This Sunday, the program “Sept à Huit” broadcast a moving testimony. Anne, 53, a French interior designer, shared her traumatic experience of being the victim of a scam that cost her 830,000 euros (541,770,938 FCFA). For a year and a half, she believed she was having an online relationship with Hollywood star Brad Pitt, but behind this pseudonym were unscrupulous scammers.
It all started in February 2023, when Anne, on a ski vacation, decided to register on Instagram for the first time. It was at this time that she received a message from a woman calling herself Jane Etta Pitt, claiming to be the actor’s mother. The woman said to him: “My son needs a woman like you.” The next day, a man pretending to be Brad Pitt made contact with Anne, claiming that her mother had told him about her. From then on, Anne falls into the trap of scammers who, through increasingly intimate exchanges of messages, gain her trust.
Anne, going through a difficult period emotionally with her husband, lets herself be carried away by the attention this “Brad Pitt” pays to her. “He knew how to talk to women,” she confides. Very quickly, the messages become more and more affectionate and the scammer sends her fake selfies, photos of Brad Pitt supposedly taken for her, proof of her identity and even videos generated by artificial intelligence to respond to his calls.
The scam reaches a point of no return when the “man” behind the scam asks Anne to marry him. Encouraged to divorce, Anne does so, but the scammer continues to exploit her vulnerability, demanding money from her for various reasons, including alleged kidney cancer. He assures her that his bank accounts are blocked because of his divorce from Angelina Jolie. Anne, hoping to save the life of the man she believes to be Brad Pitt, pays 775,000 euros, then another 55,000 euros in the following months.
Throughout the story, Anne blocks the scammer’s number around forty times, consumed by remorse, but each time she gives in to temptation, hoping that it all ends with a reunion with her supposed fiancé. It’s only when she learns, through the media, that the real Brad Pitt is in a relationship that reality hits her head on. She then realizes the extent of the scam and the extent of her losses.
After selling her house and furniture, Anne finds herself destitute, with only 40,000 euros of savings remaining. She decides to file a complaint and says in the report: “I wonder why I was chosen to hurt me like that. I have never hurt anyone in my life. These people deserve hell.”
Currently hospitalized in a specialized establishment after several suicide attempts, Anne is a tragic example of the devastation that these “grazers” can cause, scammers who take advantage of the credulity and solitude of the victims. His story highlights the need to remain vigilant against this type of scam, which targets the most vulnerable people.
