‘Scamanda’: New documents after Amanda Riley’s false cancer match to premiere on ABC and Hulu

San Jose, California – A detailed scam that uses a fake cancerous match to get donations is the center of a new ABC News Studios document.

It shows how a woman in South Bay lied about a devastating cancer diagnosis that fools countless people out of money.

Amanda C. Riley is a mother and was a wife and friend who was loved by so many in her San Jose Church community and beyond.

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This society gathered around her when Riley told them about a cancer match in phase 3.

From 2012, Riley documented the journey, she said she went through in a blog.

For years, she shared detailed stories and sent pictures of herself in the treatment attached to pipes and units. It all was fake.

All the time, Riley regularly spoke at San Jose Megachurch she participated in, and got countless cash, electronic and natural donations from people and organizations.

But as convincing as the scheme was for many, she had skeptics – one of them anonymously reached out to an investigative producer, Nancy Mosciatello, who was investigating for five years.

Mosciatello became Jose Martinez involved, a police detective in San Jose, who has since retired.

Martinez, now had the task of finding proof that he could potentially bring a court to prove that Riley was actually lying and scamming people out of money.

“I’m in this taboo kind of topic where if I pursue this young lady and she really has cancer, it won’t go well,” Martinez said.

But because Riley had sent so much on the blog, Martinez was able to control facts.

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“There were things that did not stand up as doctors associated with specific hospitals, but not all of these doctors were named as employees of these hospitals,” he said.

Patient confidentiality legislation led to difficulties, but a breakthrough finally came when one of the hospitals, which Riley claimed to have visited, finally responded to Martinez.

“They said, ‘No, she has never been here. She has no future appointments. She was never here,'” Martinez said.

Then came several breakthroughs that led Martinez to stronger evidence, but Riley had traveled coast to coast for what she claimed were cancer treatments, which means the case was greater than Martinez’s reach.

Enter Special Agent Arlette Lyons based in Oakland at the time. Lyons, now also withdrew from his role at the time and now lived in Las Vegas, had also been in contact with the investigating producer who tilted Martinez.

With Lyons in the case, Riley was now under investigation for wire fraud.

“We knew she was using a site and we knew people paid her electronically and we knew she told people she had cancer and she didn’t do so,” Lyons said.

The investigation work from both Martinez and Lyons eventually led to Amanda C. Riley pleading guilty to the federal court and admitting to having planned more than $ 100,000 in donations.

The judge sentenced her to five years and ordered her to pay refund.

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Worked Mosciatello, Martinez and Lyons now set a precedent for any future cases that are the same – something meaningful to all of them.

“My twin sister had cancer all the time during this,” Lyons said. “The day of search order, my mother had surgery for breast cancer.”

Lyons’ sister, Kristin Kane, died in November 2023.

“This was what I was able to do,” Lyons said. “My little fight, you know, in her name.”

In turn, Martinez hopes this allows organizations to help them with cancer asking tough questions.

“As an example of why they need to ask you for your doctor’s information. It’s not to create more harm to you the person who is sick,” Martinez said. “But to keep people falling it and removing resources from you who are not sick.”

So how did Amanda C. Riley get away with this scam for so long, who else might have been involved, who are some of her victims?

You can find all this in ABC News Studios Docuseries “Scamanda” at ABC and Hulu.