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With photos from the hospital and smooth conversations, a French woman was convinced she is talking to actor Brad Pitt and scammed to the tune of 800,000 euros. The suspect messaged her on Instagram and convinced her to help him with medical treatment as his bank accounts were blocked amid an ongoing divorce case with actor Angelina Jolie.
53-year-old Anne said on the show "Sept a huit" broadcast Sunday evening on local news channel TF1 that she got a message while she was on a ski trip to Tignes from an account posing as the the actor's mother Jane Etta Pitt. A day later an account posing as the actor contacted her and the duo started talking and soon became friends.
Anne, who was married a millionaire but going through a rough patch, continued to receive poems and declarations of love from the fake account as she remained convinced she was in a long-distance relationship with Mr Pitt. "There are so few men who write such things. I liked the man I was talking to and he knew how to talk to women," she said.
While he always avoided her calls, he sent Artificial Intelligence-generated videos and images to convince Anne of his love for her. At the same time, he also asked her to marry him. He also told her that he had sent her luxury gift and asked her to pay 9,000 euros, but she received nothing, BFMTV reported.
Soon after, Anne's divorce was finalised and she received a compensation of 775,000 euros. It was then that he shared more doctored videos and photos to say he was slated to undergo a kidney surgery and was already admitted to a hospital.
The scam came to light in 2024 when Anne saw reports of Brad Pitt's relationship with jewellery designer Ines De Ramon. She was then hospitalised for treatment of severe depression.
A similar scam was reported in September last year when Spanish police arrested five people accused of scamming two women of 325,000 euros by posing as Brad Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages. The suspects made contact with the women on an internet page for fans of the Oscar-winning actor and led them to believe "they had a sentimental relationship with him", Spain's Guardia Civil police force said in a statement. Posing as Pitt, the members of the gang then allegedly proposed that the women invest in various projects that did not exist.