Scammers impersonating Brad Pitt tricked a French woman out of $850,000 (49.8 million pesos) by deceiving her into thinking she was dating the actor and that he needed assistance with medical bills.
Anne, the woman’s sole known name, talked with French television station TF1, which has subsequently taken the interview down from its website following a barrage of online mockery.
The scam started when she received a call from a scammer posing as Jane, Pitt’s mother, who “told me that her son needed someone like me.” Said correspondence continued for over a year.
During a Sunday seven to eight show on French TV channel TF1, Anne revealed, “At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it’s ridiculous.”
“But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me,” she continued.
A day later, she received a message from an AI version of the celebrity, asking to get to know more about her. After sending her poems and vows of love, the scammer would beg her to marry him in an attempt to coerce her into sending him money. The 53-year-old interior designer was going through a divorce from her husband at that time.
“There are a few men who write to you like that,” she told the French media. “I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together.”
The scammer tricked her by emailing her anything from what looked like selfies to a supposed copy of Pitt’s passport, all while using fake social media and WhatsApp accounts and AI image-creating technology.
He initially told her that he was sending her expensive handbags in exchange for money, but that she would be responsible for paying the €9,000 (543,879 pesos) customs fee. After claiming that Pitt’s real-life ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts and denied him access to his money, he said he was in the hospital with kidney cancer and needed money for treatment.
Despite her misgivings, she sent about €800,000 (48.3 million pesos) to an account in Turkey after receiving emails from a person posing as Pitt’s doctor, who claimed that he was fighting for his life.
The said scam is presently being looked into by the police after Anne has filed a report. When the real Pitt was spotted with his new partner, jewelry designer Ines de Ramon, in the summer of 2024, she realized she was being scammed.
This is not the first time that the actor has been used in such schemes. Five people were arrested by the Spanish police back in September after scamming two women in Spain.
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