A French woman, known as Anne, fell victim to a scam involving a fake Brad Pitt account that engaged her through social media. Believing she was communicating with the actor, she was manipulated into paying nearly €1 million for supposed cancer treatment expenses. The scam began in February 2023 after Anne received messages from someone claiming to be Pitt’s mother, leading to a false friendship filled with AI-generated images and emotional manipulation. The relationship soured when demands for money escalated, prompting Anne to report the scam in summer 2024. Currently, she is receiving treatment for depression.
Fraudsters used a reel of AI-generated images to trick a French woman into believing she was Brad Pitt and making her pay hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The 53-year-old victim, who gave her name as Anne, paid €830,000 (£697,000) believing it was for the movie star’s cancer treatment.
The interior designer told French channel TF1 that the ordeal began when she received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother after she shared photos from a luxury ski trip to Tignes on Instagram. said.
The next day, she received a second message from an account pretending to be Brad Pitt, saying her mother had already talked about her a lot.
The victim, who said she was going through a difficult time in her relationship with her billionaire husband, said she struck up an unexpected friendship with the account starting in February 2023, receiving poems and kind affirmations.
“Very few men write things like this to you. I liked the guy I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and always did it very well,” BFMTV she said, as reported.
Anne said she initially thought the account was fake, but after sending daily messages and receiving AI-generated photos and videos of the star, she felt more at ease.
The victim said she was going through a difficult time with her billionaire husband and developed an unlikely friendship with the account starting in February 2023.
She eventually filed a complaint in the summer of 2024, and an investigation began.
Shortly after he began sending inappropriately produced images that appeared to be from his hospital bed.
Soon, the blossoming relationship was turned upside down as the fake Brad Pitt proposed to Anne, overwhelming her with promises of lavish gifts.
The only problem was that I had to pay customs duty to receive them.
This quickly amounted to €9,000 (£7,566).
Anne had already indicated that she was willing to part with her money, so the scammer continued to make increasingly unreasonable demands.
When the victim told a “friend” that she expected a large divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer upped the ante.
Brad Pitt’s account appealed for help to pay for emergency treatment for kidney cancer, lamenting his inability to access funds due to his ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The scammer reportedly began sending AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt, apparently from a confined area of his hospital bed.
The two communicated through texts and photos, but Anne said the calls, a common tactic of online scammers, never broke free.
Anne announced that she was divorcing her wealthy husband and began receiving demands for large sums of money.
Scammer sent Anne an AI-generated photo of Brad Pitt to collect sympathy and cash
The two communicated through text and photos, but Anne said she was unable to make phone calls (a common refrain for online scammers).
In total, she parted with nearly 1 million euros during their relationship, until suspicions arose when she saw the actor and his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon in the press.
Anne took her story to the authorities, who began an investigation.
Almost two years after the relationship began, it’s unclear whether she was able to recover the money.
BFMTV reported that Anne is currently admitted to a clinic with severe depression.
People who read the article expressed a certain level of sympathy for the victims.
“Romance scams are the cruelest,” Sarah Bee wrote to X.
Another user questioned whether the victim could have Googled whether the Fight Club star was hospitalized to confirm the claim.
Anne parted with nearly 1 million euros before suspicions arose
She started having doubts when the star was not in the hospital and was photographed with his new partner
Some of the AI-generated photos were allegedly sent to the victim and spread on social media.
One user opined, “Why do I need to know what my old people are doing before I hand over my legacy to Brad Pitt?”
User Jay Kennedy responded, “My stepmother won’t stop sending money to my cellist.”
“My dad and I keep telling her, she just keeps getting gift cards.
“It’s sad when older people get lonely and lost. They do this out of delusion.”
