Woman Claims 'Stranger Things' Catfish Tricked Her into Leaving Her Husband, Forking Over $10K

A woman from Kentucky claimed the pair "just really hit it off" after meeting on an online forum for creatives, but she was still "suspicious from the get-go"

A Kentucky woman thought she hit the jackpot upon connecting with who she thought to be Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery, but her world was quickly turned upside down as she realized she was being scammed.

In a YouTube series called Catfished, a woman named McKayla said she left her husband after falling in love with a personal online that she thought was the 28-year-old Australian actor. She claimed the pair "just really hit it off" after meeting on an online forum for creatives, but she was still "suspicious from the get-go." However, her mind changed as the person she was communicating with online began "doing things that make me believe" he was really Montgomery.

"I am obsessed with Stranger Things," McKayla said. "[His character] Billy is just this bully. He kind of comes in, tries to dominate, which is totally unlike his actual personality."

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McKayla shared how they "actually bonded over" Montgomery "venting" to her about his partner allegedly being "very controlling of him," which prevented him from being able to "do the things he wants to do." (Montgomery is currently dating Liv Pollock.)

"I kind of empathize with that because my ex-husband was that way," she said. "At about a year after we kind of admitted feelings for each other, he said, you know, 'There's nothing like, you know, the feeling of love when it's reciprocated.' And I said, 'What?' And he said, 'I'm indirectly asking you out.'"

After asking her to be his girlfriend, the person posing as Montgomery instructed the single mom to "keep it quiet" because he's "still with Liv." But he still claimed he wasn't "technically with" the model since they "had broken up."

McKayla was officially convinced the scammer was Montgomery after they advised her to tune into the Stranger Things season 4 episode titled "Dear Billy," which saw the actor make a surprise return after his character Billy's death. Since he advised her to tune in the night before the episode's debut, she didn't believe just anyone would have that information in advance. The impersonator also sent her poems in the style of Montgomery's 2020 poetry collection DKMH: Poems.

McKayla said she spent roughly $10,000 to the scammer, who used the "excuse" that he had a joint account with Pollock and she wouldn't allow him to make any purchases of his own. The victim didn't "immediately dismiss" the claim since she experienced a similar situation with her ex.

"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 said. "These scammers, they just kind of come in and they leech off that."

McKayla added, "It's a dopamine fix every time you wake up, every time you go to bed, several hours a day. It's a fix. It's a hit."

Representatives for Montgomery did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

While the Elvis actor hasn't responded to the story, 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days star Tyray Mollett — who has also been going through a catfishing situation in the current season of the TLC series — has engaged.

Digital content creator SHABOOTY tagged Mollett in an Instagram Story about McKayla's ordeal, jokingly saying: "Found ur bae." The reality star then jokingly asked SHABOOTY to "send me her info."

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Seasons 1-4 of Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.

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