A mom who thought she was in a relationship with a Stranger Things star has been left devastated after finding out the truth.
McKala, a single mother from Kentucky, spent a year of her life exchanging more than just a few messages with a man who she believed was Australian actor Dacre Montgomery, who played Billy Hargrove in Netflix's hit show Stranger Things.
However, after appearing on the YouTube series Catfished, she soon discovered that the man she sent thousands of dollars and who she went as far as divorcing her husband to be with was not who she thought he was.
McKala, who is an amateur filmmaker, first met her mystery man after she joined an online artists' forum to connect with other creatives like herself.
She immediately "hit it off" with a stranger who hid behind his own username before claiming he was Montgomery, an actor that she really loved.
"I’m suspicious from the get-go, until he starts doing things that make me believe he is who he is," she told Catfished while appearing on the show.
Even despite the real-life actor being in a public, long-term relationship with Liv Pollock, the scammer managed to convince McKala that he was "unhappy."
"He was venting to me after a few months about his partner, saying she is very controlling of him," she said. "He doesn't get to do the things he wants to do. She's always there. She's always got to supervise. I kind of empathize with that because my ex-husband was that way."
After months of getting to know each other, Montgomery allegedly asked her to be his girlfriend, but under one condition.
"He was like, 'But you gotta keep it quiet because, you know, I'm still with Liv,'" she explained, before doing her own research into the matter on social media.
"He wasn't posting about her. She wasn't posting about him. The only thing that I have seen in the last two years...was a thing where she was posting about their five-year anniversary," McKala said.
When questioned about ever meeting up, the amateur actress revealed that the pair hadn't even spoken on the phone in the year that they'd known each other let alone met up for a coffee or dinner.
McKala agreed that it was a "huge red flag," but she understood where he was coming from because of his girlfriend that was "glued to his hip."
But things got more serious when the mystery man gave her an ultimatum stating that it was either her now ex-husband or him and she assured him that there was no competition between the two and that she would always pick him - big yikes.
And just to add to the pressure that was already piling up, Montgomery started asking for some financial aid. The reason behind the request? His controlling girlfriend, of course.
"Before I knew it, it was turning into $100, $200 gift cards," she said, explaining that he would sell the gift cards for less than they were worth and pocket the money.
McKala estimated that she sent him approximately $10,000 dollars.
The love-struck woman was heartbroken to find out she was being catfished, but was also grateful to finally know the truth about her relationship.
"Love makes you do crazy, stupid, irrational things," she said, admitting her trauma had a part to play in her vulnerability in being scammed.
"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... These scammers, they just kind of come in and they leech off that," she added.
Well we hope McKala manages to find someone good for her in the near future.