Anne lost 830,000 euros thinking she was having an affair with Brad Pitt

As with many victims of scams, “the messages came at the right time”, explains Anne on the microphone of the Seven to Eight this Sunday, January 12, 2025.

At 53, the interior designer courageously agreed to testify about a scam she suffered. In eight months, she paid 830,000 euros to someone pretending to be Brad Pitt. Although this is not the first time that a scammer has impersonated the actor, it is the first time that such a large sum has been taken.

Not familiar with social media

Originally, she had simply created an Instagram account to share photos of her ski vacation. A lady, whose last name is the same as the actor, quickly contacted her, explaining to her that “it’s from a woman like you who [mon] son needs.”

Alleged son who will appear in Anne’s messages the next day, asking to know more: Brad Pitt himself, according to him.

Even if she is not familiar with social networks, as she herself explains in the report, Anne is not completely candid, and asks for proof.

Proof that his interlocutor easily provided: passport, messages from so-called relatives of the actor, photos and videos of him normally not found on the Internet (normally, they were fake photos taken by AI)… “I told myself that “he had taken these photos for me,” regrets the victim.

“Love makes you blind”

After some time, a relationship is created between the two. Initially friendly, then very quickly, intimate: Anne is going through a divorce, and needs to talk. To her face, the other tells her what she wants to hear.

There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well spoken.

“Every time I had doubts, he was able to take them away.” Like those times she tried to call him, but he had a shoot that was dragging on, for example. It’s a known fact: love makes you blind.

A day, fake Brad Pitt proposes to herand Anne was on the verge of saying yes, as she recognizes today. Along the way, he tells her that he has prepared gifts for her, but that she must pay customs duties to receive them. His accounts are apparently blocked, due to an ongoing lawsuit with his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie.

« Like an idiot, I pay the 5,000 euross,” says Anne. “Every time I had doubts, he was able to take them away.”

In total, she pays nearly 9,000 euros… For objects that she will never have the luxury of wearing, or even touching: they were supposedly held at customs “for an overload problem”.

Everything she said was “held against her”

Money was not a problem for her at that time. The divorce formalized, Anne had received some 775,000 euros. In the end, this money will be used to pay false medical expenses to the actor.

And once again, while Anne had doubts, “irrefutable” proof comes to remove her doubts: Brad Pitt’s “doctor”, “Dr Hatem”, writes to her by email and explains to her that her “husband (sic) » is “in a worrying state and fighting to survive”.

“It costs me to do it, but I tell myself that maybe I will save the life of a man,” justifies Anne, who thought, in passing, of helping the man she loves. Not to mention the fact that she herself was sick, and feels concerned.

Skillful,the crook turns everything Anne said on its head. She had confided to him that she had received a large sum of money and had been ill in the past. Elements that were ultimately used against her

With the help of deepfake, these images and videos generated by AI, the fake Brad Pitt drags his victim a little further into his net. And even if Anne blocks him forty times, she always ends up breaking down, starting to talk again, and falling back into the emotional blackmail of which she is a victim.

A spiral which caused turmoil in the friendly life of Anne, who was at odds with her daughter, Margaux, for a while. “You’ll see when he’s in front of us, you’ll apologize,” Anne said to her daughter.

Brad Pitt (the real one appears with his new conquest): cold shower for Anne

In the fall of 2023, after eight months of scam, Brad Pitt, the real one this time, appears everywhere with his new partner. Anne confronts who she thought was Brad Pitt.

Which goes very far in his defense: he (or they, because at the time these lines are written, we do not yet know if the crook was alone or in a gang) creates a special fake flash, always using of AI.

We learn that Brad Pitt denies this affair and better, that he is “in a relationship with a very special person, who has a special place in his heart”, a certain Anne…

This false news flash reassures the victim somewhat, but not for long: the real Brad Pitt formalizes his relationship, and Anne becomes disillusioned.

The final blow: the FBI agent

Final twist of fate: “an FBI agent” contacts her and tells her that she has fallen into a trap, but that he can help her. To do this, she just has to pay 5,000 new euros. Blinded by anger, Anne gives in again.

Of the 830,000 euros she paid in total, she will get nothing back. Today without a roof over her head, she is staying with a friend and has had to sell all her furniture. After three suicide attempts, Anne blames the blow.

She filed a complaint and launched an online fundraiser to pay her legal fees. She is, at the time of writing, hospitalized for serious depression, according to TF1.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.