
I was contacted by "Theo" on Feb. 1st. I live in MD and had just really started the dating website thing. I was in a relationship for 10 years prior to this that had just ended last year. I had dated a man previously from the website in Dec. but things didnt work out. "Theo" contacted me and we immediately clicked. He wouldnt text with me at first so we did the kik thing, the screen name he used was, Tcosu85, where he sent me pictures of himself. I now know the 3 people he sent me pictures are of Josey Greenwell and Chad Hollmer. I also have another picture that his "sister" Elle just put up yesterday, I have google image searched and cannot locate who this person is. I literally today just told him to f off. The past 3 weeks, I knew something was not right. Ive been lying to my friends and family for months. I told them we met, I knew they wouldnt support this. He told me a lot about his "life" with Hanson. He claimed to be the god father of Taylor Hanson's son River. I heard the train that the person who left a comment from 1-2-2011 mentioned. The one thing that is now added, 4 weeks ago, Theo told me he found out he was fathering a child. We talked in depth about options and even named her. The birth mother wanted nothing to do with her, he could afford to give her a better life. So we agreed, we would do it together. I told him I would, but that he had to come back to MD to do this. I told ALL my family and friends. Im mortified at this point and ashamed that I lied to them. To be honest, youre the only person who knows that i was truly catfished by this person. I cant tell them all I lied, they would be angry. He kept most of the same stories... when we first started talking, he worked for the Baltimore Orioles, the night of our first date, his shower door came off the hinges and he had to go to the ER. I tried to come but his "neighbor" was with him so he was okay. His dad flew in days later because he had to have surgery on his hand from this, again, he wouldnt let me come help. To be honest, from the beginning things felt off, i was in a vulnerable spot and I couldnt believe someone like him would want me. I fell for it totally. he healed from his hand, we talked constantly, all day and all night. We started calling and "sleeping" together. Jesus I cant believe i did this. I know better but I couldnt seem to help myself. The night of our second date, his sister went collapsed and they had to take the baby out in Cleveland. He was on his way to my house, i had to calm him down and get him to turn around and go to the airport in Baltimore. He said his dad bought a ticket for him and his service dog Thor, his great dane, to fly out. He called me when he landed and everything. Once he was there was when the cancer was revealed. He even called me when he was going into surgery!!! Looking back, nothing about this made sense. He was able to come home that very night, because his sisters and dad were all in the medical profession. Im so embarrassed, we talked about children together, picked out names, etc. I kept encouraging him to fight thru his cancer but things just stopped adding up. Then i was suppose to drive out to Cleveland and the day i was suppose to leave, he gets into a car accident on his way home from Chemo. I couldnt get a hold of him for hours, Finally i do and he tells me. Tells me to wait to come out the next day because his dad wants him to focus on his drs apt for his knee. jump to the next day, and guess what, his whole family gets into a car accident on the way home from dinner. Everyone is injured, again, tells me not to come. Thats when my friends started telling me things werent right, Im so sad to say, I defended it. My gut was telling me something was wrong. Then about 2 weeks later, it was a monday, he tells me, we have to talk. My ex called me this morning, shes pregnant and i believe the baby is mine. I took a DNA test and will now shortly. We talked about options, etc. I had a personal history that made me okay with doing this since the birth mother according to him, didnt want the baby. Im so ashamed, i told all my friends, my family. I bought things for this baby, my parents did as well. I just though, okay, there is NO way someone would make up a baby! But then, the excuses kept happening, and thats when i caught on. For the past 3 weeks, every day I have been catching him in something. Last Friday, I finally came to my senses and google searched his images, I figured out then, he was lying. I immediately confronted him, he had a whole message and sorry, told me he would meet me immediately. Said sorry for doing this to us, I was heartbroken but i still just wanted to believe. I thought, okay, maybe he just lied about the picture. thats when he revealed he had lied about his picture, as well as he never told me he had a brother names Grant and that also, the baby, who we named, had been born. I didnt want to admit defeat, i had told my entire friends and family already, i was willing to look past it, if he would just meet me. Once again, every day it was an excuse. This is when his "sister" elle got very involved, the kik name she used was ellep385. we messaged constantly, she revealed that he previously had cancer, so while he was stupid to lie, to believe in him and keep things going. Everyday we have been screaming and fighting. Last night I told him was my final straw if he didnt meet me in person, he went me this huge long message, that was basically a marriage proposal to me, and then he also revealed that he actually had cancer 4 times. It started when he was 4, 14, 25 and now. He revealed he had a brother, Lincoln, who was gay and committed suicide 3 years ago and would have been 18 this June. Thats when i was like your so full of shit. I researched ways to have multiple kiks, i finally figured out this morning you could do it on PC. I also looked into his phone number this morning, it was a google voice number, he told me, he had previously worked for Victoria Secret and that they set it up. Well i figured out this morning that wasnt the case. I had finally told him last night, I couldnt do this anymore. That it was emotionally un healthy for me. As of 10 am this morning was when i told him to leave me alone, i sent the link to website actually as my proof on how i knew he was fake. His number imed. didnt work, he has stopped reading and answering all the kiks. I tried calling his number, it wont go through anymore. So from Feb. 1st of 2014 to 10am this morning... I was Julie's latest victim.
*Comment submitted 1-6-14
I too was this person's victim for almost 3 months. It went on that long because I wanted to see what else this person was going to throw at me. This person also started talking to me on POF and I thought it was too good to be true...what was that good looking of a guy doing on a dating site. I consider myself attractive, but this guy was model material. He was new to Kansas City and worked in the marketing department for the Royals and was hoping to switch jobs and work for the Chiefs. His name was Jefferson Robbins. He had 3 sisters and they were all named after President's...Kennedy, Reagan, Jefferson and his twin Elle...Elle had me thrown as a President's name. I'm pretty aware of the president's and I know there was no Elle. His comeback was that it was the name of the wife of a President. He was going home to Ohio the week after we started talking, so we planned on meeting once he came home. He ended up getting a sinus infection while he was there a nd his dad (an ER Doctor) did not want him flying home, listing all the things that could go wrong if he did. So, he stayed at his parents while he recovered. Every time he was on the verge of coming home, he couldn't because of his breathing (he had a bout of pneumonia a few years before that put him in the hospital, and had problems ever since). He was finally well enough to travel home, but his dad drove him back...from Cleveland to KC. So we planned on meeting. We were going to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. I kept texting to find out what time he'd be over and finally got a text saying he might need me to come to the hospital. He was showering and when he was trying to get out, the shower door came off the tracks. He tried grabbing the door and his hand went through the glass door. Luckily his dad was still with him when this all happened, but he could never tell me the hospital. I was a little suspicious, but kind of let it go. We made plans for later that week, but his dad didn't feel he was well enough to be going out. It was just excuse after excuse. Then he kept getting sick, or was just never getting better. He was allergic to the stitching in his hand, so that caused an infection. They did several blood tests and discovered that his white blood cell count was really low...fast forward past the MRIs and CT scans and they discover he has spots on his lungs. His dad flies back to come speak with the doctors and they go over the treatment plan (of course I ask detailed questions, but he said they basically talked over his head, so he was just going along with it). Oh, his mom flew back too. So they made plans to all fly back to Cleveland for surgery so their close friend could oversee the surgery. They even flew his dog back...a great dane named Thor, who had a sister named Maggie that lived with his parents. Luckily for him, Thor was able to fly on the plane due to certifications he got when he was a puppy (basically he was a service dog). He even went into detail about Thor on the moving sidewalks in the airport and how his mom took a video...one that he'd send me later of course. That was his excuse if I asked for something, like a picture of his hand...I'd see it later in person, or to send me a video- he'd send it later.
My story is very similar to everyone else's with the approach on POF, the KIK messenger. He did want to call me a few days after we started talking. I thought his voice didn't match his pics at all...thought he sounded a little wussy. His voice was higher pitched, but I didn't think it sounded like a woman's though. When we first started talking his goodbyes were very abrupt. All of a sudden he had to go...he'd text me later and would tell me he had to pee or something. Also, he could call me at anytime, but whenever I tried calling him, he never picked up, except one time, after I mentioned him never answering. He told me to call back and then he answered. I asked him multiple times why he never answered when I called and even told him it was weird and kept pushing for an answer and he got angry and said he just didn't. I tried people searching for his email and his phone number and really couldn't come up with anything...except both numbers he gave me (one all of a sudden h ad issues when he flew back to Ohio for surgery and then somehow his number changed to something completely different). His first number was 216-264-6080...which suddenly changed to 937-506-0638. The AT&T store couldn't tell him why his number changed either. This was the night before his surgery. His "sister" Elle texted me right after surgery to let me know how everything went. then he texted me later. I kept trying to ask for the hospital or his parent's address to send flowers and he would avoid the question until I finally called him out on it. He told me he wasn't giving it to me because he didn't want any flowers. He stayed in Ohio from December 9th until the 30th. Then of course he immediately was admitted to the hospital for coughing up blood. His dad flew there to be with him and they immediately started him on chemo (he'd been taking chemo drugs while in Ohio). Again, I asked multiple times what hospital, I offered to come sit with him. He would never tell me the hospital, he either avoided it by not answering back or told me he'd check to see if I could come visit. I'd had my suspicions and kept having bad dreams that he was someone else, so I finally had enough. I told him I couldn't continue talking to him if he couldn't meet me in the next few days. I didn't care if it was at the hospital, his house, wherever. I told him I didn't understand that why after 3 months and as crazy as he was about me, why we hadn't met. There really wasn't an excuse for it. I told him we shouldn't be planning a future if we couldn't even be together in the present. His response " we'll figure something out". I told him I was done. I wasn't wasting my time on someone who wouldn't meet me . His response was sorry he didn't respond right away....he was puking from the chemo.
Started googling all day about being catfished and stumbled across the Dr.. Phil episode and then subsequently this blog. Same guy, same MO with some variations, and the same voice....just sickening and very sad. I did have somewhat of a guard up, so fortunately was not as hurt as some have been. I half believed "him" but wanted to see what excuse he'd come with next. Sad someone has to live through someone else instead of experiencing life on their own. I forgot to mention that he told me his mom, a history teacher, had breast cancer twice...another obvious reason why he would now have cancer, and he ran marathons in support of breast cancer. I did get the whole story about his sister going into pre-term labor and got the pics of all the nieces and nephews. He had to babysit Jett while his sister was in the hospital. Everything that was bad happened to this guy, like 2 or 3 of his close friends died or were put on life support on a few weeks time. I'm sure he couldn't use the drunk driving story on me, because I was involved in a drunk driving accident during the time "Jefferson"and I were talking, I was the driver and no one else was involved, but that would have probably been way beyond coincidental for him to have also been involved in a drunk driving accident and for him to continue speaking to me after that.
I did confront him about the Dr. Phil thing today, but I emailed him and sent him a text last week basically telling him I was done talking to him unless he would meet me within the next few days. I knew he was full of crap and wanted to see what excuse he'd come up with, but he didn't, just said we'd figure something out or would just avoid it all together. I had said something along the lines of, "I want to meet you very soon, Jeff, because I can't continue a relationship via phone and text", he must have forgotten which name he was using because he said "Jeff???" And I asked if that was his name, or should I call him something else, he tried to play it off like he thought my auto-correct had messed up. Anyway, after he blew off my texts about meeting, I told him I have up and was done. His response "holy shit, sorry I didn't respond right away, I was puking" and then he went on to say, to forget it and he wasn't arguing with me about it. Didn't hear from him again until about 1:30 in the morning when he called "crying" about how much pain he was in from the chemo. I was just irritated at this point, I couldn't even remember what I said, just basically he'd be fine, I was half asleep. It was a lot of him moaning and crying and I didn't say anything, then I heard the phone hang up and haven't heard from him since. I think that was Friday or Saturday night. I did notice that he wasn't talking to me near as often this last month. Pretty much after he had surgery on his cancerous lungs, I would maybe hear from him a few times a day and he liked to call me at bed time do we could "fall asleep together". The first time it was cute, after that, it was just irritating. I think around the same time, I started having bad dreams about him being someone else (that good old intuition) and I told him about them so maybe he thought then that I was onto him/her.
Just a sickening feeling and very sad that this woman devotes all her time to lying and manipulating people. She must have a very sad life indeed if she had to live a life as someone else.
*Comment submitted 7-25-13
Hello! I just wrote you a comment but would like to give you more information. I never saved anything from him, so I don't have screen shots. I was super pissed when I wrote my first comment so would love to add more info: When I was speaking to him last year, I also spoke to him on the phone. I remember being very creeped out by his voice. The voice did not match the pictures. I even thought for a second that it sounded like a woman pretending to be a man. "Marc Brooks" also claimed he was a famous musician and had a lot of money. He was in the works with Lady A on a new project and wrote many songs for famous country artist. He claimed to have bought a house in Covington, LA and even gave me specific areas. This is crazy to me because he really had to do his research to find out the street names he was claiming to live close by. He also made it clear that he was looking to get married. He claimed his mom was on his case about finding a wife since he was the only single family member. He stated over and over how important marriage was to him and how he couldn't wait to cherish his wife. (Music to a single lady's ears, right?) He had three sisters- Morgan, Leslie, and Steph (his twin.) I don't remember date of birth. He claimed that he gave Steph and her husband his condo in OH and he decided to move down south for a change. He found me on POF by the screen name similar to the msoub. His kik name was also the same. We texted nonstop everyday. I actually started to slack on my work and questioned how he kept a job with so much texting. He claimed to go to OH to get the rest of his items and had 3 friends driving back with him. He would go to lengths as to "leave the restaurant" so he could talk to me. One night while they were staying in a hotel, he was speaking to me on the phone. He paused and said "Sorry, I was taking my medicine." I bet this person is on some serious medication! Once he arrived back "home" they unpacked. He literally had a picture for every single emotion/instance/etc. I would say I love to swim, and he would send a pic of himself (Josey) by his pool in his mansion of a home. He claimed to workout most of the day and that he couldn't talk to me at times because he would run 8 miles. Working out was very serious in his routine. We made plans on May 5th (cinco) and he had to cancel because he had an emergency at home. His sister went into labor very early and Lucy (his niece) was born. I too, got the picture of the small baby and a finger. He cried on the phone!!!! While he was in OH, he kept making plans to come back home so we could meet. I even offered to come to Ohio and WE LOOKED UP FLIGHTS AND HOTEL INFORMATION! He claimed his mother was a doctor at the hospital the baby was. I can't remember the name- but I did google the hospital and call and no such lady ran this hospital. If I remember correctly at one point the baby wasn't doing well and stopped breathing. He sobbed on the phone. I am still scared from this as I have no idea how someone can lie to such extents. I was working one evening when he claimed to be at a bar with all of his friends/family. He text me every step of the way, and said he was leaving soon. he asked to call me, and I told him I was busy at work. About an hour later I get very random text such as "babe." "talk to me." babe. Please' "they are taking the phone away." His "sister" Leslie texted me. I had no idea what was going on, and she was under the impression I knew. She had to "break the news to me" that Marc was hit by a drunk driver and was being CUT OUT OF THE CAR by firemen. I was so sick and sad I had to leave work. I was so worried for him and devastated. His "sister" would text me saying that HE WAS SCREAMING FOR ME AT THE HOSPITAL! I didn't sleep for days. What a bastard! The sister ended up calling me and told me that it was very compelling to her and his family that he cared about me so much. He would WAKE UP FROM SURGERY calling out for me. I have nightmares about this still! There were many times I almost spent my hard earned money to fly to Ohio. When he was finally settled in from his total knee replacement, he sent me a video of him singing "girlfriend". It was the first every live footage I had seen of him. I probably watched that video a million times. This is how I ended up busting him. I googled "girlfriend cover" and Joseys page popped up. I was so confused. I really thought for a minute that the person I was talking to was really Josey and that this was just his stage name/presence. I cannot believe I fell for this. I confronted him on a live phone conversation. he told me he would explain, but it would have to be later as he had to go to therapy. he would cry on the phone to me about not being able to walk ever again. Finally, he confessed that he was using Joseys pictures. He claimed that a friend suggested he put up fake pictures and if he found anyone he liked, to then expose himself. he sent me about 5-6 pictures of a very tall man that was also very good looking (and a model.) I knew he was lying, but continued to talk to him to see how far this sick bastard would take it. We continued to talk for another 2 months (4 total months now.) He claimed that he was doing much better but all the sudden had a blod clot. He would have to go back into the hospital and have surgery after surgery. The blog clots were very serious that they were starting to spread to his lungs. He was worried that he would die in his sleep and never get to meet me. I began getting very frustrated with him for not wanting to face time or skype. I was desperate to see him and take care of him. We even made plans for when his parents drove him back home that I would stay with him in his house and take care of him. Finally, he was mobile enough to move around. He went MIA for a few days and claimed that he was working with Lady A and didn't have cell service wherever he was. He would send pictures of his hurt leg and him on crutches. It was very unlike is to go a day without speaking, so when I didn't hear from him for 4 days I lost it. Called the whole thing off and went bonkers on him. Of course, he claimed to be "in route" home and he was only 5 hours away. He manipulated me and made me feel awful about losing it on him. Bastard! We made plans that I would meet his mom and get the key to his house from her. I was to unpack all of his boxes so the house was comfortable for him when he got home. How does one make this stuff up??????? What happens next is fuzzy, I had already known this guy was a fake but still kept talking to him. Finally, I called him out once and for all. he claimed that the reason he had been quiet was because he had been diagnosed with brain cancer. I called him every name in the book and how he was a sick bastard for putting people through this. He kept telling me how awful of a person I was for speaking that way to someone with cancer. (FYI- after he came "back to Louisiana Leslie never answered the phone on the number I had for her) The day after he told me had cancer, the Dr. Phil show aired. I was following Josey on FB and saw he posted about it. I was shocked, and called Marc out again and never heard from him since. Speaking of Fb, Marc claimed not to have one because he didn't have time. I got a request from a "Marc Brooks" on Fb and the profile picture was his blue shoes (that ended up being on Joseys fb.) I wish Josey would step forward and press charges. What can be done? I have tried calling the number I had for him and it is disconnected. has anyone spoken to Julies parents? any information on what they say? For this person to have done this to so many people (and apparently still doing it) is seriously mentally ill. I don't understand the motive. I hope my story helped!
*Comment submitted 7-9-13
Hey, this is still going on and I just yesterday (July 8) realized I was being catfished.
My story matches the one from the end of June from "Max." I was originally contacted on OkCupid by the account oihom on June 27. We messaged a few times on there and then started texting. The number is 614-398-0167. When I got the first message I of course googled it and it was from Ohio, so I stopped looking further because it matched where "max" said he was from. "Max" said he had moved to NYC in April for a job.
I was hesitant to text much because I wanted to meet in person quickly. My red flags were up because when we would talk about where we were out for dinner or what bars we liked, I never got a specific response. It was always like, "just a little local bar."
The first text was on June 27 as well. "Max" told me a little about having 3 sisters, including one who was a twin, and how he flew back and forth to Ohio regularly to see them. He worked in marketing for a women's fashion line. His birthday was July 3 and friends were coming into NYC to celebrate. He also would talk alot about how his mom was pressuring him to get married and he thought he would be married by now. "Max" was very curious about the type of guy I was interested in.
For about a week, literally almost every single morning "Max" would send a message that said something like, "good morning hope you slept well!" I wouldn't respond much because of being busy. For the July 4 holiday and then long weekend we didn't text.
Then yesterday, July 8, we were texting throughout the day. "Max" told me his last name was Anderson. He went home to Ohio because a sister had a baby who was in the hospital. He asked me to download kik, a texting app, so he could send pictures. He sent me a picture that he "just took," and also pics of the baby.
I sent this pic to my friend who googled it by image and immediately found it was Josey Greenwell the singer.
"Max" and I were still texting and so I messaged them and said, I just found this singer I think you'd really like, Josey Greenwell? Its weird though because you look a lot like him.
I haven't heard anything since. This person knows they are caught and they read it because kik shows when a message is read.
This is actively going on and I hope someone does more google searching than I did before starting to talk with someone! Spread the word!!
I have all the messages if you would like screenshots of any of them. the OkCupid profile is now disabled, but i have those messages as well.
*Comment submitted 6-28-13
Just to give you some background on myself, I dated someone for two and a half years who I met online. He was who he said he was and we spent most of our time together. I was certain this was the person I'd spend the rest of my life with. Turns out the person that I was very much in love with created a completely different life while he was with me. He had several online profiles, had sexual relations with men and women for money, was in rehab, lied about his profession, etc.... I was devastated when we broke up & it took extensive therapy and much support from family and friends to get me back to a healthy state of mind.
Needless to say I was very cautious going into the online scene again. I made an account on Ok Cupid about a month ago and kind of just looked around. About 5 days ago I got a message from "oihom. " It was the first message I received that sounded well written and not creepy and the pictures of "Max" certainly persuaded my decision to message back. We had some small talk through the site. Max said he lives in NYC and works for the marketing team with Victoria Secret but was hoping to get a job with ESPN in the future. He said he travels back and forth to Ohio a lot and was currently in Ohio because his twin sister had a baby that was severely premature.
We exchanged numbers and started texting. The number was 1-614-398-01**. Given my history I automatically googled the number and it was in fact from Ohio. Max insisted I download an app Kik to text. His kik name was max7385 and Max A would come up when we chatted. He said that it makes sending pictures easier. Once I downloaded it he would send pictures of his nieces and nephews. Their names were Ameilia, Lucy, Anderson (the premmature baby) and Jett. He also sent me pictures of two dogs of his Stella & Penny. He managed to even send me a picture of a premmature baby. He said he was extremely close with his sisters and his parents. All his sisters were married w. children. Max claimed to be 27 turning 28 on July 3. His friends were coming to the city to celebrate since he moved here in April and they were excited to see his place and party.
We tried to make arrangements to talk on the phone but he always claimed to "pass out." Only two days in my intuition told me something wasn't right. He seemed too perfect. He claimed to play guitar and would send me pictures of him playing. Said he goes to the gym and runs about 8-10 miles a day. I mentioned meeting up and I said "I would like to meet up this weekend so I can have some reassurance you're real. It would be awkward to be like the TV show Catfish lol" his response was "well I'm a real boy. And I don't watch that reality tv shit. " I asked if he had a Facebook and he claimed he didn't use it because he's "social media retarded". All of these red flags made me go to work. So I used the google image search and searched his photos on google and I found myself on Josey Greenwell's Facebook and Instagram pages. I then came across a post on his wall about the Dr. Phil episode and I found myself on your blog page.
I did not say anything to "Max" because it would be a waste of my time. However I knew I had to reach out and raise some type of awareness. I would love to have a bigger part in raising awareness about "cat fishing" because I have been a victim and my first relationship really put me through hell but made me so much smarter which is why I was able to catch this myself only three days in. I truly think girls need to learn how to avoid the heartache and fear these cat fishing people cause. Is there anything we could do?
*Comment posted to Dr. Phil 4-27-13
Wow, I am completely shocked! this women is still messing with innocent people. My sister was recently a victim. although he went by the name max with her, but the same pictures and stories.Thankfully she realized early that something wasn't right. I will never understand sick people like this who pray on others emotions.
*Comment submitted 2-11-13
I met Julie working in a restaurant. She was different, but very nice. She liked to go out and do things and was pretty easy going. Like any restaurant you work in, you become friends with your co workers. We would hang out after work, go to the bars, concerts, out to dinner, etc. I considered Julie a pretty good friend of mine.
Julie introduced David to a friend of ours at work. They talked for about a month when I had an online group chat with all of them: Julie, David, the girl, and myself. Julie told me David liked me and wanted to talk to me more. Eventually he and the girl stopped talking and him and I started. Julie said that she knew him and his family well, especially his one sister, Christina. This was in 2005.
David and I talked just about every day, all online. He would never give me his phone number. He either didn’t have a phone, it was broken, he was sick, etc. Every time we would plan to meet there was some excuse. Someone in the family was sick, his son was in the hospital, the restaurant was busy, he broke his foot, the car broke down. You name it, I heard it. Every time I felt the red flag go up, I asked Julie about it since she knew him. She reassured me that he cared about me and all these bad things kept happening to him. She was truly a cheerleader of our relationship.
David had told me he helped manage a restaurant his parents previously owned called Zanders. It was in Marietta, OH, where he lived at the time. I took a trip down there after being sick of all the excuses, and there was no such restaurant. He said it was unlisted and in a different part of town then I was in.
I asked Julie to give me his phone number over and over but she said if he hadn’t given it to me, that was not her place. Being good friends, I respected that.
At one point Julie gave me a CD from David. He told her to give it to me. She also brought me DVD and shirt for my birthday. The DVD was a Hilary Duff movie, which David called me Duff all the time.
When I started to get annoyed with never seeing David, I decided to continue to live my life while in the relationship. I would talk to boys and go out with them. One time, I was out with Julie, and she got extremely mad at me for kissing a boy bc I was suppose to be dating David.
A friend of mine and her boyfriend of the time thought all the David/Julie activity was suspicious. He decided to create a fake myspace profile and send Julie a message. He thought the layout of their pages were very similar, along with the interests, musical information and conversation styles. The message read something like “ I know what you are doing and its not right. Its ok that you like Kelly but you cant keep toying with her. You need to tell her whats going in, if you don’t, I will.” This was 8 months into me meeting David. Another message followed “You are him, he is you. Tell her already” Obviously this did not go over well. Julie was pissed my friends did it, David was mad they questioned him, and I took Julie and David’s side. It really put a dent in my relationship with David and my friendship with Julie.
A while after this, I was in a game room with David on his birthday. While we were playing a game I saw Devon’s screenname show up in the room. David told me to get out immediately, that she was the crazy ex girlfriend. I listened, but not without writing her screenname down first. When I looked up her myspace profile, I found a bunch of journals written about a boy; someone she had never met but loved. It all sounded way too familiar. I kept it quiet but continued to search. Eventually my computer froze, and when I went back to the journals, they were all deleted.
Later down the line, I continued to look things up about David, most in which was unsuccessful. At one point, I received a message from a girl on myspace. She asked me if I was dating David, and if we had ever met. It was an odd question, considering usually you meet the people you are dating. I didn’t tell David, but continued to talk to the girl. I found out she was talking with him also, and they too had never met. The difference was, she had spoken to him on the phone. I was furious. Why would he talk to her and not me? When I asked for the number she had, I decided to call it because I wanted to hear his voice. Julie answered the phone. I didn’t realize it at first, but it was her phone number.
I decided not to confront Julie until I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to go about it. Somehow I thought maybe it still wasn’t possible, that my information was somehow all incorrect.
I slowly started to break away from her, something she realized right away. We went out to dinner one night, and I told her what happened. She cried in my car and said she didn’t know why these girls were doing this to her; basically that she was being framed.
After a while, I realized there was no way Julie’s story was right, and eventually I broke away from both her and David completely. David would still send me IMs that me missed me, but usually I would ignore them. At work, there was a lot of tension with Julie. One day she handed me a phone number and said “this is what you always wanted.” It was suppose to be David’s number, just a little too late.
At one point, we found the picture used for David’s sister, Christina, on fakerbusted, proving she wasn’t who they said. Julie had no response to this, considering at one point they were best friends.
About a year or 2 later, David messaged me saying he finally got a phone and wanted to call me. I decided to let him, mostly because of my curiosity. When I called the number it said you couldn’t call in without the caller dialing your number first. Eventually he called me. It was by far the weirdest voice I had ever heard. There was no way that voice matched his pictures.
Once I figured everything out, I often put away statuses up that were a dig to Julie, knowing she would look. She sent me a message once, asking if we could talk because she knew my status was in reference to her. This all went via instant message, and I still got excuse after excuse. Most of her answers being “I don’t know.” The proof that was blatant she had no response to. In a nutshell I told her I was done and there was no way we would ever be friends again. She told me she missed our friendship more than anything, and would always be here for me anyway.
After that I blocked everything out. I deleted any emails or conversations I had saved, along with any pictures of David and his family.
About 4 years later, Devon messaged me about the Dr. Phil show showing interest in our story. I decided to tell my side, astonished this was still happening. However, that was not enough. It was time to finally confront Julie. I messaged her that after all these years I had plenty of unanswered questions and I wanted to talk to her about them. She decided to meet me face to face.
I asked Julie if there was anything she wanted to tell me. She said no. I asked every incriminating question I had on her. Every answer was “I don’t know.” She claims that someone is pretending to be her, pretending to be him. She said she has lawyers working on it (Apparently for 7 years since nothing has happened). I asked why she told me she knew David and his family. She said because he asked her to, and that was her biggest regret. She said the pictures of the dogs were stolen from her online pages. She also said she didn’t remember giving me a phone number for him. She had no answer as to why all the phone numbers found for David, Shaun, or Jackson are listed in her name. She lied; a lot. I told her I didn’t believe anything she said, and that never in my life had I met someone as shitty as her. Julie then blocked me from facebook and removed most of our common friends (looking even more incriminating).
I ran into Julie at the grocery store after. We didn’t speak. Jackson (her new persona) told one of the girls he ran into his ex at the same time.
After the show aired and the Manti Teo story evolved, catfishing was really an area of interest. When Fox 8 ran the story on her, many people we used to work with came to me to ask questions. Most were shocked, but not overly surprised. Turns out you never know who people truly are.
*Comment submitted 1-26-13
I am a victim of "Jackson William Avery", as found out today. I am furious and disgusted. My privacy has been severely invaded and I am horrified that there are so many victims. How can we pursue legal action against this person?
*Comment submitted 1-18-13
Hi I am a complete victim of the catfish Jackson William Avery from Plenty of Fish and live in California. It started this April and went to August and the story was the exact same....the sisters, the twin, car accident, cancer, knee surgery, talking for hours, texting and sharing pics all day on KIK, always had excuses, couldnt skype, same birthday, etc. But nothing was adding up and I knew it wasn't him but couldn't find any information on "her." Well I have his Kik name as Jackson A. Facebook Jackson Avery. Pof name was JacksonOSU85 I believe. He said he was from outside of Akron, Ohio. 27 years old. Birth date is May, 31, 1985 with his twin Stephanie. Older sisters Leslie and Morgan. Parents were Sharon and Steven and both doctors. Nephew Jett, Nieces Lucy and Amelia. He moved to Carlsbad, CA for a teaching position where he was going to teach History and be a football coach. He had 2 dogs named Penny and Stella. So disgusting and disturbing. How did you find this person? Can we press charges? So many girls are affected from so many cities! This person pretended to like everything I liked, wanted the same things and promised so much. They just manipulated me and I'm such a compassionate person and I felt bad continually questioning someone when they are going through such hard crazy things. But things weren't adding up and he wasn't a teacher when I looked him up nor were his parents doctors. And he used the name Jackson Avery because it's they Grey's Anatomy character and that's all you get when you google them. Thanks for your help.
*Comment submitted 1-11-13
I have unfortunately been fooled by this person. I met "him" on pof. He has told me his name is Jackson Andrews and it is the same story with the being a history teacher in the Tampa area. The story I am currently getting is that he was in a really bad car accident hit by a drunk driver, complete knee replacement, broken ribs, and is staying in Ohio with his parents for the time being. I watch Dr. Phil all the time and I can't believe I missed this episode. As of yet, I only was asking what high school he taught at, and he was someone hesitant on naming one so I started my research this evening...found this site.
*Comment submitted 1-3-13
I was contacted on 12/25/12 by Jackson Andrew Arthur on POF. I started getting suspicious because I couldn't find him or his family online, so I kept digging and finally found this website and the Dr. Phil show that just recently aired. He just pulled the "got hit by a drunk driver" story on me this week and I've been a mess over it. He said that he just came home from the hospital tonight and he even had his sister texting me while he was in surgery. I literally cried four times within two days while at work. What is crazy to me is that I have talked to him on the phone for multiple hours. This whole thing is so messed up! I felt so stupid at first, but now I'm just mad. What can be done to stop this person? It's just sickening that someone can do this to people. Can you please tell me what the motive is? Have you or anyone else figured that part out? Thank you for having this website. I feel fortunate to have found this out now instead of a couple months down the road when I had already fallen in love with him. Obviously that is what he/she was trying to do. I just kept thinking, is this guy too good to be true? Please let me know what I can do to help stop this person. This has to be stopped. It is really messing with good peoples' emotions.
*Comment submitted 1-3-13
About 5 weeks ago I was contacted on POF by a guy, I no longer have his sn. We talked for 5 weeks and I decided to google and was led to this sight and him not being who he says he is..... He went by Jackson William Avery.... I also have a list of family names he gave me and I got 2 long drawn out stories about why he had to bail on our dates..... Good times.
More of her story:
I made the mistake of reactivating my POF account. A guy emailed me his sn was ja3185. He sent me a few paragraphs showing interest so we starting talking, I gave him my number and it began. He went by the name of Jackson William Avery. I work with animals, so first time we talked on the phone he fed me a story about how he got his dogs---he wanted a Great Dane but there was a family there with a little boy so he gave the dog to that family and adopted a beagle instead. He later adopted a Pom mix. He told me about the Great Danes his parents have and sent a pic, sent a pic of a papillon that his parents have and his sis has a pit. The dog names he gave me were Stella, penny, Gracie, Thor and Maggie. He told me about his family and how close he was with them. Saying he was a momma's boy. His sisters are Stephanie, Leslie and Morgan. Gave me all their men's names and kids. For our first date his excuse to not go was he had the flu. Second date was he said his mom called and the 2 mo. Old baby Sophia had to be rushed to the hospital and have open heart surgery. The day before he was supposed to fly home we had a phone conversation where I subtly said I didn't think he was a real person, too good to be true etc. the following day I received a text from "his sister" Stephanie. She wanted to call me because something happened. She called and said he had been t boned by a drunk driver and listed his injuries: knee replacement, broken ribs, broken finger, ankle and stitches on his chin. When I talked to his sister I also mentioned to her that I didn't think he was real and my friends were giving me a hard time about it. He later texted me very upset that I'd accuse him of being fake. I apologized and never brought that up again..... There were a ton of red flags but I just didn't want to listen cuz he seemed so perfect. I was reading a book called "the rules of online dating" after reading the safety chapters I decided to google his phone number and found out everything and looked up Josey Greenwell. Unfortunately I fell for him, head over heals. Butttt I'm continuing to talk to her and am going to try to do something to get the work out so this doesn't happen to other women.
Red flags:
Bailed literally an hour ish before the date
When on the phone seemed distracted
Took like 3 weeks for him to send me a pic of his dogs
Lived in Carlsbad in 6 bedroom house? Is a hs history teacher and football coach in Carlsbad, wouldn't give me the school name, said it was a private school
Didn't send current pic
Would say something was supposed to happen, like stitches out on a certain day and on that day wouldn't say "it went great"
Didn't give me much update on sick baby
No Facebook, erased pictures, then erased POF
Wanted to text through an app KIK
Said his sis was a photographer and that's why his pix looked like model shots
He wasn't cocky about his body
He talked a lot about his fam, names etc. but didn't ask a whole lot about mine
Couldn't find anything on google on him or his doctor family
He said he was a singer songwriter, said helped lady antebellum write a song.said he was writing a song about me
First time I called, it made me state my name before he would take the call
When I'd call he wouldn't answer, then he'd call right back almost every time
In one of his pictures he had a ring on his left ring finger---he had a clever explanation for it though
He said he sent a pic of him "right now" in the background there was an iron on the wall, I questioned it and he had an explanation
Said camera phone didn't work, but would randomly "work"
Said name was Jackson Avery---greys anatomy
When I asked what time his flight was he "didn't know" and explanation was because his mom arranged it
Other things I remember
Said he was color blind
Doesn't like fish
*Comment submitted 12-29-12
Hi there,
Of course I was shocked when I learned of this. We met in mid July 2012 . We were supposed to spend Thanksgiving (2012) together because he had a break from chemo but that never happened. We talked to my parents over the phone that week and he stated that we were going to fly out there for Christmas. This made my family so happy. Anyways, the week before this last week there was a lot of arguing going on between us and I started asking questions he couldn't answer and so we all but stopped talking. He told me he was trying to figure out how to get down here for Christmas still. He stated he was driving down but had to turn around because his dad had a stroke. I didn't talk to him for a total of 2 days, that put red flags up for me. I told him I was done and not going to have to question the person I was with like I did my last boyfriend. He again made promises to be down here but I was done at that point. This was Christmas day.
Here is the story he gave me:
His name is Jackson William Anderson. He is named after his mom because Jackson is her maiden name. His birthday is May 31, 1985. He is a republican. He has 3 sisters, one of which is a twin. Their names are Morgan, Leslie, and his twin is Stephanie. They are all married and each have a child, Amilea, Jett, Lucy and Leslie is preg again. (I was told in Oct. that her appendix burst and they had to do an emergency c-section. They named the baby Sophie) He was born in London England and moved outside of Cleveland,Ohio (Westlake) when he was 13. He played football in high school and honestly wasn't a very good student until his jr year when he told me his girlfriend at the time made him want to be a better student. All of his family are doctors. He fought with his dad a lot when he told him that he wanted to be a teacher and not a dr and they didn't talk for 3 weeks. He went to Ohio State. He is a high school history teacher and this would have been his 5th year of teaching. He took a job in Mt. Pleasent, SC for this and to coach football. On July 23rd he got into a car wreck from being hit by a drunk driver. I texted all day with his sister Leslie while he was in surgeries and recovering. He had a complete knee replacement, broken ribs, hurt ankle and a few other minor injuries. He was trapped in the car for 2 hours while they got the other car off of him and then worked on getting him out. As a result of the crash they also found out that he has a brain tumor. He has had bad headaches for the last 5 or so years and they did tests before but couldn't find a cause. Because of his health issues he resigned his job teaching and his dad was living with him in SC because of the extent of the injuries. He started taking Chemo pills and they were making him very sick. He couldn't drive and so he was having to try and get his dad to bring him down and have us meet. He used Josey Greenwell's pictures and sent pictures of all of the kids, Amelia, Jett, Lucy and Sophie. He was in SC until he started chemo and then went back to OH so he could be close to his family while he was doing treatments. He stayed with his sister Stephanie most of the time except for the 'chemo days' where he would stay with his parents. I would text with his mom to see how he was doing but it was always on his phone. I spoke with Leslie one night when they were all supposed to come down to meet me but ended up in the ER in Charleston. He made all the claims to love me and that he couldn't wait to meet the kids I taught, I'm a 1st grade teacher. He was always with Lucy.
I met him on POF and his acct name was ja3185. We met July 11, 2012. Phone number I had for him was 216-202-52**. It is a Cleveland area code I do know that. The answer machine was a google subscriber recording.
After my aunt had called me I did try to call him and I ended up leaving a message saying that he never wanted to be a liar but that he was. I said I didn't hate him because I felt sorry for him and to please delete everything I had sent him and to not contact me. He used the kik messenger and his name on it was Jackson A. He sent me a message at around 3 that morning saying he was confused and I just told him he wasn't. That he had made choices to hurt people and he knew exactly what he was doing. I told him that it was a basic thing that I teach my 1st graders, tell the truth, don't lie because it will hurt you or other people. I told him that I didn't know what had happened in 'his' life to make him feel like this is ok but its not. He has made choices to lie and deceive people with intention to hurt them but that he could make the choice to stop it. I doubt he read any of it, I can only hope he did and that someday it will sink in.
*Comment posted to Dr. Phil 12-27-12
When one of my best friends called and told me to look up Dr. Phil's show from today, only to find that the man I've been talking to for over a year now was being exposed as a catfish. I began talking to "Shaun" in December of last year, just before he went home to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family. We made plans to spend New Year's Eve together as he was supposed to be back in Arizona by then but the night before his flight home, he told me he was involved in a horrible car accident. This obviously postponed his return home and was the first of many, many excuses I got as to why he wasn't coming back. He and I would talk for at least an hour everyday and I fell in love with "him". Each time he was supposed to come home and didn't raised a suspicion in me that he wasn't who he said he was but the reason for the delay was always something so serious that I felt badly questioning him. I tried on numerous occasions to get him to talk with me on Skype but he didn't have his own laptop and his Iphone wasn't equipped to do Facetime. After 6 months of talking, I finally had to cut ties because I just couldn't continue getting my hopes up that he was actually coming home...so I moved on. About a month ago I got a text from "Shaun", saying he wanted to meet me. After having seen the show Catfish, I was very skeptical that he actually was who he said he was so I went along with the plans to meet. Of course, he never showed up and had excuses as to why he wasn't there. And today, I finally know for sure that my gut feelings were correct. I feel sorry for this person that they are so insecure in the person that they are that they feel the need to live their life as someone else. It was eerie for me to see the video feed of Josey after thinking for so many months he was the one I was sharing so much of my time with. I feel truly sorry that this person victimized him as well. Thank you Dr. Phil for exposing this person and finally ending this chapter in my life.
*Comment submitted 12-10-12:
Hello I am in Forida and saw Dr Phil. I was shaking because last year my friend dated a Marc Thomas from Ohio....bar owner, teacher (was going to move to Fl to teach but had a car accident, ) and in music industry....twin sis Stephanie, blood clot leading to cancer, knew group Hanson...I`was shocked! Do you think this person has ever used Marc Thomas as a name? I am convinced its the same jerk from POF please help, this jerk almost broke up our friendship because we were convinced he was a fake!
*Comment submitted 8-3-12:
Where do I begin?!
I read the personal stories on your blog and my story is super close of a mix of 2 of the stories posted on there. Mine is close to the one posted on 5/1 and 3/8.
I met him on POF like the others went by the name osusm85, he included pics of Josey Greenwell as I just later found out. I can't believe I let it go on as long as it did, I'm so disgusted w/ him and ashamed of myself!! I am now totally CREEPED out. He still doesn't know that I know. I had decided to Google his phone number the other day because he kept having phone issues where it would say the wireless user is unavailable. I had tried to do research/snooping online earlier into it but never found anything for some reason I don't know why if this blog has been up for awhile. I wish I knew sooner!!
He told me that his name was Shaun Matthew Sanders, dob 3/14/1985. He had 3 sisters Morgan, Leslie, twin Stephanie. The 2 oldest sisters were married and Morgan had a daughter Amelia (which he sent pics of). His dad was originally from London and was a pediatrician and mom an ICU nurse. He told me he had been living in OH but had bought a house out here in AZ in north scottsdale to start a teaching job (American History high school teacher). He said he bought the house in Aug, but was back in OH during the holidays and right before he was suppose to fly back to AZ, he got into a car accident, hit by a 19 y/o drunk driver as his twin sister Stephanie was driving him home from the bar. So as the other stories, he had a knee replacement surgery and later sent me a pic of his stapled up knee. He claimed he had to do physical therapy in OH for it. Just the same as one story his twin sister found him unconscious at home and he was rushed to the ER and ended up w/ 4 blood clots. He even had "stephanie" call me and so I actually spoke to some girl and she told me what happened and that he was still unconscious in ICU waiting for him to wake up. So due to this happening he had to stay in OH longer, then later on he found out his mom had breast cancer, got a double mastectomy and boob job. Then he told me had to get a biopsy done on a spot found on his brain they found back in Oct...told me he had migraines from it, gave that same story. After the biopsy he found out it was a malignant tumor, so had to decide on surgery or chemo/radiation. Him and his "dad" attempted to fly out to get back settled in AZ, but in route he had a seizure on the plane so had to turn around and drive back to OH. Then they decided to drive out later to AZ, which apparently took him 3 wks to finally arrive due to keep having to be admitted to hospitals for seizures. "Shaun" even had his dad txt me from his phone to give me updates on his situation a few times. After finally claiming to getting to AZ he still had an excuse to not see me, something always came up or he didn't want me to see him sick while doing his chemo. I even talked to this "stephanie" person on the phone again when he was admitted to a hospital here in AZ. He would never give me the name of the hospital either. Oh yeah and he did say that "stephanie" got pregnant and it was by her bf she had been on/off for, so they decided to get married. Stephanie eventually came out here to see Shaun because he was so sick and ended up in ICU again. At some point she ended up having her baby out here early due to it being a high risk pregnancy so she had it prematurely and again he sent pics of a premature baby, her name was Lucy. Meanwhile he's been doing chemo this whole time and at dr appts everyday. So now his "dad" and "stephanie" are out here living w/ him....a month later his "mom" comes out to see him and ends up staying too. He had told me the same things he had told the other girls, that he loved me, wanted to get married, he even said he wanted me to move in w/ him. He kept talking about the future. He had so many back stories to everything, its unbelievable!! Like one of the other girls he also would fall asleep on the phone w/ me a few nights a wk and I could hear him sleeping/snoring/tossing around. He mentioned he had 2 dogs Stella/Penny and I did hear dogs barking in the background quite a few times.
I try to confront him about why he would never meet me, but he would just continue to give me his lame excuses that he didn't want me to see him sick or that he was throwing up all the time or ended up in the hospital. He sent me sooooooooooo many pics of this Josey Greenwell and videos of him singing too, it makes me sick!
Apparently after 2-3 months of chemo his tests came back he was cancer free, he would always tell me after he finished his chemo we would finally meet. Well that obviously never happened, he made up more excuses. I grew tired of this BS and we started slowly stop talking/texting. All my friends knew something was up, even a few of them kept saying it sounded like that movie "Catfish"....which now it totally is and freaks me out that I've been part of this mess! Just recently he told me Leslie now had her baby bc she was pregnant during all this time and the baby's name is Jett, which he also sent pics of.
Like the other stories he clamied to be a singer/songwriter, teacher and owned a bar in OH called Showcase. He mentioned working w/ Hanson as well.
He used the same number as the others 216-496-85**. He did make a facebook a few wks after we first starting talking, then a month later it was deleted, which he claimed he got locked out of it, but he used all the same pics/videos he had sent me of Josey Greenwell on there. I now realize all the txt msg sounds I would hear coming from his phone while we would be talking were probably from all the other girls he was doing this with, but he would claim it was his mom or sisters txting him.
I have more BS lies that he told me that I could tell you, but I think you get the picture. I'm just thankful I finally fell upon your blog and I really hope this starts to get more and more attention so others don't suffer as I did. It's been an emotional roller coaster!! I feel like I should be on some kind of Dateline special now, how sad.
I hope this guy/girl or whoever finally gets his identity revealed!! I'm still debating on if I should tell him I figured out his sick lie or play his game back to mess w/ his head or just let it go and ignore him if he contacts me. He did text me tonight and I didn't really respond to it, trying to figure out my plan to bust him!
If you need any more info, I will be happy to help! This psycho needs to be stopped. I don't even get his motive behind all this, he never asks for money and I don't see any other benefit he gets besides maybe him being an attention whore. Crazy pathological liar is all I have to say.
*Comment submitted 5-23-12:
Hes at it again. "Marcus" says he lives in Ohio and that he is moving to Seattle to start his teaching career. We have been talking for a few months now and met on Plenty Of Fish. We also have spoken on KIK may times. He has claimed that he is coming to see me and that he can't wait for us to be together. He says he is currently in the hospital in Ohio for "spots on his brain". Im finally glad that my fears have been confirmed. this site has saved me!
*Comment submitted 5-1-12:
OMG! Unreal. A friend of mine came across this site and sent it to me. I have been talking to "Marcus Robert Brookshire" for almost 2 months now! His story to me is almost identical to the most recent entry on this site. He uses the phone number: 216-496-85** . He has been contacting me via "KIK" and the name mbosu85 was what he was listed as on Plentyoffish.com. He even created a Facebook account for the name "Marcus Robert". I'm sure he has a number of them. He used Josey Greenwell's pics for me. He claimed to be originally from London, moved to OHIO at 13 and recently moved to Westwood, MA in December for a elementary music teacher and football coaching position. He sent me pics of a beautiful house he "bought" (500K he claims). He told me he had 3 sisters, Morgan, Leslie and a twin Stephanie. All three are married Morgan has a daughter Amelia (8 months i think he said) and Leslie was pregnant. Stephanie, he claims, was being stalked and got attacked by her stalker, WHILE PREGNANT). He goes on to say she's in a coma and then has to deliver the baby at 28 weeks because she can't get surgery until the baby is out. He cries! and is very convincing. He even has pictures of premature babies that he sends to make it even more believable! He planned to meet me several times and each time "something" came up. He has an unbelieveable amount of photos and videos of Josey Greenwell which makes him even more convincing. He made future plans with me, such as going to concerts and planning trips back to London in the summer. He also claimed to be very close to Hanson and be the godfather of one of Taylor's kids. He claims to know many famous people. This guy/girl is CRAZY! I am disgusted with the amount of effort he puts into his stories and lies and am thankful my friend found this site when she did. Thank you for making this site available and for doing your best to get this guys identity revealed. I'm not sure what I should do next. Let's get this guy out to the public so this craziness stops. These poor girls don't deserve it. I didn't deserve it.
*Comment submitted 4-19-12:
I talked to this person for about a month after I was contacted by he/she on pof. He said his name was Marcus Brookshire and he was from Ohio. From there on out-- it was nothing but lies. Hurt in a car accident and leg crushed on way home from being out for he and his twins bday, knee replacement, headaches, sick 24/7... And sent me pictures of Josey greenwell. Came upon this page... Called him on it and haven't heard from him since. He used kik messenger to talk to me and used the name mbosu...started talkin 2nd week of march and figured out the bs last week. So disgusted. He showed me pictures of a little girl he said was his niece, Amelia.
*Comment submitted 3-19-12:
He's claiming he lives in Westwood, MA now, goes by the Plenty of Fish account profile name: mbosu85 and still has that phone number. "He" used the name Marc this time had a profile set up complete with height of 6'1 said he moved to MA from Cleveland, was a Browns fan, is a teacher for 5th grade music class but is also going to be coaching football in Westwood. Said he was home in Cleveland visiting his family this weekend.
*Comment submitted 3-8-12:
His name was Shaun Matthew Sanders, born on March 14, 1985. He was indeed a HS American History teacher. Penny and Stella (2 dogs he owned). He used pictures of Josey Greenwell. Three sisters: Morgan, Leslie (who was married to Matthew) and his twin sister Stephanie. Mother is an ICU nurse, Father is a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. "Shaun" was in Ohio over Christmas, was in a car accident and ended up needing a total knee replacement. He then was found unconscious by his twin sister one night ... taken to the ER and eventually they found out that he had a PE (pulmonary embolism) ... he ended up needed to be on warfarin therapy to thin his blood. Meanwhile, his mother found out she had breast cancer (ergo she got a double mastectomy and a boob job). Meanwhile, his sister Stephanie got a boob job ... then found out she was prego!! THEN ... Shaun found out he had BRAIN CANCER (Medulloblastoma to be exact). He has an entire story about a "horrible headache" he had in October which revealed a brain lesions which was 3cm long. They are using the phone number 216-496-85**. They claimed they loved me, wanted to marry me, sent me naked pictures of a man's body ... even told me HE BOUGHT A RING. Like the above post, he claims to be a singer, has toured with the Hanson's (is best friend's with them and godfather to one of their son's). He likes twizzlers, Subway, Chipotle, Wendys ... enjoys playing words with friends and scramble with friends. For two months HE FELL ASLEEP on the phone with me, I could hear him snoring, breathing, etc ... he would text me all day, want me home at night to watch redbox movies with him ... he always had an excuse to not be able to skype and promised time and time again to get a new computer. "Shaun" is the owner of Showcase bar ... that is what he is claiming now.
*Comment submitted 1-16-12:
Ooooohh. I can't believe I am only just now finding this. I first got involved with David in July 2008. I busted him first on his "band," which was really Ingram Hill out of Memphis, after we made plans to meet 4 times and all 4 times he had a different excuse. He then re-contacted me months later with a different story and new pics- this time Josey Greenwell. I promptly emailed Josey on myspace (the cool thing at the time) letting him know there was someone pretending to be him, same as I did with the lead singer of Ingram Hill. I'm not sure what either guys did with that information. All of the info I have read thus far is the same I knew of David as far as siblings except he said he was still raising his younger brother Trevor who I believe would be a senior in high school now and at 15 attempted suicide but was doing much better last time we talked, which I'm embarrassed to say was maybe august 2011. I always knew there was something screwed up but he stuck with the story of being so sick and so close to dying and then to top it off he was going through a divorce because come to find out, his "wife" had cheated on him, and neither Liam nor Kennedy were his biological kids. Most of me was calling total bullshit, but I couldn't bring myself to literally say it and then it turns out the guy really is on his deathbed. But oh man, I can't believe this has been going on since 2002. I did google searches and background searches using his name but could never find anything incriminating...until now. Wow. I just never understood why it would be a scam...he never asked me for money, so I couldn't figure out a motive for him to make this kind of stuff up. I really hope you find this person. What a sick and twisted thing to do to all these girls.
*Comment submitted 12-18-11:
"Matthew David Zane" is at it again. I met him on a dating website called plentoffish.com. He was in fact using photos of singer, songwriter, and model Josey Greenwell. He is now going by the name of Marcus David Sanders and now has a new number (216)496-85** which is registered to Julie C. He has a different story now too... He is a 26yr old man living in Ohio who claims to be moving to the Baltimore area to relocate for another teaching position and head football coaching job in Dundalk MD. He still claims to be a history teacher, he said he has 3 sisters this time, and he is a twin- he says his twins name is Stephanie and she lives with him in his town house along with his 2 dogs, Penny the beagle and Stella a tiny dog. We talked for about a month, then when we were supposed to meet he got into an accident, he claimed he got clipped my a semi and an suv hit him on the drivers side and crushed his leg. My friends did a photo google search of him and we found out he was claiming to be Josey Greenwell- he is still claiming that hes a huge music fan- he sings, plays the piano, guitar and drums. He says he knows Hanson and fabricated many stories about touring with them and their children. He told me he loved me, and even cried on the phone when I busted him. He then sent me pictures of a different guy claiming that was really him. He even sent me pictures of this "guy" in a hospital bed. I dont know who this guy is he is claiming to be now but I will post pictures. This guy is sick, 8 years and he is still at it. Please girls be safe this guy/girl is a sick person.
*Comment Submitted 2-8-11:
Soooo. I logged into Yahoo after years of not doing so [4 or 5] and see Zane8402 ... so curious about Dayvid's [yes, D-a-y-v-i-d] whereabouts, I googled the screenname and stumbled across this website.
My jaw dropped as soon as I started reading the details since it was everything this person told me about themselves. We were involved in a brief online relationship back in 2004-2005ish? Maybe? They warned me of their voice being "prepubescent" and I was skeptical since it sounded like a raspy woman but I couldn't tell them that of course.
The pictures they used were of the "Josh" person and they claimed to be a HS history teacher. Mykal was in and out of the hospital during our "relationship" as was he for his "heart condition". He claimed to have a pet alligator and all of his siblings lived together in the same house minus 2 or so.
He was on the website TheDilly where I met him and had quite a few admirers on there as well.
He claimed to be 1st cousins with Dan from O-Town and how he had the band over to his house before. This is when I starting doubting who they were since they knew I was fond of the band back then and was trying to impress me. I started to try and "dig" to see if I could find anything but I guess they covered their tracks well back then.
So I guess there's some more info to add! Hope I helped!
*Comment submitted 1-2-11:
Wow, reading all of this has pretty much left me in shock. I met "David' on myspace in October of 2006. We talked every single day all day long for almost a year i think it was maybe a little more and all the info listed on there is the same exact thing he said to me. I'm literally in shock b/c i thought i was the only one. And the fact that its all the same information for all the same people is crazy. The picture of him of Josh P i think it was listed as on your site? It was really disturbing to see all the pictures he sent me on this site, he is really sick and i thought i was the only one. If i would have had this when i was looking for info when i was talking to him i would have been saved from a lot of distress.
It looks like you already found the same information as I did for him. The name his phone is under is Julie C she lives at 15*** Woodbrook Ave Maple Heights, Oh 44137 with no David links to that, just - John C 53 yrs (216-581-16**), Julie C, Mark (was 18 at the time), Virginia (49 yrs old) - this was checked out like 2-3 years ago so the ages are older of course. A train goes by his house around 2 am if i remember correctly.
I dont see how he and Julie could be the same person, i'm really interested to see that one? He sounded young and hopefully a guy haa...please keep these posts coming we need to uncover him. I almost went and got a secret undercover agent but didnt have the money. Like the ones you get when someone is cheating on you, please help us all figure out this and end it i'm so much in shock.
If anyone can find this jerkoff that would greatly be appreciated! I would like to know the truth even though i have moved on, but the lies just need to be unhidden so i can understand what really happened.
Wow, this is nuts. This is the information I have:
David Matthew Zane (Alexander) ?
*Cell #: 216-323-52** : I think his number is registered under his
friend who is a girl. Said this was so bc he has a bad past, etc...
*aol screen name : dm115
*old Myspace url ... www.myspace.com/dm115
Now a cxl acct
*We have been "talking" on and off since Oct 06
Never met in person yet, alw an excuse
*Says he is about 6'5
*Says he was originally born in England
Cleveland Ohio/ Marietta Ohio/ Twinsburg Ohio
a Train goes close by his house at 2 am if I rem correctly
Dob - 1/15
24 yrs old
Son Mykal - about 5 or 6
Brother - Trevor - teenager
Sisters - Christina (21 or 22), Beth, Ali...and others
said he has 2 twin little sisters (girls) who were very young when his
mom died
Said he owned a resaurant or more ....called it Zanders, but then when
I spoke with his sister she advised their last name is Alexander....his
was "zane" bc diff parents? Restaurant Alexanders? Said he was selling
it maybe.
His dad "lives" in Arizona
He said his mom died of breast cancer about 3 or more yrs ago ....then
a couple months later his step dad died
Said he went to Marietta College - teaching/social studied -said he was
subbing for school for awhile
Says he's good friends with Hanson the band, and has known them....says
he sometimes helps out with stuff for them
*Comment submitted 6-8-10:
Hi- I just wanted to let you know that "David" has popped back up on in Yahoo messenger zane8402. I was affected by his scam from August 2008- June 2009. Everything on your website is about 90% accurate of what I experienced. As of June he had driven out to AZ to live in the house he owned from his deceased parents. He went with his brother, Trevor, son, Mykal and all the pets. That was the last I heard from him since I stopped communicating with him last summer.
*Comment submitted 6-21-14:
My interactions with "David" started around the year 2000. We met through a website called PicRave.com.... kinda like Myspace. At that time he was 18. When we first started talking he had a girlfriend named Julie but if I remember correctly, she didn't live close to him and eventually ended up moving to Lake Havasu, AZ. Eventually they broke up and he started pursuing me. At this time, David lived close to Canton, OH. I had just moved to Columbus but had family that lived in Akron that we would go visit quite often. He told me he lived with his mom and other siblings and that his dad lived in Arkansas. He told me he had one kid, Mykal Adamm, that he had sole custody of. But at first, he told me that Mykal was his little brother because he didn't want to scare me off because he was a single father at such a young age. He told me that Mykal's mom was a girl named Ashley and that one night they were out driving and she got out of the car while they were stopped on the street and she got hit by a car and died. (More on that story later.) At this time, David was working and going to school to become a history teacher. He did call me once and left me a voice mail and all he said was "Hey, it's David" and hung up. This was my first red flag because his voice sounded like a prepubescent boy. When I asked him about it he said that was just his voice but I didn't press the issue any further because I really didn't think anything of it. We communicated a lot via AIM (his user name was something but then he changed it to D01m15z84). Eventually we started chatting on Yahoo Messenger (his user name was zane8402). We talked for a while and eventually it got to the point where I was comfortable enough to meet him. I had planned to go see my family in Akron, and David lived in the next town over from where my Aunt lived. We had it all planned out. I called him when I got to my Aunt's house and he didn't answer the phone. This went on for a few hours and I finally gave up. The next day when I got home I got online and he started telling me this story about how he had to go to the hospital because he was having chest pains and it turned out he was having "another" heart attack because he forgot to take his heart medicine that morning. I worked in a doctor's office, I was somewhat familiar with medicine. When I asked him what the name of his medication was he told me he didn't know because his mom does all that for him- another red flag. He also told me that he was bipolar, had epilepsy, and suffered from migraines. He told me he took Lithium, Prozac and Topomax. We continued to talk and swap pictures back and forth. We tried video chatting but every time his "webcam wouldn't work because it's a cheap one". At this point we were calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend, saying "I love you" all the time... blah blah blah... We made several plans to meet up but it never worked out. Mykal was sick, Mykal was having seizures, he was sick, one of his siblings were in trouble. (BTW, how he kept all those "brothers and sisters" straight is beyond me.) Eventually I just started to distance myself and quit talking to him after about 6 months of going back and forth with him. A few months later, he emailed me wanting to get back in touch. We emailed back and forth and eventually started talking again on AIM and Yahoo. He planned to come and see me one weekend, which didn't happen because he had to go to the hospital again due to another heart attack. At this time, I had an account on LiveJournal.com, my user name on there was sailorryan. With LiveJournal you had to get a code to activate an account and you could either get one from another user or you could pay for them. David ended up getting an account activated, so on his LiveJournal.com page, the Kelly he is talking about is me. I ended up giving my account to another girl because I lost interest in it after a while. David and I continued to talk but never on the phone. We would lose touch and then start talking again off and on for 3 years. I eventually ended up moving back to Alabama in 2004. At this point, I no longer had any contact with David. Well, of course, he started contacting me again around 2005. We only talked through Yahoo Messenger. Eventually he started calling me. And he actually sounded like a man. We lost touch again but then eventually starting talking again. This was our cycle. At this point he was no longer a history teacher, instead he owned a restraunt called Zander's. He also told me that his mother had passed away from breast cancer. He also told me that he was now living in Cleveland with his sisters and Mykal. There is a picture floating around somewhere of him wearing an Auburn hat (blue hat with an orange AU on it), he told me he bought it because it made him think of me. All the pictures he would send me were all of the same guy. He would send shirtless pics a lot. On one occasion, he told me that he was having some problems with Ashley's (Mykal's mom) parents. He said they were trying to get custody of Mykal. He then told me that he didn't want that to happen because he didn't want Mykal to have any sort of contact with Ashley because she was addicted to cocaine and heroin. When I caught him in that lie, he told me this story of how he has to tell people that Mykal's mom is dead because he doesn't want Mykal to eventually try and contact her when he is old enough to. At one point, he told me that he was dating a girl but I don't think he ever told me her name. Two days later, he was texting me telling me he caught her cheating while they were out at a club. He started to try to pursue me again, even telling me he was flying to Alabama and we were going to spend Valentine's day together. Which, let's be realistic here, I knew it wasn't going to happen. He even gave me a flight schedule and told me what time he would arrive in Birmingham. I had hoped I would finally get to meet him but I knew in the back of my mind that it wasn't going to happen. The day before he was supposed to be here, he told me that Mykal "wasn't acting right" and felt like he was going to start having seizures so he didn't want to leave him. After that we just sort of lost touch again. Around 2007, he popped up on my Yahoo Messenger again. At this point he told me that he now has another kid named Liam, and one more on the way by a girl named Jennifer. He did tell me that they were engaged to be married but hadn't set a date. We talked off and on on Yahoo. He was in Arkansas because he his brother died in a car accident. The only phone number I remember him using was a 216 number and then he started blocking his number when he called me. The last time we talked was around 2008 I think when I confronted this person and eventually got blocked on Yahoo. So there you have it, that's my David story.
General Information (What was known prior to this website being created)
**Information used by this individual from 2002-2011**
This person goes by the name David (also Dayvid) Matthew Zane and states sometimes he uses Matthew Zane. He claims to either live in OH or AZ. He states his birthday is 1-15-84 or March 14, 1985 and he is 6'+. He says he has a son Mykal and tells some people he is married to or dating someone named Jennifer and they have another child together. As of May 2010, David is claiming there is a new baby addition to the family. To others, he may state he is single, dating, or will accuse ex-girlfriends of stalking and harassing him. As of December 2010, David claims to have been married to "Jennifer" for just over a year and they have two children together in addition to Mykal. Their names are Liam and Kennedy. The different photos added to this website are photos that David has used claiming to be him over the years. There is also a blog posted of a letter that was sent to the parents of the individual we believe has created this David Matthew Zane character. Her name is Julie C who lives near Cleveland OH and has had 3 of the same phone numbers as David. Feel free to contact us using the CONTACT US page because the people creating this website are people who were involved with David since at least 2003 and have done a lot of research and put forth a lot of effort to make this stop. All of the information/details provided on this website are available to the public via Google searches or other search engines.
David claims to have several siblings whom he claims are half siblings. Their names are Allison (Alli), Christina (Tina), Trevor, Erin, Beth, Stephanie and her twin sister, Julie (?), all from his biological mother. His siblings from his biological father are Kathy, Steve, and there may be a couple more (two more sisters). Tina used to have a Myspace profile using pictures of a girl named Shannon Bond, a commonly used photo by other fakers. This was proven when her picture was posted on www.fakersbusted.com
He states that Alli, Tina, and either Beth or Erin are married. He says that Alli, Tina, Beth, and Erin all have children.
David claims that he has heart problems and a brain tumor and is in and out of the hospital. He claims that his son Mykal has seizures and is also constantly in and out of the hospital. He may tell some people that Mykal has died.
David states that he is the owner and manager of a privately owned restaurant chain called Alexanders that he inherited from his stepfather. David claimed that he played professional soccer in the UK and was unable to continue due to an injury and was also a History teacher at a local high school.
David claims that both of his parents are deceased and that he has raised his siblings since he was 19 or 20.
He claims to be friends with and have hung out with John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw, and Hanson. He claims to have gone on tour with Hanson and has written music for other musicians. David has also told some girls that his cousin is Dan from O-Town.
David claims to love music and is very knowledgeable about iphones and computers. David says he’s loves the Boston Red Sox and hates the Yankees. He says he is a history major and enjoys learning about the Holocaust. He says his favorite war is WWII.
David states he loves Hanson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Mark Broussard. He claims to like all kinds of music and says he’s very talented with singing, playing the piano, and playing guitar.
He states the name of one of his bands is Random Acts.
He has stated he likes Dexter, True Blood, Grays Anatomy, House, Law & Order.
He has talked about Night by Elie Wiesel about the Holocaust but otherwise claims he dislikes reading.
He might say that his hero is his mother, Kristen.