- ♪ MTV ♪
- I'm worried Joey is being scammed.
- Almost $2,000 that he's sent her.
- Had a little bit of money saved up.
I don't have any now.
- No.
[phone dings] - Oh.
- Wrote back? - It's a video.
- What?
- I literally have chills.
- Oh, my gosh.
[knocking]
Oh, hold on.
Marrissa?
[dramatic music]
[soft music]
Kamie, you're always talking about how
you're better than me... - I am.
- At everything. - That's true.
- Well, here's a thing that maybe you're not better at--
popsicle dice race.
You have to balance a die, walk to the wall,
touch it, and come back.
And then you add a die. Oh.
- You lose. - Yeah.
[rock music]
- Uh-uh.
[groans]
- Nev is in the lead.
- Uh-uh.
No! [bleep].
- Get out of my way.
- I'm going cross-eyed.
[bleep]. There's a chance.
- Here comes Kamie.
- Now tied two.
- Mm.
I'm so close.
- Pretty tight, Nev.
It's--oh!
Ah, she made it!
- Good job. - That was hard.
- [groans]
- I really thought you had me.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
- All right.
Here we go.
We got some email from Joey.
"I can't figure this out.
"Hi, Nev and Kamie.
"My name is Joey.
"I'm 27 years old.
And I set up events for a hotel
in Gulf Shores, Alabama."
- ♪ Nothing stays the same ♪
- "Four months ago, a woman named Marrissa
started messaging me on Snapchat."
- ♪ I felt love a different way ♪
- "I haven't had the best luck with online dating.
"But she was really pretty, so I decided to give it a shot.
"We started messaging more and more.
And I thought maybe I'd found somebody special."
- ♪ 'Cause I love you or want to ♪
♪ But I don't know how ♪
- "But then Marrissa started asking me
"to pay for some Uber rides.
"The more I gave, the more she wanted.
"I got annoyed and we argued.
"I told her I was done paying for things.
"And I figured she would stop talking to me.
"But she didn't.
"A month went by without me sending anything.
"And we were still talking more than ever.
"The thing is, I'm still uneasy.
"We only live a few hours apart in Alabama.
"It shouldn't be difficult for us to meet.
"But we haven't.
"She says she wants to be my girlfriend.
"But I'm not sure she is exactly who she says she is.
"I really like this girl.
"And I hope you'll help me finally connect with her.
Sincerely, Joey."
- If, in the beginning of the relationship,
she was asking for a bunch of money and then you guys
got into an argument about it, red flag.
- But then the relationship continued.
- Because she wants more money.
- You think she's like, I know
he's willing to pay for some stuff.
I'll play the long game now and sort of--
- Maybe.
- Let's get a little bit more information.
[line ringing]
- Hey, man.
It's Nev and Kamie.
- We just read your email.
You have been talking now to Marrissa for how long?
- Via texts or also on the phone?
- And you said she also lives in Alabama?
- And from you, that's like, what, like three,
four hours away?
- Okay.
If it's cool, we'll all head down there.
- All right.
- We will meet you in Alabama.
- All right. Later.
- See you.
- Bye.
- Roll tide!
- ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ I'll raise my glasses to you ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
- Palm trees.
- So apparently, filming at Joey's apartment was a no go.
So he's meeting us at a little house that we set up.
I see water.
Wow. This is cool.
All right. Let's do it.
- Joey? Hey.
- What's up?
How's it going?
- Man, it is balmy.
- Yeah, it gets... - I love it.
- A little steamy out here. - This is nice.
- Hey. Kamie.
- Check out the shore.
- The sand.
Can you go fishing in here?
- You can, yeah.
It's usually just catfish.
- Really? - What?
- Really?
- Yeah, we got saltwater catfish down here.
- [gasps]
- We could set up shop.
- Wow. - All right, come on.
Let's go inside.
Wow, this is cute.
All right.
- Nautical vibes.
- [groans] Well, here we are.
You've put up the cat symbol and we...
- You summoned us.
- Responded.
Before we get into all of that, curious
to just kind of get to know you a little bit better.
I know you work in events now. - Mm-hmm.
- What's your vibe?
- Yeah, I've been doing the event setup stuff
for about a little over six years now.
- Oh, wow.
- But before that, I was working
overnight at a gas station.
- So this is definitely a better...
- Oh, yeah. - Thing
- Yeah.
- What's dating, like, been for you?
- I have tried my hand a bit at online dating.
The last time I was in, like, an in-person relationship
was about 10 years ago.
- Wow.
- And so I've just-- it's not been,
like, my number one priority.
- So you've been on dates but, like, not with anyone
in any kind of meaningful way?
- Correct.
Until Marrissa, I just haven't really
found somebody that I want to have
a meaningful relationship with. - Mm.
- All right.
Well, so let's talk about Marrissa.
- All right.
So probably about four months ago,
I had gotten a friend request from somebody
I did not recognize on Snapchat.
She was like, "Hey, we've talked before."
She said that we had matched on Bumble
and that I gave her my Snapchat.
Usually, I'd remember.
But maybe it did happen. I don't know.
I thought I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
- Hmm.
- So we talked for about a week.
And then she was like, "Can I have your phone number?"
And then that night, she calls me on the phone.
We talked for like, 25, 30 minutes.
- Hmm.
- We definitely got along, very easy to talk to,
which is good because I have a lot of trouble
talking to people usually.
- She made you feel comfortable.
- Yes, she did.
- That's a good sign.
- She would call every two or three days.
- That's a lot of phone calls.
- I enjoy talking to her, so--
- So you've opened up and admitted that you like her?
- Mm-hmm.
- How many pictures did you guys exchange?
- I sent her probably 15 or 16.
She only ever sent 4 of her.
- Did she ever tell you, like, oh, I have Instagram
or any other social media?
- She says she doesn't use social media.
- Do you?
- Not really.
- Was there ever a conversation about you guys meeting up?
- We did have one conversation about it.
I was like, "Hey, I can come up."
And she's like, "Okay, cool."
But that Saturday, I got up early, text her,
make sure we're still good.
And she never responded.
I had about an hour and a half of sleep that night,
so I end up falling asleep waiting on her.
Didn't wake up until about 5:00 PM.
She had called me, like, five or six times,
sent me a bunch of text messages.
- So you [bleep] it up.
Was she mad at you? - Yeah, a little bit.
- Wow. Okay.
So in your email, you mentioned that
she started asking for money.
- Yes. - How did she initiate that?
- She had said that her car had broken down
and that she needed to get to work.
So I sent it to her on Cash App.
- So she gave you her Cash App name?
- Yes. - What was it?
- Well, her Cash App name...
- Oh, gosh.
- Here we go.
- Is Cassandra something.
And I was like--
- And what was her explanation of that?
- She said that's her middle name.
- Marrissa Cassandra?
- Doesn't really roll off the tongue.
- Maybe, eh.
And then two days later, she asked for money again.
This time, it was she needed to buy groceries
for her and her daughter.
- Oh, she has a kid. - Oh.
Where's the baby daddy at?
- Her husband passed away, she said, about three years ago.
And her daughter's three.
- So she's a widow?
- That's sad.
- Well, if it's true... - Right.
- It's sad.
- I don't want to get too emotional about it.
- How many times did she ask you for money?
- It started becoming what felt like a daily thing.
- How much money did you send her?
- Somewhere between $1,600 and $1,800.
- Wow. - Yeah.
Eventually, I looked and I was like, oh, [bleep].
Yeah, that's a lot of money.
- She's a bill.
- Right after I found out how much I had sent her,
I was like, "Look, if I keep sending you money,
I won't be able to support myself."
And she got kind of mad.
I was like, I'm done with this girl.
I blocked her for about a day.
- And then?
- And then she texted me from a different number.
- Wow.
- Was there some sort of resolution?
Did you guys sort of bury the hatchet
and have a conversation... - Yeah.
- About it? - Pretty much.
- Okay.
So you have kind of like a make-up call.
- Yeah.
- And things move forward and she understands.
"I'm not gonna ask for money anymore."
- That was my understanding, yes.
But she asked about a month later.
She needed money for groceries again.
- And what did you say?
- "I really can't afford to send you money,"
because when I did it before, I basically
emptied out everything I had in savings.
- And you don't even know if this girl is real.
- Right.
- That is not a good feeling.
- Uh-uh.
- Can we see pictures of Marrissa?
- Yes.
Those are the four.
- Oh, okay, she's got the Alabama blonde.
- Yeah, amazing blue eyes.
- Yeah, really pretty.
She's a hot mom.
- For sure.
All right.
Here's her Cash App.
Wait, wait, wait.
Why does it say the names Tessa?
- There's two Cash Apps.
At one point, hers stopped working.
And she was like, "Here's my mom's.
Send it to my mom."
- Mom's Cash App.
- Tessa.
- Let's look at this Cash App.
Do you mind if I take--take a look?
Okay, great.
I want to see these transactions.
All right.
So this was the first--wait.
These are yes-- these are yesterday.
What happened to "I'm not sending you any more money"?
- Yeah. I don't know.
- Dude, you sent her like almost $300 yesterday.
- That's a lot.
- Yeah.
- Even if you're in a relationship with her,
are you able to sustain her this way financially?
- No.
- How has it affected your own finances and how you're
able to take care of yourself?
- Had a little bit of money saved up.
But I don't have any now.
I was able to pay my rent.
But I'm a little bit behind on my car.
And it's like 22 days past due.
- No. - Yeah.
- It has to stop.
I know you really like this girl.
But it can't feel good.
- Definitely hurts a lot.
- Are you afraid of losing her?
- Yeah.
I want to see where our relationship leads.
So I'd rather not just cast it aside, I guess.
- But you can't keep going like this.
- Uh-uh, no, I can't.
- Obviously, we need to figure this out.
The sooner we find answers, the better off you'll be.
- Mm-hmm.
- So send us everything you can.
We'll do some research and then hopefully see if we can
figure out how to get her to meet up.
All right.
We'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?
- We're gonna help you out.
- I hope so.
- Oh, boy.
- Poor thing.
- He's so stressed out about money that it's, like,
seeping through his pores.
- He's unraveling.
- Her behavior is classic romance scam behavior.
- It's bad.
- Textbook.
I'm very, very worried that Joey is going
to be completely crushed.
[seagull calling]
[upbeat music]
- Thank you.
I like it here, very homey.
- Kamie, we have a real situation here...
- Mm-hmm.
- Because I'm worried Joey is being scammed.
- Yeah, almost $2,000 that he's sent her.
- Even if somehow her story is all true,
I still don't see how a relationship between them
right now is going to work.
- He does, though. - All right.
He sent us an email.
"Here's the information you asked for.
"Marrissa's full name is Marrissa with two Rs,
"Cassandra [...].
"She's 28 and lives in Montgomery.
"She has a three-year-old daughter
"and said that her husband passed away
"about three years ago.
"Here are the two numbers I have for her.
"I have two Cash Apps for her.
"Here's her Snapchat handle.
"I'm also attaching the picture she sent me.
Thanks again, Joey."
All right. Let's start with the pics.
- Mm-hmm.
- What's the best pic of her, maybe that one?
No?
All right, picture two.
Nope.
We're not doing so hot over here.
- She's not there.
- Okay.
Let's try this one.
Nothing.
- Should we search Marrissa Cassandra [...]?
It's a very specific name.
- I don't see anything there.
Let's go to Facebook.
- There's a lot of Marrissa [...]
but not a lot with two Rs.
- It doesn't look like anyone spells their name like that.
- No.
- I mean, we might as well search the phone numbers
just on the off chance that maybe
it comes up with something.
Negative.
Let's search this one.
Nothing.
I don't know what else we can do.
Wait a second.
I have an idea.
Since I think it's very likely Marrissa is just a scammer...
- Mm-hmm.
- Joey's probably not the only guy
she's talking to. - Right.
- What if we messaged her
on her Snapchat... - Mm-hmm.
- As if we were one of these guys that she has talked to
over the months or years?
- Mm-hmm.
- If she automatically slips into, "Oh, actually not great,
I'm really tight on cash right now--"
is that just always what she does
with everybody who message--
- Her Snapchat is Marrissa [...].
- All right.
I've got this old joke burner account here for Steve,
so let's try that.
Okay.
So she still has her Snapchat, great.
I'm gonna add her.
Add her.
So now what?
Like, can I message her?
What do I do? Oh!
- Oh! - So we're friends.
Now, wait a second.
As a dumb guy... - Yeah.
- Should I just send, like, a message
without consulting you?
That would feel more authentically...
- I think that's best. - Dumb dude.
Because I think if you try to meddle in this...
- She's too smart. - She's gonna...[sniffs]
She's gonna sniff that out. - Yeah, for sure.
- I'm Barbie. You're just Ken.
Do your thing.
- I'm gonna say, "Hey, gorgeous, long time no talk.
Missed you."
Should I say anything else?
Um--
- And then you could say-- well, let me just--
- Oh, oh!
She wrote back. She wrote back.
She said, "I'm sorry.
Who is this?"
Okay, that's good.
It's Steve.
We talked a while back.
I haven't been around in a while.
She says, "I don't remember that."
I'm sorry.
I mean, I'm surprised she didn't just say, like,
"Oh, yeah, great to hear from you."
If she was a scammer, that's kind of what you'd expect.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Right?
"Oh, that hurts.
"Ha-ha.
"I figured I'd check in and see how you were doing
and your daughter."
- "We are doing fine.
"But I have no clue who this is.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you.
But it's flattering that you remember me."
Well, look, maybe she's not a scammer.
- She said, "How are you?"
Okay.
Sorry, I need to get involved in this now.
Say, "LOL, it's cool.
"But I'm doing great.
"Just got a promotion I'm real happy about.
Now I just need a special girl to spend it on."
- She said, "She'll be a lucky girl.
"Heart.
Why can't I find guys like you?"
She's not a scammer.
- You don't know that.
But she said, why can't I find guys like you?
You do have a guy like that.
He's actually going broke right now taking care of you
and your [bleep] child allegedly.
That does not sound like love to me.
But are you dating anyone?
- How about you?
Dating anyone?
She said, "Nope." All right.
I'm gonna write back,
"How are you doing for money right now?
Need anything?"
- Oh!
- Look at this.
She sent a Cash App. - That's new.
- Marrissa [...]
- Yes, Birmingham Girl.
- And she told Joey she lives in Montgomery.
"That's my Cash App but don't feel
pressure to send anything."
- Okay, I won't.
Just round it out, say, "Okay, babe," with a heart,
so that she thinks that the money's coming.
Leave the chat.
- All right.
I don't know exactly what we're dealing with here.
But--
- Will you admit that she's a scammer now?
- No.
But I think, more than anything, the most important
thing that we've discovered was that in talking to her
just now, she said she's not dating anyone.
Even if everything about her is real,
she doesn't think she's in a relationship with Joey...
- Yeah.
- Which is going to break his heart.
[tense music]
- Hey. - What's up?
- Hey, guys. - Good to see you.
- Let's head on up.
Have a seat. Have a seat.
So what's up?
How's it going?
- Kind of excited, a little nervous.
- You talked to Marrissa at all?
- Not a lot.
She hasn't really said anything much today, just hey.
- All right.
We'll walk you through everything we found.
But we don't have it all figured out by any means.
All right.
So first thing we thought was, okay, he has these photos.
We'll do an image search and see what comes up.
We didn't find any hits, which is actually
a good sign because it means that
she's not Insta famous or anything.
So we just did a Facebook search for Marrissa [...].
Now, the weird thing is no one on the internet spells
the name Marrissa with two Rs.
- Right.
- It's unusual.
So we couldn't find a Marrissa with two Rs.
We went to a website where we searched her phone number.
Nothing came up.
So we were kind of feeling a little frustrated
that, like, we hadn't really found
anything that felt concrete.
So we had the idea.
Let's reach out to Marrissa on Snapchat.
But let's do it as if we're some guy that she's
talked to in the past.
- Right.
- Forgive me for being sneaky.
- No, that's fine.
- I have this burner account here for Steve.
So I just said, "Hey, gorgeous.
Long time no talk. Missed you."
- Mm-hmm.
- And she said, "I'm sorry. Who is this?"
"It's Steve." We talked a while back."
"I don't remember that. I'm sorry."
This felt good to me.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like she's not a scammer.
So I said, "Oh, that hurts.
"I figured I would check in and see how you're doing
and your daughter."
- Mm-hmm.
- And she said, "We're doing fine.
"But I have no clue who this is.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you.
"But it's flattering that you remember me.
How are you?" And I said,
"LOL. It's all good.
"I'm doing great.
"By the way, I just got a big promotion at work.
Now I just need a girl to spend it on."
So then she said, "She'll be a lucky girl.
Why can't I find guys like you?"
Now, that was the first sort of like, wait a second,
because she does have a guy who's been pretty generous
and sends her money. - Right.
- Well, so then I said, "Well, how about you?
Dating anyone?"
And she said, "Nope."
So for her to so sort of coolly say nope, felt just like, mm.
- Yeah, that accompanied with, why can't I
find a guy like you, when you're the one who's paying
her bills is a little funny.
- So I messaged her, "How are you doing for money right now?
Need anything?"
And then she just sent a screenshot of a Cash App...
- Mm-hmm.
- But a different Cash App, Birmingham Girl.
Did she say she lived in Birmingham?
- Uh-uh. - No.
- Montgomery. - Montgomery.
It's like, what?
Who is this person? And what are they doing?
- Mm-hmm.
- You are putting yourself in a financial hole
for this person.
- Right.
- I don't feel good about that.
How does it make you feel?
- Sucks.
Uh--yeah.
Makes me wonder if her actually talking to me,
like, on the phone and everything
is just her way of keeping me interested and invested
so that she could get more money out of me,
stuff like that.
- ♪ You might be the one thing I can't live without ♪
- It's a lot.
It's a whole lot.
- Are you still hoping that Marrissa has feelings for you?
- I would say yeah.
- ♪ I don't want to be alone ♪
♪ So I'm hoping you might want to stick around ♪
- It's just like that little hope to hold on to.
That way, it doesn't all feel like a waste of time--
of my time.
[somber music]
- Are you still hoping that Marrissa has feelings for you?
- Yeah.
It's just, like,
that little hope to hold on to.
That way, it doesn't all feel like a waste.
- Well, I think at this point, if you're ready,
we can call her, explain the situation, say,
"Hey, are you willing to find some time to meet up with us
in the next day or two?"
- Okay, yeah.
- All right.
Well, I think we should give her a call, see what happens.
[line ringing]
- The subscriber you are trying to reach
is not available.
Please leave your message.
- So I'm just gonna send a text.
"Hey, Marrissa.
"This is 'Catfish.'
"We would love to find a way to help you
and Joey finally meet."
Okay.
Is she usually pretty quick?
- For the most part, yeah, unless she's at work.
[notification dings] - Oh!
- Oh, oh.
Wow, that was fast.
She said, "Hey, I've been wanting to meet.
"The last time, I got stood up.
"We had a whole plan and everything.
So yes, I'd love to meet Joey."
Okay, great.
We are only a few hours away.
So give us a time and place to meet.
Oh, she sent an address, like a home address in Birmingham.
- Birmingham. - Birmingham.
When you were supposed to visit her,
you were supposed to go to Montgomery, Alabama.
- Mm-hmm. - That's very different.
- Yeah.
- She said, "Okay, probably late afternoon.
Drive safe."
- Thanks, girl.
- So hopefully, it'll happen.
- Yeah, hopefully. We'll see.
- Don't oversleep. - Yeah.
- Set four alarms. - We'll be on...
- Maybe like 10.
- The front porch banging on the door.
- Yeah.
[Kytes' "Up In My Mind"]
- All right.
Let's go.
Storm's coming in.
- ♪ The way I'm thinking ♪
♪ I think I'm strong ♪
♪ But no one knows what's going on ♪
- Yeah.
- ♪ Up in my mind ♪
♪ Up in my mind, up in my mind ♪
♪ Up in my mind ♪
- Are you texting her?
- Yeah.
Says, "Hey, we're almost to Birmingham."
- I mean, we have an address.
We could just show up.
- [scoffs]
- ♪ Oh, baby, take it slow ♪
- We're definitely getting stood up.
- ♪ When I'm with you ♪
♪ There's no way ♪
♪ Yeah, there's no where we can't go ♪
[notification dings]
- Oh.
- She wrote back?
- It's a video.
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.
- What?
- She said our names in the beginning?
- Yeah.
Wait, was that her voice?
- I mean, it sounded pretty close, if not the same.
- What? - I'm shook.
I literally have chills.
I'm flabbergasted.
- So this tells us that you're talking to her or the person
you're talking to knows her.
- Uh-huh.
- But how did they get her to do that?
- Yeah.
- What do we do now?
- I mean, I guess you should write her back from our phone.
- "Appreciate the video but we drove a long ways to get here.
"I think the least you could do is make some time,
considering you told us to come."
How do you feel?
- Really just kind of confused more than anything.
It doesn't make any sense. - All right.
Well, let's go to the hotel.
Let's see if we hear from her, see if we can try this again.
[phone rings] - Hello?
- Any updates on your end? - Nothing.
- You want to meet us down in Room 703?
- Uh, yeah, sure. [knocks]
- Oh. Come in.
- Good morning.
- Morning.
- How's it going?
- I'm hearing nothing.
- It's so weird.
- Yeah. - All right.
Let me text her.
"Hey, Marrissa.
Any chance of meeting today?"
- Definitely hurt that she would do this
after having us come up here.
It almost felt like she was trying to just
wash her hands clean of it, just...
- Mm-hmm.
- Throw it to the side.
- I think we just go.
We knock on the door.
Let's make something happen.
Let's break the cycle and figure this out.
- You ready?
- I guess ready as I can be.
- Let's go. - Let's go.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- I'm just gonna stop here on the left.
I think this is it.
No harm in knocking on the door, right?
Oh, my gosh.
♪ ♪
[doorbell ringing]
- Are you okay?
[knocking]
♪ ♪
Oh, hold on.
Hello.
- I can't see. - Marrissa?
- Oh, hold on.
Hello.
Hi.
I'm not sure if we have the right house.
Looking for someone who calls themself Marrissa.
- Oh.
- Okay.
What was your name?
- Veah, nice to meet you.
- Great.
All right.
So a young Black woman just opened the door,
said her cousin is who we're looking for.
But her name is not Marrissa.
And she said, she's down the road.
I'll call her and see if she'll come.
- How do we know that that girl isn't Marrissa?
- Well, that's what I thought.
It could--could be her.
[door creaking]
Oh, hold on.
- It's okay.
- That's true.
Well, maybe you can help us out.
Why don't you hang out with us for a minute since--
since we're here and you're here?
- You might as well, right?
I mean, right?
What was your name again? - Veah.
- Yeah. - Nev.
How long do you think she's gonna be?
- It shouldn't be long.
- Hi. How are you?
- This is Kamie. - Nice to meet you.
- Veah.
- Kamie.
- And this is Joey, who is apparently
speaking with your cousin.
- Mm-hmm.
- So what do you know about--
- I basically know nothing.
I didn't know anything about it till yesterday.
- Oh, okay, got it. - Sorry.
- No, hey, you--
I'm sorry you got sort of roped into this.
- That's her car.
- That's her car?
- Yeah.
- Is it the same girl?
- I can't see.
- I see the hair.
- I see hair.
- Blonde hair, long blonde hair.
Is she gonna get out?
- I'll go talk to--
- Oh, you want to go talk to her?
- Yeah, 'cause she's not coming.
- Okay. Go ahead.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- This is weird.
♪ ♪
- All right.
Here she comes. Here she comes.
[both gasping]
It's her.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Hi, I'm Nev. - How are y'all?
- Nice to meet you.
- I'm Marrissa.
- Right.
But I think we've sort of established
that might not be your name. - Yeah.
I'm Tiffany. - Tiffany?
- Yes.
- I'm Kamie. - Tiffany.
Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- And Joey, you know.
- Yes.
- It has been you talking to Joey, right?
Mostly?
- Actually, no.
I've never actually talked to Joey ever.
It was never me at all, not one time.
She's actually talked to him before as herself.
- As Veah? - Yeah.
She was wanting to talk to him again.
I was trying to help her out.
So I would send her pictures, but not directly to him.
- So it has been you talking to Joey?
- Yeah.
- The whole time? - The whole time.
- And another time as you?
- As me, yeah. - Veah?
- Mm-hmm.
About six months ago, me and Joey matched on Bumble.
- Do you remember that?
- That name sounds familiar.
- So why did you decide to use pictures of your cousin?
- Okay.
So basically, when we matched on Bumble...
- Right.
- He helped me financially.
- As Veah?
- Mm-hmm.
- I remember her now.
She needed to get home.
She needed, like, get a taxi. - Okay.
- So I sent her, like-- I don't know.
I forgot. It was, like, 200 bucks?
- 200 bucks for a taxi?
- Well, she said it was really far.
- And you didn't need money to get home?
- But it wasn't like for that exact reason, though.
- What was it for?
- Um, it was actually for like--for, like,
my school, like, money for school.
- And then did you guys keep talking?
- No.
I think he blocked me.
- I just kind of felt like maybe there was a chance
she was using me for money.
And so I was--
- I think you were right about that.
- Is that really what you were doing?
- So you ask lots of guys on Bumble for money?
- No.
It was just like a one-time thing.
- No, I don't believe that.
I mean, if you met him and immediately asked him
for money, my guess is you're
pretty comfortable doing that.
Respectfully, you're a liar.
- In fact, you did it the other day almost.
But Steve that hit you up on Snapchat, that was us.
You're preying on people's emotions.
Tiffany, are you aware of why we're here other than the fact
that Veah was obviously using pictures of you
to talk to him?
- Yeah, I'm--I knew that.
And so she--she basically was wanting me
to cover for her at first.
And then--
- But you didn't know anything about the money being sent?
- That's not good at all.
I didn't know-- I did not know it was
to that extent or anything.
I thought it was more just talking to a guy.
- Well, you probably didn't know
that over the course of their relationship,
he sent her almost $2,000...
- No, none of that.
- For her "three-year-old daughter" that she apparently
had with her dead husband.
- No, no.
- You very comfortably made up an entire life
filled with trauma.
That's a lot of lies.
- What were you thinking?
- I wasn't thinking.
- But you were, because every day,
you were asking for more and more money.
- Because he kept saying yes.
It wasn't like--it wasn't like he was saying no.
So I was like, oh, I'll just keep asking
because he keeps saying yes.
- I'm not feeling the remorse that
I would think that I would feel.
- I'm just really nervous.
- Well, I think there's more to discuss.
- Hmm.
- If you guys want to go inside for a minute,
we can kind of just collect ourselves.
- Okay.
- Great.
Let's get out of the sun.
- Mm-mm-mm.
- All right.
- Wow.
- How do you feel?
- I guess kind of at least relieved to have some answers.
I'd like to know if it was completely
just to get money out of me or if it was
like--that was just part of it.
Was there ever any feelings for me?
- That's fair.
- Should we go in there, find out?
- Yeah.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, guys.
All right.
- It's honesty hour.
Who wants to start?
- I don't think Tiffany, like,
knows, like, the full, like, story.
So like, whenever, like, Tiffany, like, leaves,
then I can talk more about that.
- I don't know the full extent.
And obviously, it's a lot more than--
- Sure. - Than I know.
- And you don't want her to know that?
- Like, the reason why I started, like, going
on dating apps, like, in general--
like, as myself, not as, like, another person.
- Okay.
- She doesn't want Tiffany in her tea like that.
- All right.
So, Tiffany, if it's okay with you,
I think we're gonna talk to Veah alone for a moment.
So I guess we'll say goodbye for now.
- Okay.
Okay.
It was nice to meet you. - Yeah, nice to meet you.
- I'm sorry.
And I'll never let her use pictures or anything.
And I really apologize for that.
It was very nice to meet y'all.
- Bye.
Okay.
Now, let's be [bleep] for real now.
What do you have to tell us that we don't already know?
♪ ♪
- Okay. Now, let's be [bleep] for real now.
What do you have to tell us that we don't already know?
- Um, okay.
So I talk to, like, a lot of men online
ever since I was, like, 18, like, as myself,
not as, like, another person.
- Did you ask those guys for money?
- Yeah, it was, like, I go in there.
And I'll be like, oh, do you want to, like, buy nudes,
and--for like 50 bucks?
And they're like, "Yeah." - Of you?
- Of me, yeah, all the pictures--
- Nudes of you? - Yeah, of me.
- So how many people do you have giving you money?
- Probably like a hundred guys.
- A hundred? - Like a hundred guys.
- Wow.
So primarily, you meet guys through dating apps...
- Dating apps.
- As yourself? - Yes, as myself.
And then I try to move it off the dating app.
- Right.
- And then I'll send, like, a voice note.
Oh, my God, please don't hate me.
Like, don't hate me but, like,
would you like to buy my premium,
give 'em my Cash App.
But like, when me and Joey started talking, I was like,
hey, how are you doing?
It was still the same, like, small talk.
But Joey was the only person that was like--
I was like, hey, I'm, like, in a bind right now.
I'm in an Uber, but they told me
that I needed to pay them before they
would let me out of the car.
And he was like, no, I'm just gonna help you out.
And I said, oh, but I need help with more than 50.
He's like, that's completely fine.
I'm like, oh, this never happened before because I
didn't ever say anything about, do you want to buy my premium?
But Joey was the person that sent, like,
the most, like, money at one time.
- But then he blocked you, which you obviously
didn't like, so you reached out with the Marrissa
account and thought, okay, let me talk to him this way...
- Mm-hmm.
- And somewhat diabolically, let me, like,
not ask for money too fast so he
thinks this is something more than just me asking for money.
- Yes.
- But then you did end up asking him for
money eventually?
- Yeah.
He was like, yeah, but like, I'll have
to wait till this weekend.
- Why did he have to wait?
- Because he had to wait to get paid.
- Right, okay.
So you knew immediately that he didn't have extra cash.
- Yeah.
And I felt bad because he was saying that he had to like--
that he couldn't, like, pay his rent.
And he's like, hey, I sent you, like, my whole paycheck.
I can't pay my rent. And I felt really bad.
- But you asked for more, though.
So how bad can you feel?
- So is that what you do then?
When guys stop giving you money as yourself,
then you reach out to them as someone else
via the Marrissa profile to see if you can
get them to send her money? - Yeah.
- Using your cousin's pics for that?
- Yeah.
- And she has no idea what you're using her for?
- Mm-hmm.
- Have you kept track of how much you've made?
- Uh-uh.
- But do you have an outside job other than this?
- No. I just--
- So this is your job?
- Mm-hmm.
- So you're making enough to be able to have a living?
- Yeah.
- Well, look on one hand, if you're being transparent,
selling nudes and the guys know what they're doing, fine.
- Mm-hmm.
- Where it gets really messed up is that--
- When I was using my cousin's pictures, yeah.
- Right. - Mm-hmm.
- It's not just using her pictures.
You have this snake account that you use when the guys
decide they don't want to keep giving you money for nudes,
where you pretend to be interested in them
because you already know that they are potentially a money--
- Yeah, because I already know that
they're probably gonna say yes.
- Source. Right.
You need to stop that.
- It's a problem.
I think that it is important that you come face to face
with one of the people that you've been
talking to, to realize that,
like, he's a real person.
- Mm-hmm.
- The whole thing was very emotional.
Now, when I realize how much money I'd sent,
it kind of physically makes me sick.
And then it even got to the point
that it was, like, scary because I don't know
if they're gonna come take my car.
And then I don't have a way to earn money.
I thought I was talking to somebody who
was actually interested in me.
It's still a lot, very stressful.
Everything's all up in my head, moving around,
and it's hard to focus on any of it really.
- You broke his heart.
You broke his bank, and you broke his heart.
[somber music]
- Joey hasn't been in a relationship in a decade.
It's a long time.
So when someone comes along that he thinks
is genuinely interested in him,
he was ready to go all in on it, not realizing that
you never had those intentions.
- He did go all in.
- Yeah.
- And he lost.
- So it was always, the whole time, everything,
just about the money?
- I mean, like, not everything,
because we would have conversations
without me asking for money.
So like, sometimes I would want, like, someone to talk to.
And I'd be like, "Hey, how are you doing?"
But no, not everything, because like,
we could still, like, be friends.
I don't know.
It's really up to him.
♪ ♪
Are you okay, Joey?
- For now, I'm good.
♪ ♪
- All right.
Well, I am glad you agreed to talk to us for Joey's sake.
You might even just send him some money.
Well, you have his Cash App.
So if you're ever feeling remorseful or guilty,
you know, that might be a way to alleviate some of that.
I guess that's it.
- Okay.
- You can do better, so do it.
Thanks for showing up.
- Nice to meet you.
- Cash out.
[soft music]
- ♪ And you'll find your place ♪
- Let's get out of here.
- ♪ But while you wait ♪
- Brighter things ahead.
- ♪ Just come on over ♪
♪ Just come back down ♪
- I don't know.
She's got a lot to learn.
I don't know if we taught her enough.
I don't think one conversation is enough for her.
But you know the responsibility
that you also hold in this situation.
- Yes.
I need to not be as much of a pushover.
- Now that your life is back on track, once you've done that,
re-enter the dating pool.
- Yeah.
- And I have no doubt the right woman will find you.
- ♪ Come on over ♪
♪ Come back down ♪
[notification dings]
both: Hey. - What's up, bud?
- Oh, not much.
- What's the update
with the whole situation since we left?
- I haven't talked to her.
And she hasn't reached out to me either.
I left it open that if she wanted to talk, we could.
But...
- Or if she wanted to send you some money.
- Yeah.
- Are you recouping some of that money?
- Oh, yeah.
I've caught up everything I was behind on.
- Okay, good.
Not losing the car or anything?
- No. We're good now.
- Thank God.
Learn from it and move on.
- Mm-hmm, exactly.
- Well, we're happy we were able to help.
Glad to see things are going well for you.
So keep it up, bud. - All right.
Thank you guys so much. - Good luck.
- Later, Joey.
- Bye.
[notification dings] - Hey, Veah.
- What's up?
- Hey.
- What's been going on since we saw you last?
- I've just, like, not been catfishing people.
- Hey, well, that--
- Good for you. - Happy to hear that.
And I assume you're not using pictures of your cousin
anymore either, right?
- No, we had, like, a rough patch right after that.
But then everything got much better.
She started trusting me again.
- Have you talked to Joey at all?
- No, but I do feel bad.
- Do you think about sending him some money?
- I do.
I'm gonna do that.
I'm gonna do that soon. - All right.
- Okay. We'll see.
- All right.
Well, you sound like you aren't scamming
or catfishing anybody anymore.
- No more, I promise.
- So keep it up. - All right.
Bye. - Have a good one.
- Bye, Veah. - Bye.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪