Fake News: Judge Did NOT Order Premium Snapchat Model to Pay $60k in Taxes to IRS After Multiple Reports by Internet Users

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Judge Did NOT Order Premium Snapchat Model to Pay $60k in Taxes to IRS After Multiple Reports by Internet Users

Was Instagram model Belle Delphine ordered to pay $60,000 in taxes to the IRS after internet users reported her? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a "fauxtire" site that creates fictional stories for entertainment purposes. It is not true.

The story originated from an article published by Huzlers on December 17, 2018 titled "Judge Orders Premium Snapchat Model to Pay $60k in Taxes to IRS After Multiple Reports by Internet Users" (archived here) which opened:

After a trend of internet users reporting premium snapchat sellers to the IRS for tax evasion, according to reports, the first case of tax evasion for premium snapchat users has finally happened. Popular instagram model @Belle.delphine, 19, was ordered to pay $60,000 by a judge after making almost $230,000 in premium snapchat memberships in the last 3 months. According to Belle's site, her most exclusive membership is $50 a month.

The IRS has been targeting snapchat models after it was revealed that models were making up to tens of thousands of dollars a month alone from selling premium memberships. Customers pay via apps such as cashapp and paypal to have access to models' exclusive content such as nude photos and videos.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail and some obviously mistook it for a real news report:

Judge Orders Premium Snapchat Model to Pay $60k in Taxes to IRS After Multiple Reports by Internet Users

After a trend of internet users reporting premium snapchat sellers to the IRS for tax evasion, according to reports, the first case of tax evasion for premium snapchat users has finally happened. Popular instagram model @Belle.delphine, 19, was ordered to pay $60,000 by a judge after making almost $230,000 in premium snapchat memberships in the ...

The phenomenon of ratting out online sex workers to tax authorities is a real thing which recently became quite a thing:

Right-wing trolls report online sex workers to tax authorities

Online sex workers have slammed a viral campaign by right-wing "incels" and men's rights activists to mass report them to tax authorities for allegedly failing to declare income. The hashtag #ThotAudit, which appears to have been started by a Facebook user calling themselves "David Wu", began to trend on Sunday after being promoted by controversial pick-up artist and "legal rape" advocate Daryush 'Roosh' Valizadeh.

But the story about Belle Delphine is clearly made up: it mentions a "judge Steve Wellis" but doesn't say which court he sits on and we were unable to find any news story mentioning him on Google News. And Belle Delphine's patreon page clearly mentions she is U.K. based while her Facebook profile also says she lives in London so it seems unlikely the IRS would take an interest (unless she was an American citizen but in that case it would fall to British authorities to tax her first for U.K. based income and only then would the IRS possibly take another cut if certain conditions were met).

That, and Huzlers styles itself as a "fauxtire" website and carries a disclaimer at the bottom of each page:

Huzlers.com is the most infamous fauxtire & satire entertainment website in the world. If it's trending on social media you'll find it here!

According to Splinter News the site is run by Pablo Reyes and David Martinez and according to Buzzfeed Reyes is involved with several other fake news websites. They tend to shy away from political stories, opting instead to write for a more "urban" audience, with stories about rappers, criminals and celebrities.

We wrote about huzlers.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion