Topics: Brad Pitt, Social Media, France, Europe, World News, Film and TV, Sex and Relationships, Instagram, Artificial Intelligence, Police
A French woman has reportedly been scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars after she was led to believe she was having an affair with Brad Pitt.
A scammer allegedly managed to dupe a 53-year-old interior designer, called Anne, into forking out 830,000 euros ($850,0000) after convincing her they were for the Hollywood movie star's 'cancer treatment', reports BFM TV.
The hoax dates back to February 2023. Anne was on a ski trip and posted snaps of her vacation on Instagram when she said she had a message from someone claiming to be Pitt's mom.
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The next day, she had another message from an account pretending to be Pitt himself.
Anne was 'flabbergasted' by the exchange and apparently put fears that the account could've been fake to the back of her mind as she told the French media channel, TF1, that the person behind the account 'knew how to talk to women'.
Despite dodging phone and video calls, AI-generated images and videos of the actor hoodwinked Anne into thinking it was really him.
After the poems and declarations, the pair developed a relationship followed by a marriage proposal and the promise of lavish gifts from the likes of Chanel or Hermès.
The catch was that Anne had to pay customs fees to receive them, and so the trap was set as she forked out 9,000 euros, only to receive nothing.
At the time, Anne was married to a millionaire almost 20 years her senior, but decideD to divorce him and confided in her new 'friend' about the situation, including the hefty divorce settlement she received.
The fraudster then appealed for help to fund medical bills for an alleged kidney cancer, claiming his own bank accounts were blocked due to their ongoing divorce from Angelia Jolie.
To sway Anne, photographs of Pitt apparently pent up in a hospital bed, created with the help of artificial intelligence, were sent to her.
One image appears to show the actor's face artificially imposed over a hospital scene holding a note that reads: "Anne I love you."
It wasn't until summer 2024 that the horrendous realization dawned on Anne that the person behind the account was not Pitt after she read about the actor's new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in the press.
By this point, she had departed with almost one million euros to the scammer and reported the incident to police.
According to BFM TV, Anne is now hospitalized with severe depression and it remains unclear if she has managed to recover some of the funds.
Users on Twitter have since been touched by the story with many sending their sympathy to the victim.
One woman wrote: "Romance scams are the cruellest.
"It's funny until you realize, more often than not it's a vulnerable person that just wanted to be loved."
Another chimed: "They are so mean and it's awful that people make fun of the people who fall for them. Exploiting someone's desire to be loved is obscene."
According to UK police, data on romance fraud indicates victims are more likely to be lonely, widowed, recently bereaved, have suffered a recent break up, and/or suffer from depression.
Surrey Police adds the method is one of the 'fastest growing crimes affecting the vulnerable' and financial losses can be so high that victims become in denial and thus less likely to self-report.
