an investigation into fraud opened in Reunion

The setbacks of this Frenchwoman, relayed on January 12 in a controversial “Sept à Huit” report but accepted by the channel, went around the web. An investigation was opened in Reunion Island to try to identify the perpetrators of the scam which made it possible to extract 830,000 euros from a woman convinced of financially helping the American actor Brad PittAFP learned on Friday from a police source.

At this stage, no suspect has been identified and the police officers from the financial brigade, responsible for the investigation, are seeking to locate the accounts which received the transfers from this French woman who filed a complaint in Reunion.

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The reaction of Brad Pitt’s entourage

In the show “Sept à Huit” broadcast on Sunday on TF1, a woman, named Anne and aged around fifty, said she had paid 830,000 euros to scammers posing as the American star by sending him false selfies, falsified identity documents and using artificial intelligence to dispel doubts.

Pretending to need money to pay for an operation for kidney cancer, the fake Brad Pitt managed to extract this large sum from this woman, who is now ruined and has made three suicide attempts.

Since the broadcast of the show, she has been the subject of ridicule from Internet users mocking her supposed gullibility. The report has since been removed from all platforms by TF1, after a “wave of harassment against a witness”. The matter reached the actor’s entourage, who warned his fans against scammers using his image.

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“It’s horrible”: Brad Pitt reacts and alerts his fans after the testimony in “September to Eight” of Anne, victim of a scammer

“It’s terrible that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities”a spokesperson for the actor told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday. Sentiment scams have been around since the dawn of email, but the advent of artificial intelligence has increased the risk of identity theft, hoaxes and online fraud, experts say.