Someone allegedly tricked a French woman out of tens of thousands of dollars by tricking her into thinking she was having an affair with Brad Pitt.
According to BFM TV, a fraudster reportedly duped a 53-year-old interior designer named Anne into paying 830,000 euros ($850,000) for the ‘cancer treatment’ of a Hollywood movie star.
The scam first appeared in February 2023. Anne was on a ski trip and had shared photos of her holiday on Instagram when she mentioned receiving a message from someone claiming to be Pitt’s mother.
The next day, she received another message from an account that claimed to be Pitt himself.
Anne was ‘flabbergasted’ by the interaction and supposedly put suspicions of the account being phony to the back of her mind when she told TF1, the French TV station, that the person behind the account ‘understood how to relate to women.’.
Despite avoiding phone and video conversations, AI-generated pictures and recordings of the actor tricked Anne into believing it was him.
Following the poetry and declarations, the couple built a connection, which led to a marriage proposal and the promise of costly presents from Chanel and Hermès.
The problem was that Anne had to pay customs fees to obtain them; thus the trap was set, and she paid 9,000 euros only to receive nothing.
At the time, Anne was married to a millionaire about 20 years her senior, but she decided to divorce him and told her new ‘friend’ about the circumstances, including the large divorce payout she obtained.
The scammer then asked for assistance in paying medical costs for a fake kidney malignancy, saying his own bank accounts were frozen owing to their protracted divorce from Angelina Jolie.
Artificial intelligence generated photos of Pitt, seemingly trapped in a hospital bed, to persuade Anne.
One image appears to depict the actor’s visage superimposed over a hospital setting, carrying a message that reads, “Anne, I love you.”
Anne didn’t realize that the person behind the account was not Pitt until summer 2024, when she read about the actor’s new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in the news.
By this point, she had handed over nearly one million euros to the fraudster and reported the event to authorities.
BFM TV reports that Anne is currently in the hospital due to acute depression, and it’s unclear if she’s been able to recover some of the money.
The tale has subsequently moved Twitter users, with many expressing sorrow for the sufferer.
One woman commented, “Romance scams are the cruelest.
“It’s funny until you realize, more often than not, it’s a vulnerable person that just wanted to be loved.”
Another individual stated, “They exhibit extreme cruelty, and it’s disheartening when others ridicule those who fall for them.” Taking advantage of someone’s need for love is wicked.
According to UK authorities, victims of romance fraud are more likely to be lonely, widowed, recently bereaved, have experienced a breakup, and/or suffer from depression.
According to Surrey Police, the approach is one of the ‘fastest rising crimes impacting the vulnerable,’ and financial losses can be so severe that victims feel depressed and hence less likely to self-report.