There is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish

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 night to deepen their connection with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did his 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 imaginary crisis. Rather, he ensnared the 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 uncovered a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the other two women untangled Schuman’s web, they found other victims. They quickly realized that as long as his actions lacked a proper crime designation, there was no legal reason for Ethan to ever stop. There Is No Ethan catalogs Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. Examining the bigger picture of the place where these stories unfold - a world where technology mediates relationships, where words and images are easily manipulated, and where truth, reality, and identity have become increasingly slippery concepts - Akbari offers us a page-turning and riveting examination of why stories like Ethan’s matter for us all.