Paula Bennett reveals she’s called in lawyers, private investigators over Facebook scams

Former deputy Prime Minister and Herald columnist and podcast host Paula Bennett has revealed she’s had to call in lawyers and private investigators to tackle ongoing social media scams using her image.

Bennett revealed back in September that her image was being used to push a product, Via Keto, described as a “natural product” to help people loss weight. The images included doctored versions of actual sponsored content Bennett had done, and used photos from before and after her gastric bypass surgery.

At the time, Bennett told the Herald the scam was “sickening” and was playing on overweight people’s insecurities.

Now, talking to chef Simon Gault about weight loss on her NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, Bennett revealed the scams are still happening.

“People are getting scammed by it still, and it’s been about two and a half months. Trust me, I keep getting it shut down. They just start up again. It’s because people are buying it right?

“I’ve got private investigators, I’ve got lawyers on it,” she said. “I’ve gotta say Facebook has actually been really helpful, but man, it’s awful and I really feel awful for those people out there that are getting scammed.”