Back in 2015, news of the Josh Duggar sex scandals shook fans to their core and threatened to bring an end to the Duggar family’s media empire.
Remarkably, three years later, life has pretty much returned to normal for the Duggars — with the notable exception of Josh, of course.
While his parents and siblings made a rather smooth transition back to the spotlight, Josh remains exiled from both fans and his family.
Currently, Josh works on a used car lot owned by his father, and he lives several miles away from the neighborhood in Tontitown, Arkansas that most of them call home.
Of course, the clearest indicator of the rift between the former lobbyist and the rest of his family might be that Josh no longer worships at the Duggar family church.
Josh is reportedly in dire financial straits, as he attempts to raise five children on a car lot attendant’s salary and with little financial help from his wealthy family.
But that’s just one of the reasons that fans are wary of Josh’s latest “fundraising” efforts.
Josh returned to Facebook this week with little fanfare, and he’s apparently on a mission.
Thus far, Josh’s activity on the site has been extremely limited:
As In Touch Weekly points out, he changed his profile picture to a photo of his son Matthew — and he announced that he’ll be raising money for two family friends who were involved in a car accident.
Of course, this is Josh Duggar we’re talking about, so it wasn’t long before fans noticed something deeply suspicious about his philanthropic efforts.
As one Facebook user quickly pointed out, the fundraiser that Josh is encouraging fans to contribute to was apparently started by someone named Janie Williams.
The only problem there is the fact that Janie doesn’t appear to be a real person.
“Both names are listed on the GoFundMe as running the campaign,” the fan wrote on Facebook.
“When I click on Janie’s name, it led me to Josh’s profile,” she continued.
“I can see Josh using the common [names] Janie/Joe and common last [names] Williams/Smith to try [and] hide. I [don’t see] a Janie Williams listed as a friend on Josh’s page.”
Yes, it appears that Josh has constructed yet another alias for himself.
In the past, he’s been caught using the name Joe Smithson on social media.
And of course, there was the fake Ashley Madison profile that Josh used to try and cheat on his wife.
So what exactly is going on here?
Well, it’s tough to say, but the Duggars have a long history of begging fans for money under suspicious pretenses.
Now, it looks like Josh is attempting to supplement his meager income with a little light fraud.
All in a day’s work for one of the shadiest figures west of the Mississippi.
Watch Counting On online for more on reality TV’s most controversial family.
