Social Scammers | Belle Gibson, Coco Berthmann and Brittany Dawn

Mar 03, 2022, 05:00 AM

The rise of social media has led to it being easier for us to make new friends, keep in touch with friends and family all over the world.  Technology has given us access to any information we could ever need, all within seconds.

With this increase in social media use comes some downsides too.  People are now more easily able to take advantage of others and money is able to change hands so easily.

In this episode of the True Crime Society Podcast, we chat about three Social Scammers – women who have been in trouble with the law after obtaining funds fraudulently from unsuspecting social media followers.

  • Belle Gibson is one of Australia’s most prolific social scammers.  She managed to deceive huge corporations.  Apple planned to include her health and wellness app on all iPads and Apple Watches.  She told lie after lie about her health – she claimed to have terminal cancer that she cured by using holistic therapies.  She also claimed that she underwent multiple heart operations and had endured strokes.  None of this was true.  When her deception was uncovered, she was dropped  by Apple and Penguin Books.  Belle has been ordered to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars – so far, none of the repayments have materialised.
  • Coco Berthmann had a troubled start to life.  She has claimed that she managed to escape Germany as a teenager and that she had been trafficked by her parents for years.  She moved to America and became a human rights activist.  She established the Coco Berthmann Scholarship Fund and spoke about her ‘experiences’ publicly.  In early 2022, Coco told a friend that she had stage 3 mantle cell lymphoma cancer.  A GoFundMe was started for Coco, and it raised thousands of dollars.  In February 2022, Coco was arrested on suspicion of communications fraud.  Police investigated her ‘cancer diagnosis’  and found no evidence that Coco ever had the illness.  Many of Coco’s other claims have now been questioned.  There have been allegations that she was not actually a victim of child sex trafficking, said police, who could not verify her claims of working with the FBI.
  • Brittany Dawn has had a long, troubled run as an Influencer.  She started out as a fitness influencer with her company BDawnFit.  She got into trouble with her followers years ago after her ‘personalized’ eating plans, that people paid up to $500 for, turned out to not be so personal.  She was also accused of triggering people with eating disorders by using tags such as #skipdinnerwakeupthinner.  Brittany refused to refund most members and tried to move on with her life as a ‘Christian’ influencer.  She married Jordan Nelson, a man who lost his job as a police officer after he used ‘excessive force’ during an arrest.  She also faced much backlash after she released a tearful video, detailing how her husband shot her dog after it was hit by a car.  The dog was still alive and breathing, but the couple decided to shoot it instead of taking it to a vet.  In February 2022, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the state of Texas was suing Brittany for between $250,000 and $1 million in penalties and court fees for misleading customers. 

You can read our blogs on these cases:



This week’s episode is sponsored by Apostrophe and Better Help.

Visit Apostrophe.com/tcs, click Begin Visit, then use our code TCS at sign up and you’ll get your first visit for only five dollars!

BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. Visit BetterHelp.com/society
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