The only thing scarier than a demogorgon? Getting scammed out of five figures by a catfisher claiming to be a star of Stranger Things.


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For McKayla, a self-described “obsessed” superfan of the nostalgic horror series, this situation was more than just the stuff of a straight-to-MTV sci-fi flick, the Kentucky resident turning her life upside down after meeting a man who claimed to be Dacre Montgomery, the actor behind Hawkins’ resident bad boy Billy Hargrove, on an artists’ forum.


“This guy messaged me, he was under a different username… we got to talking and he admits he’s a well-known actor,” she recalled during an appearance on the web series Scamfished.



Though at first, she had higher hopes for her digital lover’s identity — “here I am thinking he’s gonna say Johnny Depp or something,” she recalled  — McKayla and the phony Montgomery ultimately “hit it off,” so much so that McKayla began to let down her guard.


“I'm suspicious from the get go until he starts doing things that make me believe that he is who he is," she said.


Part of this closeness, McKayla explained, came from their shared experiences with controlling partners, a connection that not only solidified their relationship but served as an incredibly convenient excuse to prevent taking their romance offline.  


“That’s one thing we bonded over,” she explained, noting that the Montgomery impersonator brought the actor’s real-life girlfriend, model Liv Pollock, into the mix. “Basically, through the relationship, he was venting to me for a few months about his partner, saying she’s very controlling of him.”



He ultimately asked her to be his girlfriend, alleging that he was thinking of leaving his current S.O. But before he made the leap, he gave her an ultimatum: “It’s either your husband or it’s me.”


McKayla, who shared a daughter with her husband, ultimately took the bait, stating that there was “no competition,” a decision she evidently came to regret.


“If you’re someone like me, you’re afraid of abandonment and you’re a real big people pleaser and you’re very co-dependent,” she advised. “These scammers, they just kind of come in and they leech off that.”


But hey, it could be worse. To quote Twitter user @leslieakay, “I hope you enter into today with the same level of delusional confidence as the girl who was convinced she was dating Dacre Montgomery online.”