Everyone knows you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the internet. However, with the rise of influencers, many viewers have come to trust these people and their content. However, this article will show you exactly why you shouldn’t! From photo editing and false advertising, to one astonishingly diabolical woman who lied to child services about her ex-boyfriend, you'll be appalled at these influencers who were embarrassingly exposed lying!
Chloe Waterz
We’d all like to look a little younger. And, well, thanks to modern cosmetics, it’s never been quite so possible. However, one influencer, Chloe Waterz, has gone viral for her claims that you can achieve a DIY facelift with essentially just sticky tape.
Pulling back the years of drooping skin, her videos leave viewers awestruck, as she goes from looking haggard to hubba-hubba. But if it looks too good to be true, then that’s probably because it is. Just keep a close eye on this clip below.
It’s quite subtle, but if you look back in slow-motion you’ll notice how it isn’t just her wrinkles that disappear, but her eyebrows become darker, her lips fuller and glossier, her overall complexion evens out, and her double chin completely vanishes. And we’re supposed to believe that that was all achieved by just some sticky tape? She pulls this kind of thing all the time, and the likelihood is that she actually uses an aging filter, making herself look older, then removes it when she reveals her makeup glow-ups, or her post-face-tape reveals. Videos like this one below most likely represent what she really looks like, without any filters.
You could argue that this might all just be ‘a bit of fun’, but the reality is Chloe is quite literally scamming people, considering that she sells face tapes of her own through her TikTok page for a whopping $25! While she denies using significant filters or being deceptive, she refuses to reveal her real age because she fears it’ll "ruin the allure" of her page, and she’s publicly stated that she likes ‘causing people to debate because it creates more engagement’. At its core, it all feels pretty dishonest, especially considering her comments are filled with people buying into the deception, genuinely asking how she achieves her looks. And those desperate commenters, like she admits, boost her content in the TikTok algorithm! Profiting from the insecurities of your fans? No amount of tape makes that okay.
Elphaba
This next one requires a little bit of background information, so buckle in, ‘cause it’s a juicy one! If you don’t already know who Elphaba is, she’s a British trans TikToker and wannabe singer, boasting nearly 500,000 followers.
Though her real name is Orion Doherty, she goes by Elphaba due to her love for musical
Wicked, featuring the character Elphaba. So much so, since being a teenager she’s been performing questionable renditions of Defying Gravity from
Wicked:
It’s shocking that Broadway hasn’t picked her up yet! Anyway, over the years the Defying Gravity crooner has gained notoriety, with many branding her an attention seeking compulsive liar. From her tales of child neglect and being homeless, to claims that she faked having Tourette’s syndrome and autism, many believe these are all just lies made up for attention. Some of these so-called lies have been fessed-up to by the creator herself:
Elphaba: The TikToker Who Faked Tourettes & Autism For Clout by iNabber Further proof for why we should just collectively agree to delete TikTok!
Missglamexplorer's Fake Airbnb
Unfortunately social media is all about showing off where you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing. And while I’d love to post that I’m indulging at a 5 star hotel in the Bahamas, the reality is I spend most of my miserable existence in my mom’s basement playing Minecraft. But don’t worry, because social media means you can fake just about anything!
There’s a subreddit called Insta-celebs-gossip where people share the most ridiculous posts they’ve stumbled upon, often catching out influencers lying. As such, one influencer, miss glam explorer, created a post gushing over "the most dreamiest Air-BnB" she’d ever stayed in. In a cozy cabin perched over the stormy forests of Munnar in India, this influencer seemed to be living the dream. Or rather, was living IN her dreams, considering her vacation snap was almost-definitely completely A.I. generated.
If this Air-BnB seemed too good to be true, it’s because it is. Just take note of the three little butterflies swarming on the left hand side which blink in and out of existence. Or the tree at top-left just sliding along with the camera panning! Worst of all, despite being so clearly A.I., or at the very least, heavily edited, the
phony influencer apparently doubled down and claimed that the stay cost her $38,000 per night. Sure, and I bet the staff at this resort are all tux wearing unicorns who can sing showtunes and dance! Pretty sad to contemplate how we now live in society where A.I.-image-modification is so advanced that people are using it to blatantly lie about their lives.
Mikayla Nogueira
With a staggering 15.8 million followers and over 1.5 billion likes, Mikayla Nogueira is one of the biggest beauty influencers on TikTok. Known for her straight-to-the-point brutally honest makeup reviews, Mikayla has become a trusted source of information amongst the online makeup community. Though, as you’ve probably already guessed, let's delve into why she shouldn’t be trusted.
It was 2023 and Mikayla posted a TikTok where she reviewed L’Oreal’s Telescopic Lift mascara. In what was so clearly a paid partnership, Mikayla gushed over the mascara and the supposed length it gave to her lashes. However, during her demonstration there is a cut in the video (around 37 seconds), after which her lashes suddenly appear way longer, leaving many to speculate whether she’d secretly applied some false eyelashes.
Just notice how not only are her lashes longer, but seemingly fuller as well, almost as if there are more individual lashes there. Many viewers believe she did apply false lashes and tried to hoodwink her audience so she could make a quick buck on commission from her sponsor-deal! But even if you give her the benefit of the doubt and believe the cut in the video was merely to add additional layers of the mascara, rather than fake lashes, this isn’t the first time that she’s been accused of lying. A big part of Mikayla’s personality and brand is being from Boston and having a strong Bostonian accent. For reference, here’s a clip of Mikayla talking.
The heartiness of the Bostonian accent. Well, too bad it’s fake! So having grown up in Massachusetts, it would make complete sense for Mikayla to have the accent she portrays. However, an old video from when she was studying at Bryant University resurfaced, and just see if you notice anything:
Unless Mikayla suddenly developed a Bostonian accent within the last few years, she’s been fooling us all! Why would she do this though? Well, the accent brings an undeniable charismatic flair to her content. Not only that, but it has connotations of straight-talking, regular, honest people, which feeds nicely into her review-style videos. And above all, the accent makes her more distinctive and memorable, just a shame she can’t remember to be honest.
Sarah Landry
If you’ve ever wished to be slimmer, you’re not alone. In fact, a 2017 study by Obesity Science & Practice found that 69% of the women and 59% of the men surveyed wanted to lose weight. And with influencers constantly inadvertently reminding us of how seemingly imperfect our bodies are, it’s never been easier to feel self-conscious. However, someone who is championing body positivity is Canadian influencer, the-birds-papaya, AKA Sarah Landry.
To her audience of 2.4million Instagram followers, the mom of 4 embraces her postpartum body in all its flaws, spreading the message of maternal empowerment.
Surely that’s a cause we can all get behind, right? Well, too bad she’s a phony. More than once now, the people of Reddit believe they have caught her using what appear be slimming filters, i.e., video filters that make her look thinner. For instance, below is an image taken from one of her now-deleted Instagram stories. Just see the difference of her husband's belly in this side-by-side image:
His bulging belly literally slimmed as he passed the camera! And this isn’t the first time she’s been accused of such methods, with her online posts often depicting a very
different face-shape to more natural photos, which seems to go against her body acceptance message, right?
Brooke Raybould
Mothers, generally, are the best. But mom-fluencers, who turn motherhood and family life into a carefully-curated, falsified, monetized, inauthentic, attention-grabbing, get-rich scheme? They’re among the worst breed of influencer on the internet. And here to prove this point is Brooke Raybould.
As a mom of 4 with around 800,000 followers across her socials, she shares, as quoted from her Instagram bio,
habits for meaningful and productive motherhood. Word of advice: if you’re gonna assign yourself so much importance, you’d better hope you don’t get caught lying! So in a video titled
how to inspire your kids to do hard things, Brooke smugly gloated about how her husband, Ryan, had taken part in a Hyrox challenge, which is essentially a super high intensity fitness competition. Having competed amongst some 500 men, Brooke bragged how Ryan had finished 2nd place.
The funny thing is, the results of all participants are
publicly available on the Hyrox website. What’s even funnier is that she thought we wouldn’t find out that Ryan actually finished in 32nd place, not 2nd. But perhaps this was a genuine mistake, it was probably hard to see the results when their heads were so far up their own butts. Jokes aside, 32nd out of 500 is still impressive, and there is the possibility that he finished 2nd among his subsection; however, the video’s wording seems intentionally vague and misleading, and not making this clear or just straight up lying about it is not cool. Deception and poor sportsmanship are not particularly good values to raise your children by!
Briana Weimar
Moving onto another insufferable mom-fluencer, and here we have TikToker goodbye-twenties, AKA Briana Weimar. And the absurd lies only continue. Amongst her usual fare, such as making the most unrealistic and complicated snacks for her son, she posted a video about how she repurposed some old honey jars as paint bottles.
Only, in doing so, she casually mentioned how she’d saved up their used honey jars over the past month, totaling 10 jars! Ten jars of honey in just one month. Of course this was surely a lie, but even if we were to take her word for it, it seems a little sus that
Amazon sells these exact bottles in a pack for $5.99. It's safe to assume that Briana did, in fact, buy these empty bottles from Amazon, but the question is; why lie? Well, as with many influencers, it comes down to attention-seeking. My theory is that she intentionally said something so ridiculous to catch the audience’s attention, compel them to comment, and thus create higher engagement, which only means more views and dollar signs. It’s what’s called rage-bating and it clearly worked, considering the majority of comments are about her honey consumption. That said, there is the possibility that she was telling the truth and just keeps a real life pet Pooh Bear. All that aside, though, I’ve noticed Briana responding to comments on her more obviously fake videos, acknowledging that the content and props she features are dreamt up using ChatGPT. So, while she has yet to appear on camera confessing to being more of a disingenuous comedienne than a genuine, parental life-hack purveyor, make sure you take any of her viral videos with a pinch of salt, or a jar of honey.
Gym-fluencer
On my annual trip to the gym, I’ve noticed that it’s become increasingly popular for people to film themselves working out. They’re called gym-fluencers and they might be just as insufferable and deceptive as mom-fluencers.
For example, take a look at this gym-fluencer who was spotted in the wild with her tripod.
Only, as you can see, the camera was set up to show only one side of the leg press machine, the side which just so happened to have more plates on it! If she works out like that daily, she’s going to end up walking in circles!
Of course, with many leg press machines the weight is distributed evenly, regardless of which side has more plates. But, given that the camera only shows one side with 4 plates on, most viewers would assume the other side also has 4 plates on, and that she’s therefore lifting heavier. Not the worst deception, but definitely sneaky. It’s a good thing these people workout; it must take strong muscles to carry around their big heavy egos all day!
Millie Bobby Brown
From her beginnings on Stranger Things to being one of Hollywood’s latest A-listers, and hence an influencer in the old-school sense of the word, Millie Bobby Brown is an undeniably talented actress. Though it seemed her acting chops weren’t quite convincing enough when demonstrating a product from, ironically, her own skincare range.
Back in 2019, Millie launched her own brand, Florence By Mills, with a focus on fashion and beauty. In an Instagram video, Millie shared her supposed step-by-step skincare routine, using only her own brand’s products. However, the prized actress struggled to give a convincing performance that she was actually using any of the products. It seemed that for whatever reason, she didn’t want the products on her skin, so instead attempted to fake her way out with covertly cupped hands, tactical camera cuts and strategic angles.
Certainly not an Oscar-worthy performance. But the question is; why didn’t she use any of the products? Are they secretly gross, or dangerous? Probably not. But many actors might follow strict and specialized skincare regimes in order to stay looking their best at all times. So it’s possible Millie didn’t want to use the products, as to avoid any potential skin reaction or breakout. Still, a huge part of the Florence by Mills marketing is that it is used by Millie herself, which in and of itself is probably a lie. Acknowledging the criticism,
Millie later apologized and revealed that she was, quote, replicating her personal process; however, she gave no real explanation as to why she didn’t actually use her own products. Regardless, being the face of the company, this wasn’t a great look!
Lady-SB
Meet quite possibly one of the worst humans in the world, Lady-SB! She is essentially a z-list rapper who has made a name for herself as a bad girl who doesn’t care what anyone thinks. And, in 2023 she appeared on the Real Toronto Podcast where she shared some pretty questionable stories about herself.
When asked what the worst thing she had ever done to a man was, the rapper had no problem with admitting that she had vandalized the car of a man she was dating, and stole his wife’s designer bags. Not exactly shocking that Lady-SB is the kind of woman to have relationships with married men. But of all the reprehensible crimes she admitted to, the most unforgivable has to be falsely reporting one of her exes to the child services! The fame-hungry wannabe proudly explained how she’d doctored images of his children to show neglect, resulting in the innocent man being investigated, and risking losing full access to his children. All this, mind you, because he had, quote,
pissed her off.
101: Is Lady SB The New 'First Lady of Toronto' After Going Viral? Celebs Comment! Trent Out Loud by Trent Out Loud What’s even crazier is that she’s admitting to this as if it’s not criminal behavior, seemingly able to get away with it because, hopefully, the case against the guy was eventually dropped. She’s since rather unconvincingly tried to claim that telling the story was little more than a PR stunt suggested by her team, but that she does regret it and had asked the podcast hosts not to include that bit. But understandably, a grand total of zero people believe that excuse!
Pointless Lies
Everyone tells lies from time to time. However, when lies become habitual and pointless, that’s a separate issue. But it’s everywhere in the influencer world. To prove this point, here are some of the most pointless lies that influencers have told.
Enter: Victoria Yavnyi. Besides the usual picture-perfect family drivel, Victoria often posts "what I spend in a day" videos. These are essentially videos where she inadvertently brags about her wealth, needlessly spending hundreds of dollars a day on shopping and eating out. However, if you look a little closer in this next clip, you’ll see not everything is as it seems. See if you spot anything a little inconsistent.
This requires some pausing and zooming in, but remember how in the video she talked about grabbing a smoothie for their morning walk? Well, Victoria, explain why your receipt says 4:14PM on it. Strangely, the rest of the video seems consistent, from receipts to her nails and clothing, so why lie about this? Well, if I had to guess, I’d say that with the toxic mindset many of these influencers have, it seems more impressive to start your day early with a fresh, Instagram-friendly smoothie, rather than admitting you bought it in the afternoon. On the topic of faking rising early, a video by fellow mom-fluencer, Cecily Bauchmann, shows her getting up out of bed and pretending to be tired, despite having clearly already got up to set the camera up. However, that isn’t the issue. If she had truly gotten out of bed looking like she claims, then she’d have slept the whole night with her tags still on her pajamas (starting around 51 seconds), with the tag appearing throughout the video.
Not the biggest issue in the world, and certainly forgivable, but it does exhibit yet again, how virtually nothing we see on social media is as real and authentic as it’s presented! One of my favorite uncovered pointless lies, though, comes from TikToker, Kami Larae. With her content centering around cleaning and organization, her videos are undeniably satisfying to watch. For example, her fridge restocking videos are a particular crowd pleaser, as she crams copious amounts of Tupperware into her fridge in the name of organization. However, take a look at these next two videos of hers and see if you notice anything.
With one video branded as a fridge makeover and the other a fridge restock, this kind of approach is just dishonest but perhaps also kind of genius, considering seemingly none of her viewers clocked it. But something viewers certainly aren’t going to miss is the work talents of Kristina Chernaleva. With a 1.1 million following on Instagram, she does very well with what her mama gave her. But it turns out, she’s been caught exaggerating nature’s truth in some of her posts. Check out this clip here:
Just take notice of how the metal fence somehow warps towards her torso as she passes by. Either she has her own gravitational pull or she’s using some kind of waist-slimming, rear-enhancing filter. Again, she’s clearly already got plenty to work with, so why lie?
Alexa Curtis
Unfortunately, the world is full of terrible people, like marathon runners. We get it, you have your life together and we don’t. But arguably worse than marathon runners is this next influencer who stole a marathon.
Meet Alexa Curtis who is an aspiring influencer and self-declared serial entrepreneur. Serial, as in multiple, not as in Frosties. Anyway, her content attempts to be girl-boss and inspiring, however when she shared her emotional and inspirational story of running the Boston half marathon, she didn’t come off quite as heroic as she’d clearly banked on. Just watch for yourself.
What a heartwarming story about stealing a place in a paid marathon! With the Boston marathon charging every participant a fee of $100 to cover expenses, such as refreshments, medical responders, and charity donations, it’s pretty laughable how entitled she felt to just steal a place.
Worse yet, Alexa would’ve been fully aware of this information, having mentioned that she’d ran the Austin half marathon just a year prior, which, according to the Austin marathon website, costs $169! So, the audacity to act like she’d done some kind of selfless, fearless, heroic act while depriving the charities and organizers of their due payment, that’s not a good look, is it? Since receiving criticism, Alexa did apologize, admitting to her, quote,
terrible mistake, and how she’d since donated $150. So, stealing a marathon? Not girl boss. Owning up to mistakes and taking accountability? That’s a little more girl boss.
Belle Gibson
Meet Belle Gibson, AKA the woman who lied to the world about having cancer and, in the process, deterred genuine cancer patients from receiving vital treatment. But how did this happen? Belle claimed that in 2009 she was given just 6 weeks to live after doctors found a malignant brain tumor. But after receiving chemotherapy, she claimed it made her ill and instead turned to non-traditional methods. Soon, she began suggesting that her sugar and gluten-free diet cured her cancer.
With these bold claims, she quickly gained a following as a wellness guru, spreading bogus misinformation to vulnerable cancer patients. With a book and an app, both called The Whole Pantry, by 2013 she was dangerously influential. Take for example Kylie Willey who actually ditched her chemotherapy treatment on account of Belle’s influence, though, fortunately, she lived to tell the tale after ultimately returning to conventional medical treatments. By 2015, the jig was up for Belle, when it was discovered after a series of investigations by media outlets that not only her claims were bogus, but that she’d been pocketing massive donations intended for charities, and she had never even had cancer! Yet, despite all her crimes, she was merely handed a fine of $300,000 by the Australian government and faced no jailtime.
Worse yet, thanks to living the high-life for several years on her scam-earned cash, she’s reportedly still not paid her fine, as she now claims she’s broke! Anyone else’s blood boiling right now? Since Belle loves healthy food so much, why don’t we all toss a few rotten tomatoes at her?
If you were amazed at these influencers exposed lying, you might want to read about
influencers exposed scamming people. Thanks for reading!
