Sometimes you hear about online scams that end up taking thousands of dollars from folks who either have really big hearts or are just a bit naive when it comes to the safety precautions you need to take online. This can make you want to shut down and go completely offline. Speaking of which, a Nevada woman who admitted to faking a cancer diagnosis and running multiple scams has pleaded guilty to theft.
She’s also facing accusations from a needlepoint community saying they were also scammed and that her financial damage goes far beyond $20,000.
A Nevada mom pleaded guilty to felony theft after scamming thousands of dollars while faking a cancer diagnosis.
According to the New York Post, Haleigh Knight pleaded guilty in a Las Vegas court on Monday, April 13, 2026, to a felony theft charge. The Nevada mom admitted to lying about a pancreatic cancer diagnosis and setting up a fake fundraising page to scam thousands of dollars from people, per the news outlet.
Prosecutors shared Knight’s text messages, which established that Knight admitted to posing as different people and creating a GoFundMe account “to maintain her cancer ruse,” New York Post reported.
It turned out, there were many iterations in which this woman scammed people. KLAS reported that Knight also pretended to be a hotel employee, and convinced one of her victims that she was was working as a “part-time employee of the hotel as a content creator.”
The victim told police that she never received payments from Knight, but owed her fees for contracts, deposits for fake trips, and even money for a fake “expedited passport” that never arrived, per the new outlet. This kind of behavior is diabolical.
Knight even manipulated and scammed friends and online supporters.
@thecrimedesk A Nevada mother admitted to falsely claiming she had pancreatic cancer in an effort to make others “feel guilty and more inclined to love and spend time with her,” while collecting more than $20,000 in donations that she used on herself and her children. Haleigh Knight pleaded guilty Monday in a Las Vegas court to a felony theft charge, acknowledging she fabricated the diagnosis and created a fake fundraising page to obtain thousands of dollars from multiple people—including a longtime friend and breast cancer survivor—between June 2023 and April 2024. Prosecutors said Knight’s own text messages showed she admitted to posing as different individuals and creating GoFundMe accounts to keep up the scheme, using the money to pay bills and support her children. #haleighknight #nevada
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Suzanee Duroy spoke to 3 News and said that she donated $1,000 to Knight’s GoFundMe after meeting her while working together at a surgery center in 2022. She was able to eventually get a refund for her money, but the former oncology nurse was also a breast cancer survivor and felt “so manipulated” in the end.
A warrant obtained by KLAS explained that after Knight had been caught, she spoke to one of her victims to tell them that she “had no excuses” and she did it because “her head feels messed up and like she’s two different people and she can’t control it.”
That’s not really taking any kind of accountability, but at least she admitted to some of her wrongdoings.
An online needlepoint community has come out to divulge they are also victims of Knight’s lies.
As if Knight hasn’t caught enough financial hardships, people across the country within the needlepoint community are now coming out to say that “the financial damages goes far beyond the nearly $20,000 theft case,” KSNV reported.
Individuals have been speaking out on social media to warn others about Knight and “her so-called business,” per KSNV. Chamberlain Collier, an avid needlepointer, said that Knight began offering needlepoint “finishing” services in a needlepoint Facebook group.
Collier claimed that her interactions with Knight seemed normal, but many people were waiting months for their finished work from her without any updates, per the news outlet. It was then that Knight started to tell people she was going through cancer treatment.
Collier explained that the needlepoint community “later concluded Knight was lying and taking money without fulfilling orders,” KSNV reported. Court documents list 20 criminal cases in the needlepoint scam series. Some have their needlepoint canvases back.
This is such a heartbreaking case of kind individuals trusting the wrong people. Hopefully, everyone who was scammed by Knight receives their funds and goods back.
