’90 Day Fiancé: Is David Murphey Being Catfished By Lana?
90 Day Fiancé fans are no strangers to catfishing. The hit TLC franchise has had its fair share of catfishing scares and accusations, and the same holds true for the current season of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. David Murphey, who recently appeared on the season for the first time, is a 60-year-old who has fallen for Lana, a Ukrainian 27-year-old claiming to hail from Pavlohrad, Ukraine. While Murphey seems to be head-over-heels for Lana, fans aren’t so sure. Many think she’s scamming Murphey, or that she’s a catfish. Others have been saying his story reminds them of Caesar and Maria from the previous season of 90 Day Fiancé. Here’s what we know so far.
David Murphey was stood up three times
David Murphey was introduced to 90 Day Fiancé fans during the March 15 episode of Before the 90 Days. The 60-year-old Las Vegas resident fell hard and fast for Lana, who he met online.
The two have allegedly been chatting for seven years, since Lana was 20. David Murphey explained to producers, “I thought she was aggressively interested in me. Over the course of the next month or two, we started chatting more and more. I actually said, ‘Are we boyfriend and girlfriend?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’”
However, David Murphey has tried to visit Lana in the past, only to meet with failure. It turns out Murphey has tried to visit her in Ukraine three times. Each time, he was disappointed. He said, “The first time, she did stand me up. Second time, her brother died. Third time, she had a medical issue. She had to go have surgery and it put her out of commission for three weeks.”
To reiterate, Murphey flew to Ukraine each of these times to visit Lana, and was stood up each time. For many people, this would be a major red flag, but it seems as if David Murphey has committed himself to trying to make this work, and buys Lana’s excuses for the other two times she failed to show up.
David Murphey spends plenty on Lana
It could be that David Murphey feels too invested by now to really give up. The 90 Day Fiancé star admitted that he has spent a whopping total of $100,000 on Lana — an even heftier amount than Caesar Mack’s $40,000.
Murphey admitted that he’s spent the majority of this money online via the website on which he met Lana. The website has a chat function through which Murphey communicated with Lana. It’s unclear why she hasn’t given him a different form of communication, since the chat website deletes every live chat they have once they log out.
Murphey explained, “Our communication has only been through chat on the site, which is translated because she speaks no English. So I pay for that chat by the minute, and it’s very expensive. I’ve had many discussions with her about why we can’t communicate through some other modern communication method, but she will get angry about it. She’s told me she’s very shy and it’s too overwhelming to her. So I do what I have to [do] to keep Lana happy. I think during the whole time that I’ve been with Lana, I have spent over $100,000 on the website, that’s how much it costs.”
But regardless of this, it seems Murphey is smitten. He told producers, “She’s beautiful, and actually, I think she’s out of my league. The Slavic beauty just dazzles me, I was very interested in the Slavic accent ever since watching Bullwinkle cartoon shows with Boris and Natasha. Hearing Natasha speak, just always did something for me, even when I was 5 years old.”
‘90 Day Fiancé’ fans think he’s being catfished
90 Day Fiancé fans seem to be almost certain that David Murphey is being catfished by Lana. Many were also shocked that he pays by the minute to chat with her.
One Reddit user wrote, “Did he say he pays per minute for the chat? Pay by minute on an internet chat? is that the new 900#? And he doesn’t seem to think it’s odd that after years she still refuses to just exchange email addresses and send email, or use any of the many free chat services out there? Then the icing on the cake was a Ukrainian telling him flat out he’s being scammed.”
Another user joked, He should just watch Boris and Natasha on Bullwinkle. Much cheaper to get your ya yas out that way.”
“Seven years! S-E-V-E-N YEARS? How, how, how can people be so naive? Or am I the one who is naive for not thinking he just wants to be on TV? Now I’m confused,” commented another fan.
