Please note that this article will discuss topics such as cancer, mental illness and death.
The first case of Munchausen syndrome was reported in Pakistan in 1951 in a 65-year-old man who believed his symptoms aligned with diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Earlier that year, he also reported to the hospital with symptoms of hematemesis, abdominal pain, and headaches. Between his repeated trips to the hospital, no diagnoses were made concerning his physical health, but “his recurrent negative clinical and lab evaluations lead to the diagnosis of Munchausen Syndrome” (Aadil et al., 2017).
Munchausen syndrome (MS), or factitious disorder imposed on self, “is a mental health disorder where you falsify, exaggerate, or induce physical, emotional, or cognitive disorders. People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured, not to achieve a concrete benefit, such as getting medications or financial gain. This is distinguishable from malingering which is where someone exaggerates or fakes an illness to, for example, get out of work.” Munchausen syndrome is challenging to measure and diagnose due to the dishonesty of the patient, but it is roughly estimated that there are 6.8 cases of MS per 100,000 patients.
There are a few variations of Munchausen syndrome. While MS alone is when someone inflicts the appearance of an illness onto themselves, Munchausen by proxy “is where you act like the person you’re caring for (a child, a disabled individual, or an older person, for example) has a physical or mental illness while the person is not actually sick.” The most well-known case of Munchausen by proxy is that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, whose mother, DeeDee Blanchard, inflicted many different illnesses on her daughter, which eventually led to DeeDee’s murder. The other variant of MS is Munchausen syndrome by internet, which is when a user claims to have an illness, often in forums for the illness, to garner online sympathy (Cleveland Clinic, 2020). This phenomenon will be discussed in this article.
Belle Gibson
In 2009, Belle Gibson, a young Australian woman, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor after passing out at work. With a prognosis of only four months, Gibson started radiation and chemotherapy, both of which were unsuccessful. After two months of treatment, Gibson moved to alternative treatments, most notably Gerson therapy. By following this regime, Gibson was able to not only surpass the four months she was given to live but also see her tumor shrink. The miracles just kept coming, as she was able to give birth after being told she would never be able to have children. In 2012, Gibson created an Instagram account to document her journey and share how she was able to recover from terminal brain cancer. The following year, she began developing her app, The Whole Pantry, “which encourage[d] healthy eating, positive thinking and a wholesome lifestyle” (Miller, 2014). The popularity of the app and the inspirational nature of her story led Gibson to make multimillion-dollar deals with Apple and Penguin Random House Publishing.
Soon after these successes, Gibson was told her cancer had spread to her blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver. With this announcement, people become suspicious. Brain cancer isn’t known to spread to other parts of the body, and she simply didn’t appear to have cancer. No records could be found about Gibson pre-2012; the only information on her available was what she provided to the world. The turning point was when people looked into Gibson’s claims of her large charitable donations. After two journalists contacted all of the charities Gibson had said she donated to, they all reported that no donations were made. Friends, family, ex-classmates, and coworkers told news outlets across Australia about her history of lying, her evasive answers when asked about her condition, and even a video of her publisher telling her she needed to “get her story straight.” To top it all off, Gibson even lied about her birth year.
In an interview in 2015, Gibson finally revealed that she never had cancer and that everything she had said since 2009 was a lie. According to her, however, she wasn’t lying; she was being manipulated by a doctor who was convincing her she had cancer. In an interview with 60 Minutes, any chance of Gibson regaining her reputation was crushed. After the episode’s release, Apple cut all ties with Gibson, and her book was pulled from shelves. Not only did Gibson scam people out of millions of dollars, but her promotion of possibly ineffective cancer treatments may have even led to the worsening of someone’s condition or even their death.
Munchausen by Tiktok
The popularity of TikTok has led to a new wave of people pretending to have cancer to either make money or garner sympathy. One of the most recent times someone has used a fake cancer diagnosis to scam people out of their money was with Madison Russo. In 2022, the 19-year-old posted her first TikTok about her recent stage 2 pancreatic cancer diagnosis after having received a diabetes diagnosis just a few months earlier. The cancer diagnoses didn’t end there, with her also eventually revealing that she had leukemia and a football-size tumor wrapped around her spine. Russo was told due to its placement, removal was not an option and that she only had an 11% chance of survival.
Even with three different types of cancer, Russo managed to live as though she wasn’t sick. She didn’t experience hair loss and managed to stay active even during chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Her fans were curious to know how she balanced living life to the fullest while also being treated for cancer. She claimed that while some days she was able to do a 6-mile run after 14 chemotherapy treatments, there were others where she couldn’t get out of bed, and her keratin and biotin supplements couldn’t stop her hair from falling out. Russo was considered a pancreatic cancer warrior and was invited to speak at her college and at a gala for the National Pancreas Foundation, where she received four awards for her content.
Her impact on the internet and the cancer community was profound. A GoFundMe was created in her name and raised $37,000. This page was regularly updated with Russo’s condition. Eventually, a post broke the news that her cancer was getting worse, spreading across her body, and she was no longer experiencing the benefits of treatments. She was said to begin an experimental drug trial in hopes of going into remission. However, the cracks in Russo’s story began to appear with a photo she posted after one of her treatments. People, most notably medical professionals and cancer patients, pointed out that the feeding tube and port in the picture didn’t seem to be appropriately inserted, placed correctly, adhered with the proper tape, or even be an actual port used for cancer patients. Someone who remained anonymous called the police to report Russo for an unknown reason about her online presence.
Soon after this, news broke that Russo had miraculously made a full recovery from all of her cancers. This amped up the police investigation, during which it was found that all of the money donated to her GoFundMe was cashed out. It wasn’t long after this until it was officially decided that Russo was, in fact, faking the entire thing. Her TikTok page was deleted, but the reposts of her content across the internet allowed the police to thoroughly investigate the woman, with her eventually being arrested. Some information found during the investigation included the origin of the photos she was sharing, which were stolen from the social media accounts of actual cancer patients, and the total number of donors Russo stole from, which amounted to over 400.
“A lot of people have made speculation as to why I did this and how somebody who looked like they had everything together could have such a mess…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.”
Maddison Russo during her trial
In the end, GoFundMe refunded everyone who donated to Russo’s campaign. The judge ordered Russo to repay the total amount she had stolen, pay a $1,300 fine, and perform 100 hours of community service. With a 10-year suspended sentence and three years of probation, she avoided spending any time in prison.
Further Reading
While this article described a few of the most well-known cases of someone faking cancer online, there are many, many more across countries and sums of money. If you are interested, here are the names of some others who have run the same scam and a link to a video about them:
This list honestly could go on and on. The people above were chosen to be mentioned due to the sheer scope of their lies, the quality of their video coverage, or the bizarreness of the story. There are also two Dr. Phil episodes about women who have pretended to have cancer, one with the full episode available on YouTube.
Conclusion
Whether or not the people discussed in this article could be diagnosed with Munchausen by internet is unknown to us. What is known is that their immoral behavior caused harm to countless people emotionally, financially, and possibly physically. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent people from lying online, no matter how much hate is thrown at those who tried the same scheme. Here are some recommendations for handling people like those discussed in this article if you encounter them online.
Don’t engage! When you see something online that upsets or angers you, it’s very easy to react by commenting on their posts. Don’t! The thing that promotes people who either suffer from Munchausen by internet or simply are seeking attention is engagement. A negative comment is a comment regardless, and the algorithm will promote the content to other users the more likes, shares, and comments a post has. If you need to do something, report or block the user, as those actions don’t tell the social media site that the content you viewed is worth showing to others.
Be careful who you donate to. Many want to be good citizens and help people in need when possible. While there are many heartbreaking stories online, unfortunately, not everyone with a GoFunMe has the right intentions. Do your research before donating to any personal fundraisers or large charities, and ensure you know where your money is going.