Belle Gibson winner social media star of the year at the Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Female Awards in Sydney, Australia, 2014.
Belle Gibson, the disgraced Australian “wellness blogger” who faked terminal cancer and claimed she was cured using natural remedies, faces legal action and penalties of more than £500,000 for profiting from her elaborate global scam.
The state of Victoria’s consumer watchdog launched action in Australia’s federal court against the 24-year-old over her claim that she overcame brain cancer without resorting to conventional medicine – a claim she used to promote The Whole Pantry, her internationally successful phone app and cookbook.
Gibson, who built up a huge social media following, had promised to give some of her profits from her wellness empire to charity but it emerged that no charities had ever received any donations.
Facing pressure, she admitted in an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly magazine last year that she did not have cancer and that she fabricated the medical diagnosis which, she had claimed, gave her only months to live.
“None of it’s true,” she said.
“I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet.”
The scam caused international outrage, particularly among her devotees, some of whom were genuine cancer sufferers.
Jane Garrett, the Victorian state minister for consumer affairs, said the legal action had been launched to prevent a repeat of the scam by Gibson or others.
Health Blogger Belle Gibson at home in Melbourne, Australia.
“Selling people snake oil is as old as the hills, but its devastating damage is as fresh today," she said.
"You will never put people back into the position they were in if they believed this material and this book ... but this is an important step forward."
Penguin Australia, which published Gibson’s wholefoods cookbook, has admitted it failed to verify her claims and has agreed to pay a £15,000 donation to the Victorian Consumer Law Fund.
The publisher stopped printing the book after Gibson’s admission and has now undertaken not to publish any claims about a person's medical condition without verification by a medical practitioner.
Gibson has largely avoided the spotlight since admitting to her scam but has remained unrepentant.
#1: misterwhite To: cranky (#0)
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-06 18:40:49 Reply Private Reply
#2: cranky To: misterwhite (#1)
A little tar and feathers and a ride out of town on a rail ought to fill the bill.
cranky posted on 2016-05-06 18:45:09 Reply Private Reply
#3: paraclete To: cranky (#2)
paraclete posted on 2016-05-06 19:04:00 Reply Private Reply
#4: misterwhite To: cranky (#2)
If people died, don't you think a charge of manslaughter is appropriate?
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-06 19:16:57 Reply Private Reply
#5: U don't know me To: misterwhite (#1)
Traditional cancer treatments are no better than hers. The only difference is the traditional treatments cost a lot more. I'll be glad when Medicare goes broke so all this medical crap will come to an end. Since Medicare came into being the medical industry is nothing more than cash cow.
U don't know me posted on 2016-05-06 21:05:42 Reply Private Reply
#6: cranky To: misterwhite (#4)
If the evidence supports such a charge, then yes.
Otherwise, no.
cranky posted on 2016-05-07 07:00:17 Reply Private Reply
#7: misterwhite To: U don't know me (#5)
That is one of the top ten most ignorant statements posted on this forum that I've read.
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-07 09:30:43 Reply Private Reply
#8: Justified To: misterwhite (#7)
I just finished watching breaking bad. I really didn't like it at first but got to understand where it was going in the end.
Justified posted on 2016-05-07 09:37:36 Reply Private Reply
#9: misterwhite To: Justified (#8)
If you had access to all the seasons of Breaking Bad, I imagine it would be difficult to watch -- in that you would want to know where it's going and you want it to get there. I watched it season-by-season where you never knew if that one was going to be the last.
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-07 09:47:04 Reply Private Reply
#10: Justified To: misterwhite (#9)
Everyone said give breaking bad a season. It was hard to watch at first. I really dislike meth and the tweekers.
Justified posted on 2016-05-07 09:57:36 Reply Private Reply
#11: misterwhite To: Justified (#10)
Preachin' to the choir.
But the series showed very few users of the product and focused on production. Also, the storyline that Mister White was dying, he needed money to care for his family, was a chemistry teacher, and had a former student who was a meth dealer, all fit together in such a unique way that I never really looked at the series as a story about meth.
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-07 10:10:59 Reply Private Reply
#12: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#7)
Impressive, considering how stiff the competition is.
Roscoe posted on 2016-05-08 14:16:52 Reply Private Reply
#13: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#11)
I wondered why Mister White, a supposed chemistry genius with a super lab, couldn't make the methylamine precursor directly from ammonia.
Roscoe posted on 2016-05-08 14:21:29 Reply Private Reply
#14: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#13)
He could. But then he'd have to get his hands on a bunch of ammonia, methanol, and silicoaluminate catalyst under the watchful eyes of the DEA who know what these chemicals are used for.
Much easier to simply steal the methylamine -- which was used as a major plot point. First they stole a barrel from a warehouse, then they tried from Madrigal, and finally from the train.
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-08 16:36:04 Reply Private Reply
#15: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#12)
Actually I had to remove one to make room for his.
misterwhite posted on 2016-05-08 16:37:51 Reply Private Reply