A HOPEFUL romantic filed for a divorce with her hubby after matching online with whom she believed to be a famous actor – and even transferred him close to an eye-watering £8k.
All of us have dreamt at least once of having a celebrity madly fall in love with us – and for one woman, McKala, it became a reality after she matched online with Dacre Montgomery, the Aussie star best known for his role in Stranger Things.
Or, so she thought…
According to the mum, from the US, the two met online a little over a year ago on a forum and their 'relationship' even led McKala from divorcing her now ex-husband.
But after transferring the 28-year-old star almost £8k despite never having met the idol, the parent began to have her doubts.
Desperate to find out the truth, she reached out to Catfished, a YouTube channel dedicated to shed light on intricate scams on the internet.
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Sharing the story on YouTube, McKala claimed they first came into contact on artist-dedicated forum, where he was hiding under a username.
But after some chatting, the mum came to learn it was Dacre – one of her favourite actors – and the duo immediately ''hit it off''.
A year passed and although they never saw each other in person, the Australian celeb asked McKala to be his girlfriend.
''He was like 'But you gotta keep it quiet because, you know, I'm still with Liv [his real life partner],'' the woman explained in the video.
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His Instagram, she said, too, didn't have any romantic snaps of the couple together, leading McKala to think it was indeed the real Dacre.
''He wasn't posting about her, she wasn't posting about him. The only thing that I have seen […] was a thing where she was posting about their five year anniversary.''
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At some point, the star then gave her an ultimatum – either him or her hubby – and within seconds, the decision was clear, and McKala opted for Dacre.
Before she knew it, the Aussie star was asking her for financial help and the single mum found herself having sent a total of £8k to a celebrity.
The team at Catfished, however, were convinced something was not adding up, as they pointed out to numerous red flags.
As well believing that Dacre simply did not need extra money from McKala – he was forking in almost £120k for every episode of the Netflix cult favourite series – there was no evidence to suggest he had ever split from his real-life girlfriend Liv.
The two were constantly appearing on TV shows, the red carpet and interviews together.
The cheque that had been sent to McKala during the scam also, sadly, turned to be a fraud – the Catfished team tracked down hundreds of cheques online with the exact same signature.
Even a snap of a lasagne the actor had allegedly cooked was something that's available online – a popular recipe posted by a foodie.
After learning the unfortunate truth behind the fake relationship she had established with the catfish, the mum said: ''Love makes you do stupid, irrational things.''
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''If you're someone like me, you're afraid of abandonment and you're a real big people pleaser.
''These scammers, they just kind of come in and they leech off that.''
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