Mother sentenced after scamming friends out of $20k in sick influencer travel scheme

A mother from Nevada has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars after scamming her friends out of thousands of dollars by posing as a travel influencer.

In a meticulous scheme that lasted almost a year, Haleigh Morgan Knight pretended to be a social media content creator and trip advisor for Four Seasons Hotels and told a friend she could help them achieve similar success. She sold expensive content-creation trips to people she knew, which kept falling through, and she would make “excuse after excuse,” KSNV reports.

At one point, she faked having pancreatic cancer as an excuse for not following through with the holidays and to get money through a GoFundMe. In January 2026, a case was opened against the mother after a Henderson Police Department report found that she told her ex-high school classmate, Cydney Fink, that she was an content creator. They had recently reconnected after becoming mothers.

Fink and her family believed that she was a real influencer because she had seen posts promoting brands. After expressing her interest in becoming a travel content creator too, Fink told investigators she was sent a digital contract by Knight that said she was now a “probationary employee” for Four Seasons.

She made everything look real with fake contracts, impersonated company representatives and multiple phone numbers, and nobody suspected anything. So, Fink and her relatives paid thousands of dollars on what they were told were “refundable trip deposits”.

Credit: Court TV

“Cydney stated for over a year she and her family had no idea they were being scammed due to the lies Haleigh was telling them,” a Henderson Police Department affidavit said. “Cydney stated that each time the dates for a trip would be close, an excuse was made as to why the trip fell through and got cancelled.”

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“She played on her emotions and faked cancer as an attempt to take the heat off of her. We held back and didn’t press her for the deposit returns,” one of her victims said in court. “Instead, meals were taken to her, her children were babysat for her, donations were given, all in trying to help her with her cancer.”

In total, she scammed Fink and her relatives out of $19,787.12. Knight pleaded guilty to theft in March and was sentenced to a month in the Clark County Detention Centre and two years of probation on 24th June. She has been ordered to pay the money back in restitution to all the people she scammed.

In a statement to the court, she asked for the opportunity to make amends. “Over the last year, I’ve continued working, supporting my family, getting the help I need to better understand the choices I made to make sure I never find myself in this position again,” she said.

“I respectfully ask the court to give me the opportunity to continue moving forward, make restitution, support my family, and prove through my actions that I can learn from this and be a better person.”

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Featured image credit: Court TV