Scammers Pretending To Be Brad Pitt Encourage Woman To Wire $800,000
A French woman reportedly handed over $800,000 to fraudsters after being duped into having an affair. Brad Pitt.
Believing that Brad, 61, needed money to pay for kidney treatment, the 53-year-old woman, identified as Anne, allegedly told French TV station TF1 of her plight. (The original interview was removed on Tuesday, January 14, due to the Internet abuse Anne received, however, French news outlets. AFP again BFM TV (report the scam, and the cyberbullying that followed.)
In accordance with BFM TVinterior designer Anne was recently interviewed at TF1’s Seven to Eightwhere he explained that he was contacted in February 2023 by someone claiming to be Brad’s mother, Jane Pitt. Anne was on a skiing trip in Tignes, France, and was posting photos of her trip on Instagram when she was contacted by Jane.
The newspaper reported that Anne found out the next day that Jane’s account was “apparently connected to the actor,” and that imposters posing as Brad told Anne that “her mother has talked … a lot about her.”
The relationship quickly developed and Anne, who was said to be married at the time, received “many poems and proclamations.” Anne reportedly told TF1, “Very few men write this kind of thing to you. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always done very well.”
AI-generated videos, fake social networks and WhatsApp accounts were used by fraudsters to perpetuate the plot, and suspected examples of these attempts were sent through X and included. BFM TVreport.
In accordance with BFM TVAnne is said to have told TF1, “At first I thought it was a lie, that it was ridiculous. But I’m not familiar with social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
As Anne’s confidence grew, she then sent almost €10,000 to the fraudsters after they told her the taxman needed payment for the gifts to be sent to her.
Anne then told the criminals she had divorced her husband and followed up her first transfer with another sum of just under €775,000 – almost all of her divorce settlement.
The second transfer allegedly happened because Anne was told that “Pitt” had kidney cancer and needed financial help because her accounts were closed during divorce proceedings with Pitt’s real-life ex-wife. Angelina Jolie it happened.
UK newspaper The Times reported that TF1 removed the original headline to protect Anne from the “wave of abuse” received online after she went public with her story.
Anne is said to have opened a case and a police investigation has been launched, according to several outlets.
This isn’t the first time Brad has been trolled online. Actor’s spokesperson Matthew Hiltzik he told Us Weekly in a statement on September 25, 2024, saying, “It’s sad that fraudsters took advantage of the strong connection between fans and celebrities,” after Spanish police arrested five people for allegedly impersonating Brad.
The September scandal saw two women defrauded out of at least $350,000.
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