Snowball effect. Since its broadcast on Sunday, the report from “Sept à Huit” which traces the vast scam suffered by Anne has continued to create a stir. For around twenty minutes, the magazine returned to the story of this 53-year-old woman, who had been living in Mauritius for several years at the time of the events.
Victim of an emotional scam, over a year and a half she paid a total of 830,000 euros to a scammer who posed as Brad Pitt, but also as relatives of the Hollywood actor. She filed a complaint in October 2024 with the gendarmerie of Sainte-Marie (Reunion), where she has been living since the fall.
Faced with the wave of reactions between Sunday and Monday as well as the messages received by Anne, TF 1 deleted the replay of “Sept à Huit” from its TF 1 + platform on Monday at the end of the day. The last issue broadcast was put back online in a shortened version which at no time mentions the subject concerning Anne. This decision was taken by mutual agreement between Éléphant, the producer of the Sunday program, and the channel due to the wave of cyberharassment which affected the interior decorator and the “denigration” which she suffered, we were told. -we let it be known.
The victim evokes a refusal of his anonymity
The story could have ended there, but Anne accuses the front page of having reduced her misadventure to that of a naive woman “fell in love with a fake Brad Pitt”. To Le Parisien, she affirms that it was the production which suggested the creation of an online prize pool to help her financially, but also that the show refused to allow her and her best friend to be blurred during the broadcast. of the report. At the same time, she confirms that she is the author of several messages on social networks in which she strongly criticizes the rendering of the filming and announces that she has put “Sept à Huit” on notice as the front page. However, neither Anne nor her lawyers gave us access to this document.
Also speaking in the report, Marwan Ouarab, founder of a company that fights against online scammers and who carried out research to find those who scammed Anne, also declared to Le Parisien that he had issued a formal notice on the evening of January 12 with the Éléphant company, on the grounds that “the reputation of (his company) was also affected by this affair.
“Anne is a victim and we approached her as such”
In response to these accusations, Philippe Pecoul, editorial director of “Sept à Huit”, told Le Parisien that “neither Anne nor any legal representative has sent us any formal notice. To my knowledge, TF 1 has not received any either,” he tells us. The witness “never asked to be blurred” on screen, adds the journalist. As for the online prize pool, “it was an idea that she had herself,” he says. There are also writings which attest to this. (…) She is the one who initiated it. »
Philippe Pecoul emphasizes that the 21 minutes devoted to Anne only mention “facts that she tells us herself, on the basis of documents that she provides us, and testimonies from those close to her. We are only reconstructing the mechanisms of this scam which she herself explains very well. We have done our job as journalists,” he continues, before recalling that Anne “is a victim and (what) we approached it as such.” As for the 40,000 euros in savings that she would have and which she denies having, “Sept à Huit” confirms having notes from the journalist taken when she “broke down” the distribution of this sum.
Anne should testify this Saturday on M 6
“We regret this smear campaign. This affected her a lot and we understand that. It is astonishing and appalling to see how she is treated on social media. Anne is a victim of a very worrying social phenomenon which is cyber fraud. This is first and foremost what should attract attention,” defends the man at the head of the magazine created in 2000.
However, Anne seems to want to continue the media coverage of her story: a subject on the M 6 program “La grande week” will be devoted this Saturday to the scam of which she was a victim, Le Parisien learned from the channel. The fifty-year-old should testify by video, while her daughter, her lawyer and the hacker Marwan will be present on set.
