The dark psychology behind cancer scammers like Belle Gibson & why your Insta pals could share the same chilling traits
SHE had up built a business empire by claiming she was curing her brain tumour with ‘nutrition, patience, determination and love’.
But Belle Gibson’s millions of followers and mega bucks business deals were built on a lie – she faked her brain cancer diagnosis and conned family, friends and investors for years.
And even more shocking is the fact that her story is far from unique.
She is one of a growing list of young, attractive and seemingly inspirational women who fake serious illness to make money.
And the drama isn’t lost on TV execs who are now turning the stories of these vile female fraudsters into hit shows pulling in millions of viewers.
Belle Gibson’s story is the subject of new Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar with Kaitlyn Dever starring as the Aussie scammer.
Psychologist Kerry Daynes believes Gibson’s followers became almost “cult-like”.
“All frauds work by tapping into what victims most want – whether that is wealth, love or, in the case of wellness scams, the hope of a cure from diseases or ailments that traditional medicine can’t provide,” she explains.
“The false sympathy that Belle Gibson received for her ‘battle with cancer’, her status as a ‘guru’, and praise for her commitment to ‘helping’ others would have been validating and ego-boosting.
“The constant positive feedback and ego-stroking helps scammers detach from the harm that they are causing others, they are able to justify it as giving the people what they want in their hour of need.”
In 2009 Gibson, then aged 20, claimed to have been diagnosed with a “malignant brain cancer” and been given “six weeks, four months tops” to live.
However, she told her followers that she had chosen to withdraw from chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, and had instead embarked on ‘a quest to heal myself naturally.’
Her remarkable story of survival against the odds helped her to quickly amass 200,000 followers in the early days of Instagram who lapped up her updates.
She then launched a best-selling wellness and nutrition app, followed by a cookbook, called The Whole Pantry, crediting her diet for curing her of her terminal illness, and inspiring others to follow her in ‘empowering myself to save my own life’.
Her app was downloaded an incredible 200,000 times within its first month and was voted Apple’s best food and drink app of 2013.
But while her star was rising, her lifestyle was arousing suspicions in those closest to her.
She claimed to be raising thousands for charity – but was living a jet-set lifestyle with foreign travel, a luxury apartment, cosmetic dentistry and a designer wardrobe.
Faked records
But her empire was soon going to come tumbling down when her friend Chanelle McAuliffe confronted her with suspicions that Gibson’s cancer claims were false and that she was operating a scam.
When Gibson refused to come clean, McAuliffe reported her to the police, a lawyer and investigative journalists who broke the story about her fraud in 2015.
Next week sees the UK premiere of Disney+ show Scamanda, which tells the true story of Amanda Riley, a devoutly Christian young Californian woman who faked cancer for almost a decade.
She launched a blog ‘Lymphoma Can Suck It” and defrauded thousands of people by inviting supporters and local community members to donate money to help fund her medical care, and received a signed guitar from a meet-and-greet with country singer LeAnn Rimes.
But in 2015 an investigative journalist received an anonymous tip that Riley was a fraudster.
She had faked her medical records, doctors’ letters and even shaved her head to make it look like she was undergoing chemotherapy to keep her scam going.
Five years later she was charged with wire fraud.
She pleaded guilty and was jailed for five years. At her sentencing hearing, Riley apologised to the judge and victims.
“This is the worst thing I have ever done and the worst mistake I could have made,” she said.
“I don’t sleep well at night because this haunts me daily. I can’t even look at myself in the mirror without feeling ashamed, and I am so sorry.”
They are quite narcissistic characters who are cashing in on vulnerable people – the money is the central aspect
Dr Keri Nixon
But what drives these women to turn their entire lives into a lie?
And why use something as serious as cancer – the cause of very real devastation to millions across the world – to scam others?
Warped narcissism
Forensic psychologist Dr Keri Nixon says there are two main categories of people who become wellness scammers – those in it for the money and those in it for the attention.
Those in it just for financial gain tend to be “the more manipulative, planned, and organised people,” she explained.
“They are quite narcissistic characters who are cashing in on vulnerable people – the money is the central aspect.”
This can be seen in the case of Nicole Elkabbas, a 42 year old from Kent who scammed people into donating £45,000 – all to fund her gambling habit, and trips to Barcelona and Rome.
Elkabbas had set up a GoFundMe campaign in 2018, falsely claiming that she needed the money to secure private treatment for ovarian cancer in Spain, where she would have access to a costly “breakthrough drug”.
A picture from her campaign showed her lying in a hospital bed – yet it had actually been taken months earlier when she was receiving routine gallbladder treatment.
Police began to investigate when a doctor who had recently given her the all clear spotted the deceptive crowd-funder.
She was eventually jailed in 2021 for two years and nine months.
The judge said that Elkabbas had carried out a “cunning and manipulative” deception.
Elkabbas is a clear example of how false claims of cancer can be used to tug at heartstrings for pure financial gain.
But others carry out the scam for sympathy and attention, according to Dr Nixon.
“There is another category of person, almost like Munchausen’s, where they love the attention, they like the fact that people feel sorry for them for having this dreadful illness.
“When people are messaging them telling them how inspiring, brave and amazing they are, that is feeding their psychological needs.”
And many of us might not be as different to these people as we would like to think.
We all know those Facebook people who check in at A&E or post that they are so down today… wellness scammers are an extreme of this
Dr Keri Nixon
“Most of us who use social media will post our pictures and it is not about attention, we just enjoy showing our friends what we are up to.
“We all know those Facebook people who check in at A&E or post that they are so down today.
“They are waiting for a response of ‘what is wrong? Are you OK?’ And as a psychologist I see this as a sign of people seeking something that they aren’t getting,” she added.
“These wellness scammers are an extreme of this – then they get caught up in the deception so much that some of them will almost start to believe their own lies.
“The money then becomes an added extra which is fantastic, but they are loving the notoriety, the attention, the sympathy, and that drives them almost more than the money.”
Celebrity cons
Sometimes the families themselves are in on the lie – as with the case of British teenager Megan Bhari.
Not only were donors conned out of around £400,000, but they duped celebrities including Louis Tomlinson, Taylor Swift, even winning an award from Prime Minister David Cameron.
Aged 15, her mother Jean told friends that her daughter – who already suffered from a disease causing a build-up of pressure on the brain – had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
They started a charity, Believe in Magic, a “Make-a-Wish”-style organisation to bring hope to seriously ill children.
The charity had thrown parties, organised trips to Disneyland, and even organised a glitzy fundraising ball with celebrities at London’s Natural History Museum.
Jean herself posted regular updates about her daughter’s hospital visits – at one point even raising £120,000 in 48 hours for emergency treatment in the US, saying Megan’s tumour had worsened.
She even once claimed that Megan had severe sepsis and that doctors had given her only a 10% chance of surviving the next week.
But it was all a lie.
Jean was fundraising once again for treatment in America, but this time other parents were suspicious.
They started to investigate, and found that Jean and Megan weren’t opening their emails in a hospital at all – but a luxury hotel at Disney World, Orlando.
Cancer types, signs and symptoms
Everything you need to know about different types of Cancer
Bowel cancer symptoms: What are they and when should I start to worry?
What is prostate cancer? Signs and symptoms of the condition
What are skin cancer symptoms and what does the disease look like?
How to check your breasts for signs of cancer
Stomach cancer: Symptoms, causes, and treatments
What is a brain tumour and what are the symptoms?
What does a cancerous mole look like?
What are esophageal cancer symptoms?
How to tell the difference between haemorrhoids and cancer
Are sunbeds safe and can they cause cancer?
What is glioblastoma and what are the symptoms?
Then in March 2018, Megan died in hospital.
Yet the subsequent inquest into her death revealed the suspicions to be correct – there had never been a cancerous brain tumour.
Megan had in fact died from acute cardiac arrhythmia, linked to a fatty liver, which was most likely caused by obesity.
Family members looking back remember something always being off when it came to Jean and Megan, and half-sister Kate revealed her mum “wanted one of us to have an accident” because she craved attention.
A former friend of Jean even remembers her once saying at a Believe in Magic event: “The sicker Meg is, the more attention we get, the more money we make.”
TikTok scammer
Kerry Daynes believes that a key attraction of the fraud is the creation of a highly engaged online community.
“That community (with the scammer as an almost cult-like leader figure) fosters a sense of belonging, acceptance and emotional connection, including the scammer themselves,” says Kerry.
“It may be the first time they have had these emotional needs so well met.”
This is exactly what American teenager Maddie Russo did when she started documenting her cancer journey on TikTok back in 2021 – building up a huge following.
The 19-year-old claimed that doctors had told her she’d developed a “football-sized” tumour that had wrapped around her lower spine and spread to her blood.
With flowing brunette hair and tanned skin, she looked nothing like someone undergoing chemotherapy – yet spun this to her advantage, posting tips on how to stay glam while battling cancer.
I didn’t do this for attention. I did this as an attempt to get my family back together
Maddie Russo
In all, she’d raised more than $37,000 before medical professionals on TikTok finally uncovered the lie.
Footage of her treatment had actually been shot in her apartment, and there were no records of her having been treated in a hospital.
She was eventually given probation and a 10-year suspended sentence in October 2023.
Russo told the court: “I didn’t do this for money or greed. I didn’t do this for attention. I did this as an attempt to get my family back together.”