There Is No Ethan cover art

There Is No Ethan

How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish

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There Is No Ethan

By: Anna Akbari
Narrated by: Anna Akbari, Justin Price
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About this listen

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've 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 of where these stories unfold—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 gives a page-turning and riveting examination of why stories like Ethan's matter for us all.

©2024 Anna Akbari (P)2024 Grand Central Publishing
Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions Editors Select Exciting
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Editorial Review

The catfishing memoir to end all catfishing memoirs
OMG! Anna Akbari took me on a JOURNEY with her stranger-than-fiction memoir about how a stranger can be ... fiction. A feisty young sociologist in the early days of online dating, Akbari began chatting with a witty New Yorker named Ethan. Ethan’s lofty job meant lots of travel, long hours, and an Irish phone that made email and text his sole methods of communication. Anna fell hard for his clever, sexy messages—irresistibly voiced by Justin Price, the perfect complement to Akbari’s own narration. But as their intimacy deepened, Ethan’s excuses to avoid meeting raised major red flags. Emotionally invested yet professionally fascinated, Akbari’s investigation led her to other victims (whose solidarity will warm your heart amid the otherwise chilling tale) and jaw-dropping revelations about the “real” Ethan Schuman. The catfishing memoir to end all catfishing memoirs, There Is No Ethan will have you talking (and listening) compulsively—just don’t google the case until you finish, for maximum effect. — Kat J., Audible Editor

What listeners say about There Is No Ethan

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Interesting and great case of Busted!


Let me say first that I think Anna is a funny, interesting young lady with a great hold on life.....
Now.... .I am 69 and from an area of florida still rural but enriched intellectually and culturally thru the high technology atmosphere...and at Anna's age, I had a very liberated, wild child hippie type...way back in the 60's and 70's..... BUT, not judging her but the culture i listened to, I now know why I hate city life...my folks are from NYC....and I also know I am soooo glad I missed the 'sex being the prime attraction for the temporary guy/gal until the next, more interesting sexual but temporary...or even longer...dude comes along.
I am soo glad I was born in the 50's!!!!
NOW, for a free spirited sociologist. What a great data base!
BTW....I identified this guy as an Ahole the minute his dialogue began.
Maybe because I am not pretty, fat, neurodiverse and a private sole, I learned to read people before leaving high school with a good fine tuner!!
Thanks for the enlightening....nothing surprises me anymore but as an old hippie, I l9ve enlightenment and laughing and cursing people who use and hurt others....




Sociologist....????

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Awesome story about a catfish !!!!

Its literally about whats written on the cover but very interesting!
Its also very crazy that its a true story

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fascinating

great story of deception. Hard to believe some of it is real! Can't wait to Google it all now.

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wow just wow

how bizarre. what really did ES gain from this. scary stuff. listening to this reminded me of my own irl emotionally abusive relationships

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A very unusual tale

The subject is fascinating and the tale well told. However it felt like the time taken to go through the stages, fixations and traumas of Ethan's victims took so long i nearly couldn't hang on for the unmasking. I was left feeling that so many of us are willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt and get harmed in the process.

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