Internet scams where transfixed lovers part with all their savings for a distant Don Juan are legion. But the story of Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer, stands out for its magnitude. This woman parted with 830,000 euros thinking she was doing a favor for her new lover… Brad Pitt.
It's in front of the TF1 cameras, in the show Seven to Eightlet Anne recount her ordeal. A manipulation which began in February 2023. While in Tignes on vacation with her husband and daughter, the decorator decided to register on Instagram to share some family photos. A woman, who poses as Brad Pitt's mother, then comes into contact with the Frenchwoman. Anne's couple was struggling and for this Jane Etta Pitt, the fifty-year-old would be the ideal woman for her actor son. The trap closes.
In order not to frighten his prey, the scammer chooses patience and building trust. This person on the other side of the screen speaks to Anne daily, asks for news, listens to secrets. “I had someone in front of me who was interested in me and my work because my own husband was not even interested in my work (…) It was as if I lived alone,” she says. she at the microphone of TF1. To remove the decorator's suspicions, the scammer provides a mess of fakes : her passport, the identity documents of those around her… It is impossible to verify the authenticity of these documents for Anne but this evidence is convincing. And then, it’s time for the images…
Photos and videos created to deceive
The scammer poses as members of the Pitt family and increases his influence over Anne. To avoid simply remaining in writing, he sent the Frenchwoman images and videos of Brad Pitt crudely edited or generated by artificial intelligence. He promises marriage and his upcoming arrival in France… But, of course, these were only lies. To get Anne to start giving him her savings, the scammer decides to increase the number of requests. First, it is about pay customs fees of promised luxury gifts, then, the fake Brad Pitt talks about increasingly serious health problems. Anne, touched, will give up hundreds of thousands of euros to save her new love.
“I immediately wrote to the so-called Brad Pitt telling him that I do not agree and there he tells me that his accounts are blocked because of the lawsuit he has against Angelina Jolie, who 'He has millions of dollars, but he can't touch it,' says Anne in Sept à Huit. Otherwise, he would have paid the taxes. So, I, like an idiot, pay the 5,000 euros. Every time I had doubts, he managed to take away my doubts“. In the middle of a divorce, Anne recovers a compensatory benefit of 775,000 euros… all of this treasure was captured by the scammer.
His daughter, then a law student, saw through the scammer's game. She tried to convince her mother that she was being fooled but the influence of the fake Brad Pitt was too great. The relationship between mother and daughter suffers. During this period, Anne attempted to take her own life three times. During the summer of 2024, Anne, who only has 40,000 euros left and is staying with a friend, finally ended up breaking off this relationship for good. A investigation was entrusted to a specialized brigade of the judicial police.
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