NewsCrime

Actions

Woman who faked cancer for donations gets 5 years in prison

Justice (FILE)
Posted

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A woman who pretended to have cancer and raised more than $100,000 in donations has been sentenced by a Northern California federal court to five years in prison.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Amanda Christine Riley raised $105,513 from at least 349 people after claiming on social media and her blog that she was fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

They say Riley, who lived in San Jose, pleaded guilty last year to one count of wire fraud for taking donations from people over a seven-year period to help her pay for cancer treatments she never needed nor received.

In 2019, an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the San Jose Police Department uncovered the fraud.

She was arrested the following year.



,

Weather

Daily Forecast

View Hourly Forecast

Day

Conditions

HI / LO

Precip

Monday

01/12/2026

Foggy

-° / 39°

4%

Tuesday

01/13/2026

Fog Late

62° / 40°

6%

Wednesday

01/14/2026

Clear

65° / 41°

5%

Thursday

01/15/2026

Mostly Clear

68° / 44°

3%

Friday

01/16/2026

Mostly Clear

64° / 42°

3%

Saturday

01/17/2026

Mostly Clear

64° / 42°

3%

Sunday

01/18/2026

Partly Cloudy

63° / 42°

4%

Monday

01/19/2026

Mostly Clear

63° / 44°

3%