9 Disgraced Instagram Influencers Whose Followers Turned On Them

Seriously, Anna Delvey looks like an angel next to Belle Gibson, one of the first major con artists of the Instagram age. Buckle up for a wild ride. In the 2010s, this Aussie "wellness" influencer racked up hundreds of thousands of followers by promoting clean eating and launching a best-selling app, The Whole Pantry. Sounds innocuous enough, right? Well, here's the catch: she said her healthy diet and holistic treatments had been helping her battle - and even cured - multiple types of cancer, including a brain tumor. Tours of speaking gigs and promotional events followed, she was "diagnosed" with more cancer, then she released a cookbook based on her app, and promised her followers that proceeds would be going to various charities. 

In March 2015, reports surfaced that the $300,000 Gibson has solicited for charity hadn't been donated anywhere. Soon after, her supporters turned on her and her cancer claims began to unravel. After first maintaining that she had been "falsely diagnosed" with cancer in her blood, spleen, uterus and liver by a German "magnetic therapist" (wtf?), she finally came clean in April 2015 and admitted she never had any type of cancer. So yeah, she'd just been urging people to forgo actual medical advice in favor of her own nutrition programs for years, without ever having been sick herself. In 2017, the federal court of Melbourne ordered Gibson to pay a $410,000 fine for the false charity claims, which she has still yet to do - despite going on multiple vacations and shopping for designer clothes since the ruling.

[Photo via Belle Gibson]