Influencers Who Were Exposed For Lying: “Living A Sick Life”

For a parenting influencer trying to build an audience around motherhood and family safety, Katie Sorensen’s viral “near-kidnapping” story seemed tailor-made for social media.

In December 2020, Sorensen reported to Petaluma police that a Latino couple had followed her and her two children inside a Michaels craft store and allegedly attempted to abduct them.

A week later, she posted a two-part video detailing the alleged encounter, telling followers, “My children were the targets of attempted k**nap.”

She claimed the couple followed her through the store, commented on her children’s appearance and made her feel threatened. 

Katie said the pair gave her “the heebie-jeebies” and were “not clean-cut individuals.” 

She also claimed she was “totally paralyzed with fear” and that the couple followed her toward her car.

The videos reportedly racked up more than 4 million views, but investigators soon found that her account did not match what the store’s surveillance footage captured.

Authorities obtained surveillance footage and said it “resoundingly contradicted” Katie’s allegations. 

The footage showed that Sadie Vega-Martinez and Eddie Martinez, the couple Sorensen had accused, did not follow or interact with her or her children as she had described.

The Martinezes were eventually identified and came forward, explaining that they had simply been shopping for Christmas decorations. 

They also said they believed the allegations were racially motivated, with Sadie describing the experience as feeling like they were “guilty of being brown while shopping.”

The case eventually went to trial, where prosecutors argued that Sorensen knowingly made a false report. 

Her defense, however, maintained that she had “misperceived and misunderstood a series of random events” and genuinely believed what she was reporting.

In April 2023, a Sonoma County jury found Sorensen guilty of one misdemeanor count of knowingly making a false report of a crime, while acquitting her on two other counts. 

According to NBC News, Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said the verdict would help “hold Ms. Sorensen accountable” while also “helping to exonerate the couple that was falsely accused.”



She added that the case demonstrated “the importance of using social media responsibly.”

Katie was sentenced in June 2023 to 90 days in jail, with 60 days permitted through work release. 

She also received 12 months of informal probation and was ordered to stay off social media during that period, undergo warrantless electronic-device searches, and complete implicit-bias training.

The controversy sparked furious reactions from viewers who questioned how a story involving another family's safety could allegedly become social media content.

“Trust no one that calls themselves a ‘mom influencer,’” one person wrote, while another said, “How evil she is. She knew she was lying and crying at the same time.”

“This ‘influencer’ has influenced me to hate people who describe themselves as influencers even more,” another commenter wrote.

A third user commented, “The couples lives could have been destroyed because of her [lie], racism or not. DISGUSTING!!!!!”

Others expressed, “She needs to publicly apologize to the couple. She needs to go to jail! Those poor people she blamed. She is a terrible person.”

“I am so tired of mommy influencers! They exploit their kids for clout,” one commenter wrote.

Another called the verdict “well-deserved justice,” adding, “False allegations can be LIFE RUINING. I’m glad she is facing the consequences of her actions.”

After completing her sentence and court-ordered social media restriction, Sorensen eventually returned to social media in late 2024, where she has continued discussing her life and revisiting the viral case.

For years, the ACE Family’s videos presented their enormous Los Angeles mansion as the ultimate symbol of their lavish lifestyle, complete with seemingly picture-perfect family content.

But after the property went into foreclosure in 2021, the family eventually revealed that life inside the supposedly dream home was far more complicated than their videos suggested.

Austin McBroom and Catherine Paiz purchased two adjacent Woodland Hills properties in 2019 for a combined $10.1 million, intending to turn them into one sprawling 13,379-square-foot estate. 

According to Business Insider, legal notices surfaced in 2021 indicating that the couple had defaulted on their mortgage, with the outstanding debt reportedly exceeding $9 million.

At the time, the couple publicly pushed back against the foreclosure reports, with Austin writing on his Instagram, “Ain’t nobody getting evicted, ain’t nobody moving.” 

While Catherine reportedly dismissed the rumors as coming from “haters.” 

The property was nevertheless eventually put up for public auction in October 2021. 

With no outside bids, ownership reverted to the lender, 5 Arch Funding Corporation.

But the biggest twist came after the foreclosure, when the couple uploaded a lengthy YouTube video titled OUR HOUSE STORY... in November 2021 to explain what had allegedly gone wrong with the property.

They claimed they had been “camping” inside the unfinished house for more than two years, despite the polished lifestyle shown in their content.

According to their account, the property never received a Certificate of Occupancy because construction remained incomplete. 

That meant the family reportedly lacked access to basic amenities they would normally have expected in a $10 million home, including proper gas service.



They described relying on portable appliances and dealing with limited hot water, while also claiming their newborn children had been bathed in cold or lukewarm water. 

They also alleged that the construction was riddled with bizarre defects, including a front door they claimed was plywood painted to resemble mahogany and flooring that began cracking and buckling as the foundation shifted.

One particularly alarming detail involved water leaking through the ceiling and even downstairs light fixtures when the shower or air-conditioning system was used, according to the couple.

The revelations left some viewers stunned, particularly because the family had spent years documenting their seemingly extravagant life inside the property.

One commenter summed up the disconnect, writing, “The Ace Family/Austin McBroom's entire career is lying. But the most insane is living in an unfinished mansion with no heat or hot water for years...”

Another viewer added, “They were, in fact, living a sick life. . . . depending on how you look at ‘sick.’’

A third user commented, “The water tank being outside blew my mind. There were a lot of things that were wrong that someone that knew very little about houses should’ve noticed.”

Others questioned, “It blows my mind they just wasted 10 million on the house they don’t even own. Actually, did they pay anything? If they defaulted on the loan, they probably didn’t pay close to that much. I wonder how much they lost?”

The couple attributed many of the property's problems to contractors and the construction process, describing themselves as having been badly let down by people they had trusted to build the estate. 

After losing the property, the family moved into another luxury home, which was later reported to be a rental rather than a newly purchased mansion. 

They continued living in and producing content from the rental property before Austin and Catherine announced their separation in January 2024.

Brittany Dawn Nelson built her fitness empire by selling supposedly personalized workout and nutrition plans to followers for between $92 and $300.

But former customers later began comparing their programs and alleged that the plans they paid for were anything but custom-made. 

Some claimed they received generic or nearly identical meal and workout plans, while others said the promised one-on-one coaching and regular check-ins never happened.

One customer, Kenzie Andino, told WFAA that the first document she received did not even have her name on it.

“I knew what customized meant, and that was not at all what I received,” Andino said. 

“In fact, the first document I received didn’t even have the right name on it. It was someone else’s name.”

Her concerns reportedly went beyond the lack of personalization. 

“I made sure to let her know that I was concerned,” she recalled. “My response that I got within, no lie, 45 seconds of sending it was ‘nice work babe.’”



Other customers, including some who said they had unhealthy eating habits, also alleged that the plans failed to account for their specific needs. 

One customer reportedly sought help increasing her calorie intake but received a plan that was significantly lower than what she had said she needed.

The backlash gathered momentum in 2018 and 2019 as former clients connected online and began comparing their experiences. 

Brittany eventually apologized in a now-deleted YouTube video, saying, “I apologize to anyone who feels like they got scammed from me.”

She added, “I now realize that I should have had more help and that this is a lesson that I am having to learn the hard way.”

In February 2022, the Texas Attorney General’s Office sued Davis, accusing her of deceptive business practices and alleging that customers were sold personalized plans that were not actually individualized. 

The state also alleged that she failed to provide the coaching and communication promised as part of certain packages.

Brittany denied the allegations in court filings. 

The case was ultimately settled in April 2023, shortly before the scheduled jury trial. 

The terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed, although the state had sought between $250,000 and $1 million in penalties, fees, and other costs.

By then, Davis had largely abandoned her fitness persona. 

Afterward, she rebranded herself from fitness influencer to faith-based creator, launching a ministry called She Lives Freed, which offered tickets to self-run weekend religious conferences. 

She now runs a podcast, Chiseled and Called, where in a March 2023 episode she described herself as a victim of "cancel culture" and society’s desire to "see an influencer crumble."

Paul Zimmer had millions of followers on Musical.ly and built his early influencer career around lip-sync videos, thirst traps, and paid interactions with fans.

But his downfall began when followers accused him of taking monetary gifts on Live.ly in exchange for perks such as direct messages, follow-backs, and shout-outs, then allegedly failing to deliver on those promises.

The backlash became so intense that the hashtag #PaulZimmerIsOverParty circulated online, while Zimmer eventually wiped his social media accounts and disappeared from the internet.

One commenter summed up the backlash bluntly, “He was canceled because he was scamming his followers (who were mainly kids), making promises he wasn't keeping.”

Then, after nearly two years away, Paul returned with perhaps one of the strangest influencer rebrands the internet had seen.

In October 2019, he posted a photo of himself alongside a remarkably familiar-looking “actor” named Troy Becker, describing Becker as a younger, s*xier version of himself.

At first, Zimmer appeared to be presenting Becker as a completely separate person. 

But the resemblance was almost impossible to ignore.

The two men had virtually identical facial features, while eagle-eyed followers also noticed similarities in their mannerisms, captions, and online presence. 

The supposed teenage actor's social-media history was also suspiciously thin.

Paul later doubled down on the story, claiming Becker was his “younger twin” and eventually announcing that he was leaving social media and handing his accounts over to the supposedly 16-year-old.

Commenters mocked the bizarre attempt at a fresh start, with one comparing Zimmer to “that one kid in class who spends the whole day misbehaving and then when the teacher finally gives out to them says ‘I wasn’t even doing anything.’”

The biggest problem was that Troy looked like Zimmer, with a slightly different haircut and shaved facial hair.

YouTubers and internet sleuths began digging into the supposed new identity and eventually uncovered additional evidence linking the two personas. 

Business Insider later reported that court documents showed Zimmer had legally changed his name to Troy Becker in March 2019, months before he began publicly presenting Becker as a separate, younger person.



Hence, critics accused Paul of attempting to convince his followers that he had handed his massive platform to a teenage lookalike who was, in reality, himself.

Faced with mounting scrutiny, the accounts associated with the bizarre rebrand were eventually deactivated or stripped of their previous content. 

Zimmer ultimately continued under the Troy Becker name, pursuing acting and occasional social-media work.

Notably, however, his online presence has become far quieter in recent years compared with his peak influencer days.

For years, Brittany Miller built a huge TikTok following around lifestyle, parenting, and British comfort-food content. 

By 2025, she had around 3.5 million followers and had become known for sharing everything from fish and chips to Sunday roasts.

However, in November 2025, Miller was forced to address reports that, in 2017, she had falsely told people in her immediate circle that she had been diagnosed with stage-three stomach cancer.

The claim reportedly went beyond a single conversation. 

Brittany allegedly maintained the story by saying she was receiving treatment and had been hospitalized for radiotherapy. 

A fundraising page was also created on her behalf, adding more fuel to the controversy.

The story eventually returned to the spotlight after media reports revealed the allegations, leaving many followers questioning how someone who had built such a large platform could have kept the scandal hidden for so long.

Brittany responded with a tearful video in which she admitted that she had lied about having cancer.

Still, she insisted there was more to the story than a deliberate attempt to deceive people.

“Back in 2017, I had extremely bad mental health, and at the time I didn’t realize how bad, but it was bad,” she explained. “I was depressed, I was s**cidal, I was lost, I was confused.” 

Miller said she had also lost her partner and her job that year, describing a series of events that left her struggling mentally.

According to the influencer, the cancer claim began with what she now calls “one stupid sentence that I deeply regret.”

She recalled, “I said I had an illness, which was cancer. I didn’t do this for malicious intent, or to scam people.” 

“I did this out of desperation; I did it to keep the people close to me... to keep the people in my life close to me.”

According to Miller, someone else created the fundraising page after the people she initially told passed the story along.

However, she insisted she never personally benefited from it.

“As soon as I saw there were donations, there were two donations, I had the page immediately shut down,” Miller said. “I didn’t take a penny from it.”

Brittany also pushed back against the idea that the deception was a calculated attempt to build a following or make herself famous.

Moreover, the incident happened years before she became a social-media personality, and she added that she did not do it “for likes or followers.”

For people who had personally experienced cancer through themselves or loved ones, the idea of fabricating such a diagnosis was particularly difficult to accept.

One commenter wrote, “I know that it’s never an excuse to lie about having cancer. I watched my dad go through cancer twice, and one of my best friends lost her dad to it, there’s absolutely no justification for that kind of lie. It’s disgusting.”

Another user added, “Speaking as someone actually going through it, trust me, there’s nothing glamorous, attention-worthy, or ‘content-friendly’ about it.”

Others questioned, “I’m sorry, but I don’t really understand how mental health issues leads to faking a diagnosis?” 

“As someone who has recently had a loved one diagnosed with cancer, I find this disgusting and deeply distressing.”

Another demanded harsher consequences, writing, “She should be forced to pay back every cent that she scammed people for and be banned from using social media.”

Miller, however, said she had spent years trying to move beyond the person she was during that period.

She also expressed regret over the pain her actions could cause people who had genuinely experienced the illness.

Rather than simply defending herself, she said she wanted to turn the experience into an opportunity to help others struggling with mental health.

Brittany said in her apology that she hoped to become an “advocate for mental health” and credited her partner, Ash Griffiths, with supporting her during her recovery.

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♬ original sound - Brittany

Cassie De Pecol rose to travel-influencer fame after claiming she had become the first woman to visit every country in the world. 

The extraordinary claim helped turn her journey into a lucrative personal brand, but fellow female travelers soon pushed back, saying they had accomplished the feat years before her.

Among them was Audrey Walsworth, who had already visited every country before De Pecol began her journey. 

Walsworth told The Washington Post that she later hoped the controversy would encourage more fact-checking of influencers, adding, “Once it’s out there, people assume it’s true.”

Nina Sedano, a German traveler who had documented visits to every country by September 2011, also said she tried to alert Casie to the women who had already accomplished the feat.

Nina told the outlet, “I said, ‘I have also traveled to all the nations and did it by the end of September 2011, and even I was not the first woman to do that. She didn’t react.”

The controversy became even more complicated because De Pecol held two Guinness World Records: the fastest time to visit all sovereign countries overall and the fastest time in the female category. 

Neither record, however, established her as the first woman to visit every country.

She defended herself by arguing that she had consistently described herself as the “first woman on record” or “first documented woman” to accomplish the feat. 

She maintained that she had gathered extensive documentation from every country she visited.

She submitted it to Guinness, while saying she was unaware of another woman who had documented every sovereign nation in the same way.

Then came the legal trouble. 

In 2022, consumer advocacy group Travelers United sued De Pecol and her company, Expedition 196, alleging that she used misleading claims to promote her brand and secure sponsorships. 

The lawsuit also accused her of deceptive advertising practices, including allegedly failing to disclose paid promotional content.

De Pecol denied the allegations, calling the complaint “yet another baseless attack” on her accomplishments and saying she intended to “vigorously contest” the claims.

Ultimately, Casie did not face criminal conviction or statutory court-ordered penalties, as the matter remained a civil lawsuit that moved through a prolonged pretrial process.

Still, the case became significant for influencer accountability. 

In 2023, a judge allowed the lawsuit to move forward under D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

It opened the door to legal action against influencers not only for undisclosed paid promotions but also for potentially misleading claims about themselves when those claims are tied to commercial activity.

Lee Markham, better known online as Malibu Fit Maxx, built a huge following by showcasing his bodybuilding journey, muscular physique, and distinctive appearance. 

With more than 1.2 million Instagram followers, the fitness influencer had established himself as a prominent figure in the online fitness world.

But his appearance also drew relentless comments from viewers, and Markham eventually claimed there was a very different reason for his facial features.

He had described himself as an “IED Survivor” and told people that he had suffered a devastating improvised explosive device blast to the face while serving in Afghanistan in 2010.

The claim was particularly serious because Lee genuinely had a military background. 

He has said he served between 2005 and 2010, and stressed during his eventual apology that his military service itself was real.

As scrutiny around the story intensified, online investigator John Dorsey, known as Goob, began examining Markham’s claims. 

Dorsey reportedly found significant inconsistencies, including the absence of a Purple Heart or military records supporting Lee’s account of sustaining an IED-related facial injury.

Military records reportedly pointed to a very different explanation for the injury. 

Rather than being wounded by an explosion, Markham had apparently suffered a facial injury after falling near his barracks.

Dorsey also pointed out that Lee had not discussed an apparent combat injury during a 2010 lecture, despite later claiming that he had suffered the IED blast that same year.

The scrutiny eventually became impossible to ignore. 

The fitness influencer had also quietly removed “IED Survivor” from his social-media bio, which only fueled further questions about why the claim had disappeared.

By February 2026, Markham addressed the controversy himself.

In an apology video, he directly admitted that the IED story was false.

“I wanted to talk to you directly about the claim that I made, taking an IED blast to the face,” he began.

“I’ve always got comments about my face and appearance. Some of them were harsh. And to be honest, I didn’t handle it well.”

He said he was still relatively new to having a large public profile and struggled with the attention.

“Instead of facing that right away, I made a bad decision and put ‘IED Survivor’ in my bio,” Markham said. “That was not true, and it was wrong.”

Lee also acknowledged the uncomfortable contradiction between the image he had built as someone who supported veterans and his decision to falsely claim a combat injury.

He said, “I have always tried to promote positivity and support for others, especially veterans. But I understand that my actions here contradict that. I take full responsibility for it.”

“I know words alone will not fix this,” Markham said. “Trust is earned. It’s not owed.”

“All I can do is be honest with you guys going forward and let my actions speak for [themselves] over time.”

Dave Radband, a former member of the Parachute Regiment and Special Forces Support Group, also reacted to Lee’s confession.

According to the New York Post, Radband offered a measured response online, “The world can be a nasty place, dude. Keep that head up and learn from the mistake.”

Despite the backlash, Markham remains active on social media, continuing to build his fitness brand and engage with his followers.

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In 2014, Shane Dawson had his millions of YouTube followers convinced that his signature floppy hairstyle was still intact. 

Behind the scenes, however, the creator had secretly shaved his hair into a buzzcut while filming his movie Not Cool and wore a lookalike wig to conceal the drastic change.

The reason was tied to The Chair, the Starz reality competition documenting the making of Not Cool. 

Since the haircut was part of the show's storyline, Dawson wanted to keep the reveal under wraps before the series aired. 

But instead of simply staying off-camera or acknowledging the change, he continued appearing in his regular YouTube videos while wearing the wig.

In July 2014, Shane even teased the mystery on X, posting, “EPIC MY NEW HAIRCUT!” before following it with another cryptic message, “For those asking, the wig is in some videos, not all. Good luck figuring out which ones. I’ll give u a hint…”

The clues only fueled the guessing game among viewers, many of whom began scrutinizing his videos to figure out which appearances featured his real hair and which involved the secret hairpiece. 

As speculation spread online, fans increasingly began calling out the creator over what appeared to be a fake hairstyle.


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It was amid that growing online suspicion that Dawson finally addressed the secret, revealing the truth in his YouTube video “I SHAVED MY HEAD! (The Chair on Starz).” 

He showed viewers the buzzcut hidden beneath the wig and explained that he kept the haircut a secret because of the show's production and spoiler concerns.

Shane also apologized for the deception, while joking about how hot and itchy the wig had been during the summer months. 

He also showed off the expensive, custom-made hairpiece to the camera.

But the reveal sparked a different conversation among some viewers. 

One fan summed up, writing, “My life is a LIE... how have you kept this a secret for so long oh my god!”

Another was far more suspicious, saying, “This man is fake [very]. Makes me wonder what else he has lied about... He was basically lying about everything in his life at that point.”

A third viewer pointed out that the issue wasn't the wig itself, writing, “It's not that he's wearing a wig, I think (hope) we all agree it's fine for people to wear wigs if they want, it's that he's lying about it for literally no reason.” 

“Combined with all his other strange little lies also for no reason, it's clear that Shane feels very comfortable lying even when he doesn't have to…”