Female NJ doctor accused of being ‘America’s biggest catfish’

📖NJ doctor is infamous ‘star’ of hit memoir

🏥NJ health network backs doctor

⚖️ No clear laws on ‘catfish’ schemes

A New Jersey doctor has been “outed” by the New York Post as the real-life antagonist of a best-selling memoir, in which women said they were catfished online by a sneaky love interest.

“There is No Ethan” debuted in June to acclaim from the New York Times, People Magazine and Spotify, among others.

The author and sociologist chronicles her own experience and that of two other women who developed separate digital relationships in 2011 with “Ethan Schuman” - who turned out to be Dr. Emily Slutsky.

Slutsky has been working for years as a gynecologist on staff with Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health at Jersey City Medical Center, New York Post was among the first to report.

Slutsky appeared in a video posted to YouTube by RWJBarnabas Health last year, in which she was billed as Medical Director of Women's Health, Genetics Division.

She now practices medicine under her married surname, Marantz, according to the health system's website.

None of the three women in the memoir were scammed for money or any other material items, according to author Anna Akbari.

Instead, the women separately dealt with “intense emotional intimacy” while being manipulated into thinking the “man” they were in contact with was going through made-up traumas, as teased in the Amazon book summary.

“Jersey City Medical Center has full confidence in Dr. Marantz’s ability to continue providing the highest quality of care to her patients,” the Post said, quoting a hospital spokesperson.

“The events from more than a decade ago have been reviewed and addressed to the satisfaction of the medical center,” the spokesperson said.

Slutsky has said her school and training included the following reputable institutions:

- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
- University College Cork School of Medicine
- Cornell Weill Medical College - Center for Health Informatics and Policy in New York

The act of pretending to be someone else or a made-up person does not violate any New Jersey law, directly.

If such alleged impersonation ultimately leads to fraud, or cyber-harassment, then existing laws might be apply.

Cyber-harassment would be considered a fourth-degree offense, unless the accused harasser is targeting a minor, in which case it would be treated as a third-degree crime.

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