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Ray Allen says he was catfished by man pretending to be multiple women

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Ray Allen's legal team says the former NBA star was a victim of catfishing in "an online scheme to extract money and embarrass him by someone who appears to be troubled," lawyer David Oscar Markus told TMZ Sports.

Bryant Coleman filed a restraining order against the 18-season veteran in an Orange Country, Fla., court, alleging that Allen was stalking him. The order was granted, but Allen's camp denies Coleman's allegations, countering that Coleman has actually stalked and harassed Allen.

Allen filed an emergency motion to dismiss the case Tuesday. The motion states that "Coleman pretended to be a number of attractive women interested in Ray Allen," according to The Associated Press. "Ray believed he was speaking with these women and communicated with them."

After Allen became aware that he had been catfished, Coleman allegedly threatened to make private details of their conversations public. The two sides reached a non-disclosure agreement, TMZ Sports reports, but Allen's camp says Coleman continued to publicly harass Allen through social media by posting about his wife, children, pet, homes, and "numerous other personal items.

"Coleman not only posted about these things, he would actually post while physically located inside Ray's wife's restaurant in Orlando," the motion continued. "And he would make sure they knew it, tagging Ray and his wife on those posts."

Markus told TMZ Sports that his client "regrets ever engaging with this person online and is thankful they never met in person. This experience has negatively impacted Ray, and he hopes that others might use his mistake to learn the dangers of communicating online with strangers."

Allen and his wife, R&B singer Shannon Walker Williams, have been married since 2008 and have four children together.

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