- She's beautiful.
She is the first girl that I ever crushed on.
But Paula is very off-the-map sometimes,
so much, she wouldn't be on social media at all.
- Something ain't right.
- Let's do an image search.
- There's no way that she doesn't have
an Instagram somewhere. [gasps]
What if Paula pops in here? What if it is Paula?
[chiming] Oh!
- I don't know what the hell is going on.
- ♪ Hello, is it you I'm seeing? ♪
- All right, there he is.
Dustin. We've got John and John.
We're in the soon-to-be new "Catfish" HQ.
Cases of COVID are going down, vaccinations are going up.
That means Kamie and I can finally be back together.
- Here at the office. About to go in.
Oh, damn, it's huge in here.
But where's the [bleep]?
- All right, so it's not quite ready,
but the raw space has a lot of potential.
- I agree, but it does look like we got robbed.
- I gotta show you the best part.
- Oh.
- Isn't this great?
- This is the most sunshine
I think I've felt all quarantine.
- All right, we've got work to do.
- Wow. - Right? This is great.
- The throne. - Good to be back.
- So let's dive on in. We do have an email here.
"Hey, my name is Aaliyah.
I'm 23 and recently moved from California to Tennessee.
Four years ago, I met Paula online and we just vibed.
- ♪ You say all the right things ♪
- Paula lived in Seattle, but her work as a model
was constantly bringing her to Los Angeles,
which wasn't far from where I lived.
We quickly started talking about meeting up
and I was looking forward to it.
As the months passed,
I realized that I was starting to develop feelings for Paula.
I've never been attracted to a woman before.
And our relationship heated up.
Paula and I loved hyping each other up.
I could be myself with no pressure.
But while we always said we were going to meet up,
Paula never called me whenever she got to L.A."
Paula no call-a.
- Holla.
- ♪ Setting fire to the roses ♪
- "About a year ago, Paula disappeared.
- ♪ Playing with your emotions ♪
- Then her phone number stopped working.
This wasn't unusual for her.
Sometimes she just shut everything down."
[slow-motion speech]
- Are you reading a children's book, to me?
- I do read a lot of children's books.
- That's what you've been doing all quarantine.
- Yeah. This time, a month passed,
and then another.
I tried to find her, but she'd fully ghosted.
- ♪ Ignoring all the warnings ♪
- She was really gone.
But a few weeks ago,
I got a message from someone claiming to be Paula.
But before I pick up where we left off,
I need more information.
There is something going on and it's time for me
to find out what it is. Aaliyah."
- ♪ I'm just a tease ♪
- Wow. All right, well, let's send Aaliyah a text.
- "Hey, Aaliyah. It's Nev and Kamie.
We just read your email and wanna help."
- Send. - Paula has literally
ripped a page out of the catfisher's handbook.
She's a model. - I know.
She travels for work a lot.
- She ghosts, she's gone.
- Disappears, come back.
- Something ain't right.
- Oh, wait, she wrote back. "Okay, I can join now."
[chimes]
- Hi. - Yes. Hi.
- Hey. - Hi.
- I just wanna know, when you were born,
how your parents had the foreshadowing to know
that you would grow up to look kind of like Aaliyah.
- A lot of people say that.
I think that, just, they were really big fans,
so it just kinda all went together.
- They're smart.
- So tell us a little bit more about you.
What do you do in Tennessee?
- I'm currently a car salesman,
but I'm getting ready to go back to school.
- Cool.
- Okay, what's going on with Paula?
- Yeah, this story is very interesting to us.
- So I met Paula, like, almost four years ago.
We had randomly started following each other.
Eventually, we started DMing and then,
from there, went to texting and then phone calls.
- Tell us more about Paula.
- Paula's about my age. She's beautiful.
When I met her she was doing modelling.
- And where does she live now? - I'm not really sure.
I just know she doesn't live in Seattle anymore.
- So you and Paula were vibing, as you say,
but you said it took a while before it got romantic.
When did you start feeling attracted to her?
- It just kinda slowly progressed into flirting
with each other, I guess.
Then we started acknowledging
that we were attracted to each other.
- Before Paula,
were you ever attracted to girls or was she the first?
- I think I might have already been attracted to girls.
I just didn't acknowledge it until Paula.
She is kinda, like, the first girl
that I ever, like, crushed on.
That's something me and her have spoke about.
We've never dated a female before.
We've only ever dated guys.
When I met Paula, I was in a relationship.
Me and her related on boy problems, too,
from time to time.
- And then you guys started kinda flirting.
- Mm-hmm. - What does that mean?
Like, were you guys sending pics? Were you--
- Yes, it got to that point sometimes.
- Ooh. - Ooh.
- A little Savage Fenty moment.
- So wait a second.
So you guys sent some sexy selfies?
- Mm-hmm.
- And what were the conversations?
- Um, some of the conversations
were just a little too explicit for TV.
I'm just, like, a really private person,
so I don't really...
- Boo. We've been in quarantine.
- It went down in the DM. I mean, all right.
- From time to time, yeah. It went in that direction.
- And you did also talk on the phone?
- Yeah, we did.
- And then eventually you said she disappeared.
- Yeah. Paula is very off-the-map sometimes.
Some months she would be on social media
and then, for a while,
she wouldn't be on social media at all,
but we would still be talking on the phone
and stuff like that. - Oh, okay.
- But there would be occasions where her number would change.
- Why was her number changing?
- Honestly, I think there's certain people
she just doesn't like to be able to contact her,
so she'll just be over it and be like,
"Forget it, I'ma just change my number."
- But through all that, you kept up your relationship
until, one day, she disappeared from you as well.
- Yeah.
- Did you text her and be like, "Hey, what's up?"
or, "What's going on?"
and, like, she just stopped responding?
- Mm-hmm.
- I was hurt. And then when I texted her,
the messages started turning green and I was like,
"Oh, okay. She changed her phone number again."
- I'm sure that must have been tough for you.
- Yeah.
- So then, a year later,
she just sort of magically reappeared out of nowhere.
- Yeah.
I got a message from this random account,
saying like, "Oh, this is Paula."
- Does the new account have her name
and, like, a picture of her?
- No.
- So there is no picture. No name?
- No.
- That's creepy as [bleep],
because that might not be Paula, right?
- I think she just made the account
so she could hit me up
'cause I don't think she had my phone number either.
But I know she's really Paula because we have a mutual friend
that I reached out to,
just because I was a little bit skeptical
and I was like, "Do you think this is her?"
and he was like, "Here, just take her phone number."
And, you know, I texted her and she was like,
"Yeah, it's me." I was like, "Okay."
- Wait a second.
You have a mutual friend from the internet?
- Yeah. His name is Jordan.
He's somebody we met in a group chat.
We both kinda just built,
like, a internet friendship with him as well.
- Why would Jordan have her new number
but you didn't have her new number?
- Yeah. I was hurt really, really bad.
- My eyebrows are raised. - Yeah.
- I know it's been a year.
You don't still have your old text messages with her, do you?
- Yeah.
- So can we see those, and also her, I guess?
Do you have any photos, like, saved of her?
- Yeah.
- Okay, she's very pretty.
- "Doseofpaulaa," that was her old page?
- Yeah.
- I mean, yeah, she's a beautiful girl.
- And then these are just some of our conversations.
- You guys talk a lot. - Wow.
- Some stuff from 2019.
- "Baby. I miss you. Hope all has been well."
"Aw, I miss you too, baby."
- "Love me some you."
- "My girlfriend for life.
If you ever decide on the other side, I'm still here.
- Ooh.
Spicy. - Yeah.
- There's a lot of "I miss you, I love you, I care about you."
- Those messages, coupled with the fact
that you also sent sexy selfies,
suggests, I think, to us, like, you guys had something real.
- Mm-hmm.
- But why would someone ghost out of a good thing
unless they're hiding something?
- Can you show us the new account,
the one that just reached out to you?
- This is the random account.
- They chose that name. Weird.
- "Hey, girl, it's Paula. I have a question."
- Then she just says, "Hi, love, what's your number?"
What? - After a year of nothing--
- "Bitch, [bleep] you," that's what I would say.
- Well, look, you're obviously a smart, young woman,
but there's a lot of red flags.
How are you still believing that she might be real?
- Mm-hmm.
- I think she is who she says she is, for sure.
Our relationship really meant something to me.
Me and Paula got real close. And I don't feel like
I'm a person who can get catfished, if that makes sense.
- Girl. - To be optimistic.
- Well, we don't know.
- Obviously you do need to know who this person is,
because there's this very real connection that you guys made,
and if there's something that she's been hiding from you--
- Yeah. It will be nice to know.
- Yeah. All right. We have her name.
You've got Jordan, the friend who, I guess,
is still in touch with her,
so we could talk to him potentially, right?
- Well, I can tell you
I have already spoke to him a couple times,
and he's just not comfortable with being put out there.
- Okay. - We're gonna figure this out.
Whatever you can send us, we're gonna get to work.
- Okay.
- All right, bye, Aaliyah. - Bye.
- There's a lot of weird external factors
that make the whole thing seem super sus.
- And why doesn't Jordan want to be involved?
- Right. - He's a suspect,
but I also feel like there could just be a girl out there
who wanted to explore with her sexuality,
and really thought that Aaliyah's beautiful,
because she is, and decided to hit her up.
- But she disappears and changed her number
a bunch of times. Something's going on with her,
out of the ordinary, and I'm worried
that Aaliyah's first girl crush might crush her.
[rock music]
- So Aaliyah and Paula are both 23 years old,
have now known each other for four years,
went from being Instagram buds to borderline girlfriends--
- They were girlfriends.
- I mean they were close.
Talked on the phone, sent each other naked pictures.
- This is like Aaliyah's first experience with a girl...
- Right. - And maybe Paula's.
- Maybe even--yeah.
- That is meaningful. - Yeah.
But Paula disappeared a year ago.
Now, out of nowhere, shows back up
and wants to pick things right back up.
So before Aaliyah gets any further into this,
gotta figure out who Paula is, and we gotta do it now.
- Yes.
- Let's see if she sent us that email, and she did.
Here you go.
"Hey, guys. Here's all the info I have.
Paula Guerrero is 22 and lived in Seattle.
I think she might be living in Los Angeles now.
The Instagram account she messaged me
from a few weeks ago is "randomaccount."
Her phone number is 206--"
I'm not familiar with that. She's got the phone number of
when they first started talking, which is also 206.
- Mm-hmm.
- "Good luck with your searching.
I hope to hear from you soon."
All right, let's do an image search
for the two pictures that we have.
- I mean, the girl is really cute.
Like, there's no way that that girl doesn't have an Instagram
somewhere with a following.
- You would think.
All right, here's the first one.
Okay, so first picture, nothing.
Let's just do the second picture 'cause it's all we got.
Nothing.
Let's go to the Instagram page Aaliyah got a message from
and see if there's anything there.
So she's following Aaliyah.
I want to see if she's following Jordan,
the mutual internet friend...
- Mm-hmm.
- Who just happened to also have Paula's new number.
Here's a Jordan.
Let's see if Jordan is also following Aaliyah on Instagram.
There he is. This could be Jordan.
There's a connection there.
There's something going on with Jordan.
- He's involved, for sure.
Technically, if we reached out to him,
she didn't put us in contact. We just stumbled upon him.
- Yeah, I mean, look, if we could just--
If he doesn't want to do it, he'll say no.
- It's not our fault we found him.
- Yeah.
- We're just really [bleep] good at what we do.
- Right. That's true.
"Hey, Jordan. It's Nev from the TV show 'Catfish.'
We're making an episode now
and wanted to ask you a quick question."
All right, sent.
All right, let's run the phone numbers.
All right, the old number comes back with nothing.
Let's see about this new number.
Oh. Oh, okay. Here we go.
- Karina [bleep]. Wow.
- Interesting. So that's something.
- Oh, she's from Seattle. - Yes.
And this is a new number. I mean, less than a year.
- So who is Karina?
- Shall we look up Karina [bleep]?
I mean, Karina [bleep].
All right. Here's one that lives in New York.
Surprisingly there are a lot of people with that name.
But let's do the search and let's do the city, Seattle.
Nothing. So who is Karina [bleep]?
All right, well, look. I mean, we can always just call Paula.
If she answers-- - Which she won't do.
- Well, let's have a plan because I don't want
to get that awkward moment as the phone's ringing
where I go like, "What do I say?"
- That's your fault. You just get trigger-happy.
I don't know.
- I think the best policy is just honesty.
"Hey, Paula, it's so nice to talk to you."
- I don't think you should say "Paula."
I think you should say you're calling for Karina.
- Oh.
Oh. And see what she says.
[line ringing]
- Hello. - Yes.
Hi, I'm looking for Karina.
- Um, who is this?
- Hung up. - God damn it, Nev!
- Well, that's not a no.
- What? - What am I supposed to say?
- No!
- I can't give it away at that point.
- You can't hang up the phone!
You're supposed to come up with something.
- I wasn't-- - Jesus Christ.
- I wasn't prepared to come up with a whole [bleep] character.
- Hey. - You should just call back.
I'd be curious to see if she answers and say like,
"My partner's an idiot."
[line ringing]
- Hello.
- Hi. Okay, I don't know-- I don't know who this is.
My name is Kamie. We're from the show "Catfish" on MTV.
I'm not sure if you've seen it.
- What the heck? - Yes.
- So, I mean, I-- [end call tone beeping]
- Oh. - Oh.
I--
♪ ♪
Well, why would she hang up? If "Catfish" is calling me
and I know I'm innocent, I'm gonna be like, "Oh."
- Right. Let's just send a text,
and let's just explain the deal.
"Hey. This is Nev..." - "And Kamie."
- "And Kamie, from 'Catfish.'
We would love to talk
about a relationship we're investigating right now."
- Perfect.
- So let's see if she responds to our text.
Let's see if Jordan gets back to us,
and hopefully in the morning we'll have some new information
before we go back to Aaliyah and give her the update.
The good news is, the number that Aaliyah has for Paula...
- Mm-hmm.
- Was answered by a woman. - Mm-hmm.
- So any possibility that it was Jordan,
unless, of course, Jordan happens
to be sitting with Paula right now
and, like, "here--" I don't think so.
I don't necessarily think that her name is Paula.
It could be Karina, which is why maybe
she didn't say yes or no, but, like...
- Mm-hmm.
- She's not wrong to be like, "Who's calling?"
- Yeah, but she's using that phone number
to talk to people that she is catfishing.
- Right. That's true.
- And we don't know how many people she's talking to.
- Well, that might be her phone number
that's just for her catfishing too.
- True.
- But there's definitely something weird about Paula.
- If her name's even Paula.
We don't even know who we're hunting now.
- Good morning.
Clink, clink, cheers.
- So I haven't heard anything back from Paula or Jordan
since we reached out to them yesterday.
Let's just see if anything even came back.
- Oh, God. - No.
Okay, so no response from Paula.
And...
we have a response from Jordan--no.
- Jordan didn't get back to us,
but maybe he got back to Aaliyah,
and probably cussed her out.
- I'll text Aaliyah. "Jump back in the Zoom."
- [imitates chime]
Bing-boo.
[chiming]
- Hey, girl. - Hi.
- Any update? Have you heard anything?
- No.
- Well, we're gonna fill you in on everything.
- Let's just go through what we did yesterday,
so you're up to speed with where we're at.
- Okay.
- So you had her new Instagram account, obviously,
which is what we're looking at here,
which has very, well, nothing really on it.
Even though you said
that Jordan would prefer to stay out of this...
- Mm-hmm.
- We were curious if we could at least find out
who this guy is and do a little research about him.
- Mm-hmm.
- And we looked to see who is following Paula.
We saw there was someone named Jordan.
- Yeah, that's my friend Jordan.
- And we just thought maybe,
even though he said he didn't wanna talk,
maybe he would want to talk, so we sent him a message.
"Love to talk to you."
And we still haven't heard from him.
So then we ran the phone numbers.
The old one didn't come up with any information
that we could find,
but the new phone number shows a Karina [bleep].
We're just curious if you knew anyone named Karina.
- No.
- Okay, well, we had-- You know, we wanted to show it
to you just in case it jogged your memory.
So we think it's pretty likely you're talking
to a girl named Karina. Not Paula.
- Aaliyah, you're so chill. I can't, I can't understand.
- I'm always chillin'. Sorry.
- So we did some Facebook searching.
There are a lot of Karina [bleep].
Like, it could be--
It could mean everything, it could be nothing.
It doesn't help us a lot.
- Yeah.
- At this point we were like, "Okay, well,
there's always a chance that the person
you're talking to isn't Paula,
and those aren't pictures of her.
- Mm-hmm.
- And maybe the real person's name is Karina.
We just kind of didn't
find anything that felt like a promising lead.
So at that point, we made a decision.
We were like, "Okay, look, let's call Paula.
So I called and I said, "Hey, I'm looking for Karina,"
just to see what she would say.
- Okay.
- And she was like, "Who is this?"
And I kinda just froze and I think I just hung up.
- Yes. - Right.
And then I thought Kamie should call--
- I called back.
- And so Kamie called and she was like,
"Hey, here's what's up." And at that point...
- She was like, "What the heck?"
and she hung up the phone.
- Oh.
- What's crazy to me is that you haven't heard from her.
- No. - We didn't mention you.
We'd never said "Aaliyah" intentionally.
- No, we didn't. On purpose because we figured,
who knows how many people that she's talking to?
But we ended up messaging her again.
- We texted her and just said, "Hey, I'm sorry about that.
We'd love to talk to you about a relationship
we're investigating right now." But she never responded.
So the ball is in her court.
- Okay.
- She knows that we're on to her.
- We gotta figure out what we wanna do.
- Yeah. - Wait, we got a text?
- Yes. - Who is this?
- "Hi, Nev. I heard you were trying to find Paula.
I have some information
that I think is important for you to hear."
- Who is that? Who even has this number?
- But how did they know we're trying to find Paula?
We never said Paula's name to Karina yesterday.
Let's look up the number.
- Yeah, let's look up the number.
- It's getting interesting.
- "Lanna?"
- Lanna Hooper.
- Do you know a Lanna? - No.
- Who is that?
- It says Seattle.
- Let's do a little Facebook search.
- "Lanna Hooper."
- Here's Seattle, Washington.
- This person doesn't look familiar to you, right?
- Mm-mm. - Wait, who's that?
- That's Paula. - [gasps]
Lanna is her mom, maybe?
- Boom.
- It could be her mom or her aunt or a cousin
but definitely a family member.
"I love my family."
- This is the girl in the pictures.
That's definitely her, right?
- That's definitely Paula.
- And that looks like Lanna next to her.
- Maybe.
- We should just respond to this person.
Maybe the text we got just came from her.
"Hey. Yes, we are looking for Paula."
- "Can you jump into Zoom?" - "Can you come in a Zoom?"
- What the hell is going on? I don't know.
- Someone, obviously connected to the girl in the pictures,
found out we were investigating.
- She said, "Yeah, that's fine."
Or they said. - Oh, my God.
- 'Cause no shade, Aaliyah,
I did not think that this was ever gonna come back
to that girl in the pictures.
I thought that she was out of this completely,
but now she's fully back in.
- I don't think she's a catfish.
- But what if Paula is real?
- I'ma keep saying she's real. I think she's real.
- What if Paula pops in here? What if it is Paula?
- Okay, they're gonna join.
Oh, boy, well, we're about to find out.
[dramatic music]
[chimes] - Oh.
- Oh!
- What if Paula pops in here? What if it is Paula?
- Well, we're about to find out.
[dramatic music]
[chimes]
- Oh!
- Hi, boo. - Hi.
- Hey.
- Hi. - Hello.
- I told y'all she was real.
[laughs]
- I'm not Paula.
- You're not Paula?
- No.
- Okay, we're very confused.
Can--What do--Please explain.
- My name's Nayonni.
I am the girl in the pictures.
However, I am not Paula.
I'm not the one who's been running the accounts.
Paula actually reached out to me
and told me you guys reached out to her,
and she got a little frantic.
She asked if I would come and share the story
as to how we all got here. And--
- Wait. Okay, so hold on.
So after we spoke to Paula yesterday,
she reached out to you.
Did you know that there was a fake account of you?
- Yes.
- Wait. What?
- So basically, in 2016,
somebody reached out to me through DM,
informing me that there were several fake accounts,
depicting me to be somebody that I'm not.
- Okay.
- I couldn't see them myself due to me being blocked,
and these people who reached out to me
were friends of the girl
who was catfishing with the pictures.
They gave me a phone number to reach out to,
and I confronted her about what was going on,
and I asked her to take the accounts down.
I asked her why she was doing it,
and basically she was going through a lot in her life,
and this was her outlet to feel like she was somebody.
- And what--is her name actually Paula?
- No. - What is her name?
- What the hell is going on?
- Her name is Rayven.
- Rayven? - Yes.
- And did you assume,
after that conversation, that she would stop?
- Yeah. I really felt like I got through to her that time.
However, it's been seven years that this has been going on.
- Seven years?
- Yeah, since I was 14. I'm 22 now.
Every time an account would come up,
I found a method to contact Instagram
and give them my ID, and they would just take it down,
but it would be down.
And then, obviously, a new one would just pop right back up.
- Aaliyah has been talking to who she thought was you
for four years now,
and, you know, it started off
to be just a friendship
and then turned more on a romantic level.
- And here we are on "Catfish."
- Wait, let's just clear something up, so--
All right, so wait a second.
Okay, so, look, she should be the one doing this. Not you.
- Right.
- It's so unfair of her to not only do
what she's been doing to you but then to ask you to--
- To come forth and speak for her.
- Right. - Right. I wanna see Rayven.
- I'd be willing to reach out to her and see what she says.
- Call her, text her, whatever.
Explain that we're eager to talk to her
and give her an opportunity to sort of explain herself and...
- And then you could send her the Zoom link.
- Okay. - I don't know.
I don't know what the hell is going on right now.
- All right. - Talk later.
- Thanks, Nayonni. We'll see you soon.
- Later.
- Girl.
- What the hell is going on?
I don't know. I don't do this.
- So you really don't Nayonni is telling the truth?
Why do you think that?
- But I just feel like,
this isn't how this was supposed to go.
- What do you mean this was not how it was supposed to go?
- I don't know what's happening right now.
- Well, look, either way, I still think it's important
that we do talk to Rayven,
if there even is a Rayven.
[chimes] - Nayonni just texted us.
- She has spoken to Rayven.
"Does the Zoom link you sent still work?"
- "Yes, it does.
We are in the Zoom now, so join anytime."
- Okay, so Nayonni is sending the Zoom link to Rayven.
She could pop in at any minute. Get ready.
- At this point, I don't even know what's going on.
All of this is weird.
I'm just weirded out right now, so--
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[chimes]
♪ ♪
- Are you Rayven? - Hi, yeah.
- Hi, Rayven. - Hi.
- How you doing? - I'm good, how are you?
- Good. We're all kind of just catching up
and finding a lot of new information
and just wanted to give you a chance
to kind of introduce yourself and then tell the story
however you feel best reflects the truth.
- Okay. My name is Rayven. I'm from Seattle,
which is how I originally came across Nayonni's pictures.
There was multiple accounts. A lot of them got deleted.
The most people that I've talked to, like,
on the accounts would be Paula.
- And how many people were you talking to?
- I was talking to a lot of people,
like, 800 people, altogether.
- What?
- I'm kinda confused right now 'cause--
Yeah, I'm confused.
- I started to see that, when I was someone else,
I was getting more attention than I was as me.
And so I started to go with that.
I know that this sounds crazy,
but, like, it was literally like an addiction.
Sometimes what I would do is create mutual friends
so that people would think that it was a real account,
this person knew people in real life.
I was behind the Jordan account
that Aaliyah had reached out to.
First of all, I'm sorry. I really did like you.
I think that you're a really good person.
I've always thought that you were a very beautiful person.
All I want to do is come clean
and come forward with the truth.
- Yeah.
- And I think that you deserve that.
- Go ahead if you have something
you want to say, Aaliyah.
- Well, I just wanted to talk to y'all two
without her present.
- Like, just us? - Yeah.
- Sure. I mean, if that's okay with you, Rayven?
- Aaliyah, we'll check in with you for a minute.
Rayven, we'll bring you back on,
and we can finish the conversation.
- Okay, sounds good.
- Okay. So I just--
I only want to talk to two right now real quick,
so we can get some stuff out the way.
This girl is sitting here, continuing to lie.
Everything I've told you guys is the truth about me
and Paula's relationship. We've never Facetimed.
We have been talking for that period of time.
Everything is real.
But the reason why I'm so blown out of the water and confused,
the reason I did believe Paula was the girl in the pictures
is because Paula, she hit me up.
She still had me convinced she was a real person.
She was like,
"Let's meet on this TV show."
- What?
- It was gonna be like a I see you,
you see me, it's a happy ending type episode.
- Whoa.
- That's why it's weird now, and it's scaring me.
- Basically, everything I've told you guys
is the truth about me and Paula's relationship.
We've never Facetimed.
We have been talking for that period of time.
Everything is real. But Paula, she hit me up.
It was like, "Let's meet on this TV show."
It was gonna be like a I see you,
you see me, it's a happy ending type episode.
- Whoa.
- That's why it's weird now, and it's scaring me.
I was down because I really believed
Paula was a real person.
That's why, when she popped up on the screen,
I really thought that she just changed our whole story
and was going her own direction with it,
and it was making me mad.
- When Nayonni came on? - Yes.
- Wait, did you--but did you already know who Rayven was?
- No.
- She thought she was meeting Paula, genuinely.
- Paula. - That's why she was so sure.
- Yeah. - Because Paula told her.
Like, "It's gonna be a good--
It's gonna be a happy ending, so it doesn't really matter..."
- Oh, my God. - "But it will be good."
- So Rayven, in a unbelievably selfish
and, also, additionally, like, deceptive move...
- Twisted.
- Convinced you to write in,
and tricks you into coming on the show
by telling you that it was just really her
and that you guys were gonna have a happy ending.
- Yeah.
- So she came up with this whole plan and you said yes
because you thought it was really just Paula.
But actually the girl in the pictures was Nayonni.
Wow.
- She had me convinced she was a real person
when we were doing this.
- Wow.
- So I genuinely assumed that she was real.
That's why this is all weirding me out.
Like, when the real Paula...
- Right, Nayonni.
- Came on the screen, that's why I was thrown off
because I thought that
she was coming up with a whole other storyline by herself.
- When she said, I'm not Paula,
and you're like, "What the [bleep]."
- Yes, it threw me off 'cause I'm like, "That's--"
But they sound just alike.
- Yeah. - Her and this girl.
- Yeah, they do sound very similar.
- I guess that's how girls talk in Washington.
I don't know.
- But now that you've heard Rayven,
you're sure that was
the voice you've been talking to this whole time?
- Yeah. That's definitely her.
This is why I'm telling you this.
- Right, right. - Because it's weird now.
- She's definitely not coming on the show
to tell you the truth and come clean
and, like, do the right thing.
She lied to you to get you and her on the show.
- Yeah.
- And then she lied to us and you right now on the show
while she's supposed to be changing her life
and making good decisions to, like, be a better person.
- Like, I'm really, really bad.
Like, this was not supposed to happen.
- And she [bleep] made it seem like
you were actually coming on to finally meet her...
- Right.
- Which is what you've been wanting this whole time.
That is [bleep] crazy.
- This is how I really am,
so she has me looking dumb on TV,
and it's messing with my anxiety right now.
Like, I'm really not feeling this at all.
Like, it's weird.
- The thing that obviously bothers me is we take
this job very seriously. We're trying to help people,
and it's just not okay what you did either, Aaliyah.
I mean, it's messed up on your end that you lied to us,
not giving us all the information to help you.
It's pretty messed up.
- No, I do wanna apologize though.
When the plan was told to me,
it was something super-simple, quick,
and it wasn't really a lie on my end, so I was like,
"Okay, that's fine." Because she was Paula, like,
she was still acting like Paula this whole time with me.
- She [bleep]. She catfished you.
She [bleep] played you out. That's what she did.
- Yeah.
- And though it's messed up what you did,
you genuinely believed that you were gonna be able
to finally meet this person, by any means necessary.
And although, it's not something that we encourage,
I understand it.
- Right. - But she is a manipulator.
She's been doing this since she was a teenager.
- The worst part is, like, she even thought
that she could play you like that,
play the show, and then get Nayonni...
- Mm-hmm.
- The girl she's been playing the longest...
- Mm-hmm.
- To do her dirty work... - Mm-hmm.
- And tell her story, so she wouldn't even have to.
Obviously, we need She coto call out Rayven. back.
- Obviously.
- 'Cause I'm not gonna let her get away with...
- I wanna be messy about it. - Taking both--
I mean, forget what she's done to you now.
It's personal. I mean, now she's playing us
and I'm not about to let that happen on my show.
So I think we should bring her back in.
And we'll just confront her and then say our goodbyes.
Here she comes.
- But who wants to start? - Me.
- Okay, we're all back.
- Aaliyah, the floor is yours.
- Okay.
So I blew up our spot, so we are exposed.
I told them me and you have spoke behind the scenes.
I wouldn't have done this had I known that you were not gonna
end up being the person you swore you were.
You almost got the other girl cussed out
because I thought that she was Paula coming up
with a new plan out of nowhere and not telling me.
So she was about to get cussed out,
but then I had to think about it, like,
"Maybe that's really not Paula."
I'm weirded out by all this.
Still kinda disappointed in myself that I even thought
that this was a good idea to do
'cause now I'm on TV, looking stupid.
So I'm trying to, like, just keep my composure
'cause we're on TV.
I don't want to say something I can't take back.
But after three and a half years of mine,
you're not gonna get a friendship from me.
I'ma just say that now. So that's it.
- Okay. I understand.
If I was put in your position, I'd be the same way.
I'm not trying to embarrass anybody.
- But I'm not trying to, and nor was that my intention.
- You were deceiving Aaliyah behind the scenes into thinking
that she was actually going to meet the real Paula.
That is how you were able to get here
to this point right now and get on our show.
And why even want to get on the show?
- So I'm coming up here now to set the record straight
and to come clean.
I'm sure a lot of people are gonna see this.
I'm sure a lot of people are gonna know of
the real person behind the pictures,
and that's why I'm here.
- But you didn't need to do this to come clean.
You could've just stopped lying and told people the truth.
- Well, I didn't have any more of my accounts.
I'm sure as, you know, you may know, like,
my accounts have been deleted by Instagram.
So I didn't have the chance because I was gonna go on
Instagram Live with Nayonni at one point,
and tell everybody that Paula was not a real person.
- But I don't believe that for a second.
- But I could've easily-- - No.
You would have kept doing that.
You would've kept using the accounts
if they hadn't been shut down.
You got called multiple times by Nayonni...
- Right.
- Asking you to stop. And you didn't.
And the only reason you may have slowed down
was because Instagram did, thankfully, do their job
and take down the multiple accounts
that you've continued to make.
One would get shut down, you'd make a new one.
So don't tell me the only reason you decided to stop
was because you couldn't get on your account
and do a Facebook Live.
- I didn't think that this was the only way to stop.
You're kind of attacking me in a way,
and I don't like that.
I've tried to stop and it's not easy for me.
I understand that I've hurt a lot of people.
I understand that.
I was young, I'm still young, and I'm still learning.
You don't know what I struggle with every day.
Yes, I'm a [bleep] up person.
Yes, I've done [bleeped] up things to people.
And I've had a lot of [bleep] up things done to me too.
So, like, don't attack me. Like, don't do that.
- I don't think that it's an attack.
What I think is happening is it's hard to hear somebody,
plain and simple,
tell you exactly what the [bleep] it is
that has been going on and what you have been doing,
because sometimes when you're in it,
it's hard to see the reality of the situation.
- Exactly.
- No one is negating what you've been through.
Nayonni told us you've been through a lot,
and everyone understands that.
And I think it would be even more easy to empathize with you
if we did not know the behind-the-scenes.
That is where things take a turn for us.
Our job is to help people,
but when you are behind the scenes
actively and maliciously trying to make some [bleep] pop,
we have to call you out on that.
- Right.
- This is, like, a real addiction
and a real issue for me.
So the way that I might've went about it to come--
To be on here and to come on here
might have been, like, [bleep] up.
But I'm still here.
We want for you to be able to put these pages behind you
and move forward, but in order to move forward,
we have to acknowledge how we even got to this point.
- I think that this was wrong, you know, as far as, like,
you know, me keeping in contact with Aaliyah
and, you know, portraying that I'm still this person,
but in all honesty, I did like Aaliyah.
Like, there was a connection from me.
Like, it's not like that was fake.
I'm sorry that I put you
in this position in the first place.
I think that I could've told you in a different way,
most definitely,
rather than leading you to believe something else.
That was a dick move, and I'm really sorry for that.
And I'm really sorry for everything.
You shared a lot of personal information with me
not only in your life, but your body,
and that's not okay to do to anybody.
- The nude pictures that you got from Aaliyah,
where are those pictures now?
- As the accounts got deleted,
those pictures also got deleted with the accounts.
And, yeah, I'm really sorry for that.
Nobody deserves that.
- It's not that I don't accept your apology or nothing.
I'm just, like, I'm kinda ready for all of this to be over.
- So that's the big question. Is this all over?
Are you ready to say
you won't use fake profiles,
you won't speak to anyone, and just be you?
- I would say that I'm done with the fake accounts.
I'm sorry, Aaliyah, for everything that I've done.
- ♪ Should be locked behind bars ♪
- We wish you the best and hope that this is the end.
- Yeah.
- It's been way too long, I think we all agree,
so I'm glad this is over.
- Bye, guys.
- Good luck with everything.
- Bye, thank you for coming.
- Thank you for having me.
- All right, well, look. She's out of your life.
- Yeah, this is a weird day.
- Sorry for the craziness, but you also provided some.
- Yeah. Don't dig yourself a hole like that in the future.
- Yeah, 'cause this was way too much.
This was extra.
- All right, all right. It was great meeting you.
- It was nice meeting you guys. - Bye, Aaliyah.
- Goodbye, guys. - Bye.
- ♪ Funny how danger keeps me coming ♪
♪ Funny how I crash but keep on longing ♪
♪ Can I grow up? ♪
- For two years, Naiji has been talking to Ciana,
who may not even be real.
- She just really, like, bring out this vibe,
like that you wanna be around her.
- Let's look up the phone number.
Wow. Zero. - That's suspicious.
- I feel like I'm getting like used or played,
and I hate that feeling. [chimes]
- Oh. - Oh, [bleep].