Social Scammers | Belle Gibson, Coco Berthmann and Brittany Dawn

<div>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.</div> <br> <div>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.</div> <br> <div>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.</div> <br> <ul> <li>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.</li> <li>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 s