5
0
Support the library.
Your support helps keep books free for everyone ❤️
📍 Noticed
There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish
by Anna Akbari
Sponsored
Synopsis
Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose themIn 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and ...
Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them
In 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last-minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy.
After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame's stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for “Ethan” to ever stop.
There is No Ethan catalogues Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture—a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms—Akbari provides an explanation for why these stories matter.
In 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last-minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy.
After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame's stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for “Ethan” to ever stop.
There is No Ethan catalogues Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture—a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms—Akbari provides an explanation for why these stories matter.
You May Also Like
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Helen Fielding
A Light in the Window
Jan Karon
The photographic history of the civil war ... Francis Trevelyan Miller, editor-in chief: Robert S. Lanier, managing editor. Thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65,
Francis Trevelyan Miller
Chasing Stardust: A Novel
Erica Lucke Dean
Machinal
Sophie Treadwell
Just the Tip
Rob Nelson
Business Picks
View All
The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More
Jefferson Fisher
Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune
Anderson Cooper
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
Dan Wang
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
Evan Friss
Source Code: My Beginnings
Bill Gates
Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave
Ryan Holiday