- Like, it's like my addiction, it's weird
to come out, but it's like the attention
and the strive to get that attention,
and you'd pretty much do anything you could
to get that attention.
- You said the word addiction.
- [Mary] Yeah.
- You know, which is kind of an admission
that things have kinda gotten out of control.
- [Mary] Yeah, and it's not gonna stop by myself
and I now it's not going to, ever.
(intense music)
- A young guy named Dylan contacted me and Max
after receiving an anonymous tip claiming
his online love Ally was actually an imposter.
- [Dylan] I'm just like, dumbfounded.
- Whoa.
- I don't even know how they got my number.
- [Max] Once we started digging, we soon discovered
that whoever Dylan was talking to
had actually catfished people before.
- Ireland?
- [Dylan] Yeah.
- We learned that the person Dylan had been talking
to was actually named Mary, and her cousin Chelsea
had been the one who texted him the warning.
- With Chelsea's help, we finally arranged
to meet Mary face-to-face.
- [Nev] Hi. - Hi.
- [Nev] How you doing?
- Good.
- [Nev] Nev. - Hi.
- Mary, good to meet you, and this is Dylan.
- Yep.
- So, we obviously have a lot of questions.
- Oh, my gosh, I just want you to know,
I wasn't trying to hurt you.
You are my person, and you know that.
You've been my person, he's always been there,
no matter what.
I didn't want it to be like this.
I love you, and I care about you,
and I am so, so sorry about all this, yeah.
- Why pretend to be somebody else?
- I've been doing this for a very long time,
I've always been that outcast girl,
so then when you go to another world,
like Internet, you get to be whoever you want.
- And what about the girl whose pictures you're using?
- Her name is really Ally, she's caught me before.
She's said some rude things to me,
but not, I mean, who wouldn't?
I've been stealing her pictures.
- What about your story that Dylan knows is true?
You said a lot of thing about where you worked
and what you want, your dreams, and--
- Maybe some things I did say were not correctly right,
I do go to college.
- Are you studying to be in the medical profession?
- Yes, I do wanna be a general surgeon.
- But you don't work at a hospital?
- No.
- Obviously, Dylan's gone through a pretty traumatic
last couple years, and was pushing people away,
why did you fight to stay in his life?
- He was my person when I needed him,
and I was gonna be there even if I wasn't the real person.
- Did you feel bad that you had been lying
to him at that point?
- Yeah, I mean, I don't feel good.
- Have you tried to actually stop it?
- Yeah, I've tried and I just go back.
There's something that pushes me to go back,
like, it's like my, it's weird to say to people,
like, it's like my addiction, it's weird to
come out, but it's like the attention
and the strive to get that attention
and you'd pretty much do anything you could
to get that attention.
- You said the word addiction.
- [Mary] Yeah.
- You know, which is kind of an admission
that things have kinda gotten out of control.
- Yeah, I was not gonna stop by myself
and I know it's not going to, ever.
- That was crazy because that was the first time
we've had a catfish come out and basically just say,
"This is what I do, I can't stop, addicted to love."
- Can't stop, won't stop.
- Yeah, needless to say, very little was resolved
when we first met with Mary, which left a lot
for us to discuss the following day.
- How many people do you think you've catfished?
- I mean, I have literally every social media,
probably hundreds.
I mean, that makes me feel bad that I have to pretend
to be someone to feel like I'm good enough.
- I wanna be your friend, I wanna be there for you,
and I wanna help you get through this,
but the catfishing has to stop, just do you.
- Mm-hm.
- Make the most of this opportunity.
This happened because two people who care about you,
Chelsea and Dylan, made this happen.
Use it as best you can to change things.
- I wanna do it.
- There's only so much we can do and talk about
in the short time that we have.
- It always just feels like we're scratching the surface.
- Right.
- Ideally, we'd pick the scab.
- Right.
- And then it bleeds.
- Right, gross.
After a nice long talk, it seemed we'd really
gotten through to Mary.
- Until just a few months later,
when we discovered Mary was back at it again.
After the episode finished, someone else wrote in,
saying that they had been talking to a girl
who turned out to be lying to them, and guess who, Mary.
So, this guy Darian that Mary was catfishing
after the episode is here, too,
and he wants to confront her as well.
- So we're bringing a new person here,
who we've never met before.
- That's right, so this is sort of like
a reunion/intervention.
- Yeah, that's right.
So, the catfishing.
- Yeah.
Um, it's still goin'.
- You're hurt, and you're hurting more people,
that never ends well.
- So, we have a little bit of a surprise.
One of the guys that you've been talking to,
as Ally, Darian.
- Darian reached out to the show, so we brought him here.
- I don't understand why you would do that to somebody.
- I know you deserve an apology, and I am sorry,
I did not mean to hurt you like I did.
- This is déjà vu, I stood here with Nev
and heard you say the exact same thing.
What's really interesting is that after Dylan
and Mary finally met, it really did become Mary's story.
Mary was so clearly in need of help,
while Dylan was so chill and understanding.
- Probably, you know, that mop top.
What up, mop top?
- Mop top, it's now blond.
- Yeah, I've tried something different.
- Mop top.
- It's like an emotional support animal.
(meow)
- It does, it does calm me down, just to--
- Nice. - Just to touch it.