A French woman who gave her name as Anne reveals that she had been duped out of more than $800,000 after she was contacted by an individual through an Instagram account who pretended to be Brad Pitt. One can easily sniff out a random social media account as nothing more than a scam, but the mastermind behind the act had a trick up his sleeve, and that was using AI-generated videos and edited images to prove that he was the Hollywood star.
Portraying himself as Brad Pitt, the scammer says he needed urgent funds for a kidney treatment and claims he could not access his bank accounts due to his ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie
Anne was said to have been going through a difficult time with her millionaire husband, making her easy prey to an online scammer who reached out to her on February 2023 through Instagram. What started out with exchanging pleasant messages eventually transformed into a fully-blown romance where the AI-generated Brad Pitt would send Anne poems and texts that made the French woman fall for him. At first, Anne did have suspicions that the account was fake, but a consistent string of messages coupled with receiving AI-generated videos and images eased her mind.
The ‘fake’ Brad Pitt eventually proposed to her and promised her fancy gifts as part of their new relationship status. The only condition was that Anne would have to pay customs fees to receive the items, which initially added to €9,000 or approximately $9,231. Slowly but surely, Anne began to part with larger sums of money, meaning that the scammer had successfully lured her into his trap. When the woman told Brad Pitt that she was expected to see a hefty divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer took this golden opportunity to deprive her of ludicrous sums of money.
The account went on to appeal for urgent kidney cancer treatment, and to convince Anne to continue sending the movie star funds despite earning truckloads during his illustrious career, the fictitious Pitt said that he could not access his funds due to his own ongoing divorce with Angelina Jolie. The person on the other end said that he was never free for a call, which is common practice for such scam artists, but Anne kept receiving AI-generated videos and images from Brad Pitt’s supposed hospital bed. At this point, Anne had already sent €800,000 to the scammer, which amounts to more than $850,000.
-The only time the 53-year-old victim realized that she was being played was when she saw Brad Pitt with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, confirming her suspicions, but it was already too late. Given that Anne made online wire transfers, those transactions can be traced, but scammers know better and make solid efforts to hide their tracks. Even though the authorities launched an investigation, it is unclear if she has managed to recoup the ridiculous amount that she kept on sending for nearly two years. Currently, Anne is hospitalized in a clinic and is suffering from severe depression due to events that transpired.
News Source: The Express
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