Rain Brown Issues Catfishing Warning: That"s NOT Gabe Brown!

For reality stars, the Brown family isn"t the most active on social media. Sure, Bam Bam and his girlfriend provide some updates, but it"s mostly only Rain Brown who speaks for Alaskan Bush People on the interwebs.

Which means that a strange task fell to her, as you"ll see in the video below.

Rain Brown took to social media to share that Gabe Brown hasn"t been online and is going through a rough time right now. Because apparently a catfisher has been pretending otherwise. …

Most reality stars use the fame that they acquire on the small screen to make their star shine even brighter.

That can mean product endorsements. It can mean crossover reality appearances (especially if anybody"s marriage or relationship isn"t going so well).

But, bare minimum, it means using social media to the fullest extent. You can grow your audience that way. You can also market yourself and your fame to companies that way.

The stars of Alaskan Bush People, however, don"t do that so much.

Rain Brown, the family"s youngest — she just turned 15 — has become the Brown family"s de facto spokesperson.

Which led her to share this strange, strange message on Instagram:

In the video that you"ll see below, Rain (who seems a bit anxious as she speaks, but we get it) warns of a stranger who is spreading misinformation about Gabe Brown.

"There"s this girl posing to be Gabe"s girlfriend. I wanted to quickly [clear] some things up for you guys."

That"s super alarming. It sounds like either the girl herself is just seeking fame over an imagined relationship, or someone is pretending to be Gabe online in order to catfish Alaskan Bush People fans.

It sounds like it"s the latter situation, because Rain goes out of her way to assure the world that Gabe is not online at the moment.

"Gabe does not have his phone; hasn"t had his phone in a long time."

That"s unusual for anyone these days.

"Please don"t listen to anything that anyone says about him."

That"s not uncommon for reality star siblings to say about each other — it"s natural to be protective.

But it"s good to remember that being contacted by someone claiming to be a celebrity … well, you should almost always assume that it"s not really them. Look for that blue checkmark of verification and even then, consider that they may have been hacked.

Rain elaborates on Gabe"s circumstances, and though she"s pretty vague, it doesn"t sound good:

"He"s going through a very hard time and his phone broke and he does not have it."

Considering that the Brown family has been living large in a Beverly Hills mansion recently, we"re guessing that there"s much more to Gabe"s lack of a phone than the first one getting damaged.

Because surely they could just buy another. It sounds like he"s in a really bad place, emotionally.

Rain takes the opportunity to share a message about her sister, Birdie.

"And also Birdie likes to be kept very private."

Again, the Brown family is much, much more privacy-oriented than you"d expect for a bunch of reality stars.

"And so she doesn"t, you know, she doesn"t really let anyone follow her. And she doesn"t like people messaging her."

Rain then seems to almost immediately contradict herself (again, she"s talking about a serious subject; some anxiety goes with the territory).

"But you are welcome to message her, and she"ll read it, and sometimes I think she replies — I"m not positive."

So maybe Rain should have checked with Birdie before she spoke about what Birdie likes or doesn"t, but Rain"s doing her best.

"My family"s really private, and that"s really the only reason that I"m the only one on here."

No 15-year-old should have to be the spokesperson for her famous family, but here we are.

"And I never say anything about the rest of my family because they"re all very private people."

So, first of all: catfishing is bad, but catfishing as a celebrity who is already going through a hard time — we"re guessing that Ami Brown"s lung cancer is just one of his current struggles — is worse.

You might think that only a fool would get caught by that, but that doesn"t mean that a foolish person deserves to be deceived.

There are a lot of desperate, lonely people who would love to believe that they"re in a relationship with a famous person.

And there are some truly unhealthy people who would get a thrill out of tricking someone into believing that.

Second of all, though, the Browns are continuing to make a big mistake by staying off of social media.

Remember the fan controversy over that photo of Billy Brown? If Ami and Billy were active on social media, they"d have a chance at controlling the narrative about Billy continuing to smoke while his wife battles lung cancer.

At the very least, they could bombard fans with enough content that a random photo of them would have gotten less scrutiny.

Also, Rain uses the video to share that she has "almost" 40,000 followers on Instagram. She actually has more than 40K, now.

Anyway, here"s the video of Rain Brown. As we said, she seems a little anxious, but that"s more than understandable.

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Josh Duggar Trying to Weasel Out of Catfishing Lawsuit!

Of all of the many, many things that we’ve heard about Josh Duggar, it’s easy to forget that he’s accused of catfishing women using another dude’s photo. And that guy is suing him over the damage to his reputation and his business.

We guess that, if you never see the inside of a courtroom despite molesting a bunch of young girls, you start to feel like you should never get into trouble.

Because Josh Duggar is trying to worm his way out of the lawsuit.

Now, after all of the Josh Duggar sex scandals, the embattled reality star has finally learned that he’s accountable for his own misdeeds.

Just kidding!

As we all know, Josh Duggar isn’t sorry for molesting his sisters. Because, you see, the devil made him do it.

When you’re a member of the Duggar fertility cult, front-hugging is a huge no-no, but apparently even the most evil deeds can be allowed so long as you super promise to never do it again and ask for forgiveness.

All within the context of the Duggar family’s very fringe religious beliefs.

But while those of us with a solid grasp of right-and-wrong are hung up on Josh Duggar’s history of sexually preying upon and molesting multiple young girls, including two of his own sisters, he’s done more than that.

The Duggars, of course, are concerned that he viewed porn.

And the fact that he cheated on his wife is just the awful icing on the horrendous cake.

Josh Duggar is being sued over how he went about cheating.

Matthew James McCarthy (the guy in this photo, who is definitely not Josh Duggar) is a DJ in California.

He is suing Josh Duggar for allegedly using his photo on OkCupid, Twitter, and Ashley Madison in order to flirt with various women.

When you use someone else’s photo and/or identity over the internet, folks, this is called catfishing. 

Now, you might be thinking “gee, that’s a crappy thing to do to those women and to McCarthy, but what grounds does he have to sue?”

Well, as you can imagine, anything associated with Josh Duggar is pretty heavily tainted.

And, very unfairly, that foul association seems to be impacting Matthew James McCarthy.

Both personally … and professionally.

McCarthy says that he’s received nasty personal messages referring to him as “Josh Duggar’s boy toy” and “DJ Duggar.”

Both of those are unfair, but the second is perhaps worse — because it’s catchy.

Remember, this is not a voluntary association of McCarthy’s. It’s not like he was friends with Josh or anything.

(If you’re having trouble feeling sympathy for McCarthy, imagine if, say, Bill Cosby used your photo to flirt with women on social media and that the whole world found out and saw your picture in that context)

What’s worse, McCarthy reports that he has lost gigs over the negative association with Josh Duggar.

McCarthy is seeking damages to compensate for his losses.

It doesn’t look like Josh Duggar is feeling apologetic about his actions … which is no surprise … because Josh is fighting back in court.

According to documents obtained by The Daily Mail, Josh Duggar wants the lawsuit dismissed.

Josh was issued a summons to appear in court back in May, and apparently he’s seeking to quash the summons because … he doesn’t live in California and the suit was filed in California.

Nothing says “I’m innocent” like fighting back on jurisdictional technicalities, amirite?

McCarthy argues that Josh Duggar has made trips to California, but Josh’s legal team is essentially responding by saying that Josh Duggar didn’t catfish anyone in California.

It’s possible that McCarthy will have to try again in federal court. It’s also possible that he’ll be able to make a case for continuous jurisdiction.

Some would argue that McCarthy, Josh Duggar’s alleged victim, being in California should be enough to justify the suit in its current setting.

We’re not legal experts, however, so we’ll have to wait and see what the courts decide, though.

View Slideshow: Josh Duggar Sex Scandal Timeline: How His Family’s Empire Crumbled

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Sister Wives Season 7 Episode 6 Recap: Another Catfishing Scandal?

The drama on Sister Wives has always been up there with some of the best on reality television, but Meri Brown’s catfishing scandal was one of the craziest developments on TV last year. 

The drama continued on Sister Wives Season 7 Episode 6, with Meri struggling to move on in the aftermath of it, but why did Kody just want to move on from it?

He did not want the perpetrator to get any more ammunition to use against the family.

While that is definitely a good reason, Meri needed some closure and that closure came in the form of causing some more drama. 

Meri decided that the best course of action would be to go meet up with a woman named Cheryl, who was targeted by the same person. She kept Kody in the dark about the whole thing until she booked her flight to Atlanta. 

As you probably know if you watch Sister Wives online, Kody Brown does not like being blindsided, but there was really not much he could do about this one.

View Slideshow: 18 Reality TV Show Families That Make Us Want to Vomit

It’s not like Meri was going to get the money back from the flight ticket. 

Robyn was very supportive of Meri.

She understood that Meri needed to close this chapter in her life and doing so would allow her to move on and not worry about it popping back up down the line. 

When Meri met up with Cheryl, both women became instant friends.

That’s sort of what happens when you realize the same person who made your life hell, did the same to someone else. 

In other words: they had much to discuss. Meri was very open about just how far Sam/Lindsey went to pull the wool over her eyes.

Meri revealed that Sam had lied about investing in the business and that she had given over some details about the family. 

Meri then lifted the lid on the big road trip fiasco. She had went on a road trip with Lindsey because she had cancer. 

Meri put all of the pieces of the puzzle together when she was in that car and there was much drama when Lindsey went crazy when Meri questioned her. 

The psychotic person even went as far as saying that Meri’s phone and house had been bugged and that eher every move was being watched.

It genuinely sounded like the most horrible experience for anyone to go through. 

It was clear that this whole meeting was a positive thing for Meri. Just being there, laughing about the person who had made her life hell made her realize that it was all in the past. 

Meri’s next plan of action with Cheryl was to visit a therapist to understand the catfisher’s motivations for being so cruel to everyone.

The therapist was quick to point out that there’s no solid reason they were targeted. 

In the end, Meri returned to Kody and the pair got talking about their life together. Things are actually looking up for them. 

Elsewhere, with Maddie’s wedding out of the way, it was time for the family to start planning Mykelti’s. I mean, does this family ever stop planning weddings? 

Christine was nervous at the prospect of Mykelti getting married.

She felt that things were moving along a little quickly and she was not quite ready to hand her daughter over to Tony.

Christine was also annoyed that the pair were making out in front of the younger siblings.

She felt like she needed time with Tony to lay some ground rules and to get to know him. 

What did you think of all the drama?

Sound off below!

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Sister Wives Season Premiere Recap: Catfishing Fallout!

Last night on TLC, Sister Wives Season 7 Episode 1 took us back into the lives of the Browns and their always-turbulent living situation.

Oh how we missed them, too.

At this point, you don’t even have to watch Sister Wives online to know the general gist of what’s going on with the polygamous family.

Yes, Meri Brown’s catfishing scandal has made plenty of headlines and the Season 7 premiere wasted no time delving into them.

Robyn Brown said flat out that “everything has changed” regarding the family dynamic since Meri revealed this jaw-dropping news.

Bottom line: A woman pretending to be a man had an emotional affair with Meri while the Browns were on vacation. It didn’t end well.

“I ended up in Robyn’s hotel room one night and told her what was going on,” Meri confessed during a group family therapy session.

Meri “was very nervous” when she finally opened up about the whole catfish saga, Robyn says: “I could tell she was really embarrassed.

Meri Brown Breaks Down to Kody Over Catfishing Scandal: I Was Angry at You!

“She was worried I was going to judge her and she sat there and told me some pretty horrifying things that had happened to her.

“Things that she’s still dealing with.” 

Meri said that her would-be online lover who deceived her began blackmailing her online had threatened both her and her family.

“[They said] you don’t want to mess with me,” Meri explains, and as sister wife Janelle says, “this [was] a huge wake-up call” for her.

Christine was disgusted – that someone would do this to Meri. “That is just evil to create these identities to deceive people,” she said.

As for Kody, he felt like he’d been “kicked to the curb” and felt that he was going to be dumped by at least one of the Sister Wives.

“Is that right? Because, that’s how I feel,” he says, and she bluntly notes that her husband didn’t take care of their relationship enough.

Sister Wives Preview: The Browns Try Therapy, Will it Work?

She also is pissed at the catfish freak for “bringing [the chaos] into the family” (and telling tabloids that Kody is only banging Robyn).

In any case … it’s NOT over. Yet.

The Browns’ family, that is.

“There’s still a lot of stuff to figure out and we still have this person doing things and causing problems for us,” Meri Brown explains.

But there is hope. There is.

Kody tells her, arms wrapped around one of his four spouses as she breaks down, “I’m sorry this happened. We’ll be here for you.”

Stay tuned.

Sister Wives Season Premiere Recap: Catfishing Fallout!

Last night on TLC, Sister Wives Season 7 Episode 1 took us back into the lives of the Browns and their always-turbulent living situation.

Oh how we missed them, too.

At this point, you don’t even have to watch Sister Wives online to know the general gist of what’s going on with the polygamous family.

Yes, Meri Brown’s catfishing scandal has made plenty of headlines and the Season 7 premiere wasted no time delving into them.

Robyn Brown said flat out that “everything has changed” regarding the family dynamic since Meri revealed this jaw-dropping news.

Bottom line: A woman pretending to be a man had an emotional affair with Meri while the Browns were on vacation. It didn’t end well.

“I ended up in Robyn’s hotel room one night and told her what was going on,” Meri confessed during a group family therapy session.

Meri “was very nervous” when she finally opened up about the whole catfish saga, Robyn says: “I could tell she was really embarrassed.

Meri Brown Breaks Down to Kody Over Catfishing Scandal: I Was Angry at You!

“She was worried I was going to judge her and she sat there and told me some pretty horrifying things that had happened to her.

“Things that she’s still dealing with.” 

Meri said that her would-be online lover who deceived her began blackmailing her online had threatened both her and her family.

“[They said] you don’t want to mess with me,” Meri explains, and as sister wife Janelle says, “this [was] a huge wake-up call” for her.

Christine was disgusted – that someone would do this to Meri. “That is just evil to create these identities to deceive people,” she said.

As for Kody, he felt like he’d been “kicked to the curb” and felt that he was going to be dumped by at least one of the Sister Wives.

“Is that right? Because, that’s how I feel,” he says, and she bluntly notes that her husband didn’t take care of their relationship enough.

Sister Wives Preview: The Browns Try Therapy, Will it Work?

She also is pissed at the catfish freak for “bringing [the chaos] into the family” (and telling tabloids that Kody is only banging Robyn).

In any case … it’s NOT over. Yet.

The Browns’ family, that is.

“There’s still a lot of stuff to figure out and we still have this person doing things and causing problems for us,” Meri Brown explains.

But there is hope. There is.

Kody tells her, arms wrapped around one of his four spouses as she breaks down, “I’m sorry this happened. We’ll be here for you.”

Stay tuned.

Meri Brown Breaks Down to Kody Over Catfishing Scandal: I Was Angry at You!

In a preview clip for the season premiere of Sister Wives, Kody Brown confronts Meri Brown on why she engaged in an online affair last year.

If you recall, Meri was the victim of a catfishing scandal in which she had a relationship with a woman named Jackie Overton who had been posing as a man.

In the clip, Kody accuses Meri of wanting out of their relationship.

"You didn"t want to be out of the family, you just wanted to be out of your relationship with me," he tells her.

A contemplative Meri finally opens up.

"Kody, this person got so far into my head that I didn"t know what end was up sometimes," she reveals. "And I"m still trying to get her out of there."

But Kody still prods her.

"You seemed so angry, I didn"t feel like I could get to you," he says. "I didn"t feel like we could talk."

Meri finally breaks down and admits that she did harbor animosity toward him.

"There were times I was angry at you, Kody. I"m not going to lie," she confesses.

"Because, if you and I had taken better care of our relationship, then I wouldn"t have been in such a vulnerable place and I would have been open to other friendships that wouldn"t lead to this kind of deception and evil," she continues.

"So I was angry at you for not being there for me."

While Meri may want to put this humiliation behind her, Overton revealed earlier this year that she would be releasing "sexually graphic" voicemails and photos from their relationship.

Meri first opened up about the affair to her family last year on the Sister Wives reunion.

“At the time it seemed so vague," Kody said at the time. "I didn’t want to push her … she hasn’t felt well, hasn’t seemed like herself for a long time,” he lamented.

Sister Wives premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on TLC.

Sister Wives Trailer: Betrayal. Tears. Rage. Catfishing.

Sister Wives returns to TLC May 8, and judging by the network’s sneak peek of the new season below, it’s going to be an intense ride.

Sister Wives Preview: The Browns Try Therapy, Will it Work?

At this point, it’s been all over the tabloids, so you don’t have to watch Sister Wives online to know the pretext for the coming season.

Long story short: Meri Brown had some sort of emotional affair with a person online who was actually running catfish game on her.

While the Browns have gone into damage control mode, questions remain – both about what happened and what it means for them.

They claim that the affair was only through texts and emails, but the catfisher maintains that the relationship was real in every sense.

Everybody is pretty shaken up by it, too, he/she claims … while divulging that Meri told him Kody Brown is only banging Robyn of late.

Meri Brown, for her part, has played the victim, and played it well. Which makes sense, as she is the victim to a degree in this situation.

However, no therapy session, as seen in the above clip, can mask the fact that she had an affair because of trouble on the home front.

There are also three other wives and one husband affected by this.

“From an outside perspective, I see the manipulation all over it,” Janelle Brown says, though it’s unclear who she blames for all this.

Noting that the incident indeed caused a rift with the wives, Christine Brown adds, “Robyn’s mad because she feels betrayed. I’m sure.”

Clearly, as the family prepares to celebrate with Maddie Brown over a special announcement, Meri’s actions have cast a pall over it.

Mariah also distances herself from her mother, who seems to have nobody else in the large, polygamous family to look to for support. 

At one point in therapy, things get particularly heated.

“There were times I was angry at you, Kody,” Meri tells her husband, point blank and in tears. I’m not going to lie. I was angry at you.”

The resentment and tension are undoubtedly clear.

Less clear? Whether the Browns are playing this up for ratings after the fact, or whether Kody is getting dumped by three wives imminently.

Sister Wives Reunion Recap: Catfishing Confessions

We had been promised a Sister Wives reunion unlike any other.

Sunday night, TLC delivered on that promise and then some.

With the backdrop of Meri’s catfishing confessions, the stakes were abnormally high heading into Sister Wives Season 6 Episode 14. And it showed.

Kody Brown, his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, and their children all sat down with Today reporter Tamron Hall to discuss all the drama.

While it was far from the only noteworthy crisis of Season 6, Meri Brown catfished online by a woman pretending to be a man certainly felt like it.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Kody said of the unsettling situation.

“At the time it seemed so vague. I didn’t want to push her … she hasn’t felt well, hasn’t seemed like herself for a long time,” he lamented.

Until Robyn “made” her, Meri didn’t even ‘fess up to her spouse.

“I knew something wasn’t right. I was begging her to talk to me,” Robyn said of her sister wife, and at that point, she decided to reveal all.

“I just knew I had to,” Meri said, adding that her online “friend” threatened to ruin her. “I believe that was the goal – to break up this family.”

If so, #fail. As you know if you watch Sister Wives online, what doesn’t kill the Browns has a way of making them stronger in the end.

“My first reaction was to put on armor and go to war,” Janelle says, while Christine echoed that: “Our job is to keep everybody safe.”

Meri didn’t feel safe. She felt scared as well as rather guilty.

As for Kody’s take on what some call an emotional affair?

“This is somebody who I see was trying to exploit her,” he explained, “to literally harm our family and find some way to damage our kids.”

“So nothing but forgiveness in this case. I see it as a flirt. So what,” he says, noting he doesn’t “even know what” emotional infidelity is.

That’s the company line and he’s sticking to it, anyway.

As Meri sees it, “people are always going to believe what they want to believe,” but someone “targeted us and wanted to tear our family apart.”

That, she reiterates, is “not happening on our watch.”

View Slideshow: 18 Reality TV Show Families That Make Us Want to Vomit