It’s a report that provokes a reaction. The story of Anne, scammed by scammers posing as Brad Pitt, made the rounds on social networks, exposing the victim to a wave of cyberharassment. To the point that “Sept à trois”, the TF1 show in which this fifty-year-old testified openly, announced on Tuesday January 14 that it had withdrawn its Sunday issue, in which this gigantic scam was discussed.
As the victim explains in “Sept to Eight, it all starts in February 2023 during a family vacation. Anne, 53, decides to register on Instagram and posts a few photos of her ski trip. This interior decorator , new to social networks, very quickly receives a message from a person who introduces herself as Jane Etta Pitt, the mother of Brad Pitt. She tells her that she sees in her the ideal companion for her son.
The next day, Anne receives a message from another account, via which someone this time pretends to be the actor himself. “My mother told me a lot about you”he writes. The messages multiplied and the fifty-year-old, initially suspicious, ended up being coaxed, especially as she was going through a marital crisis with her husband. The forger “knew how to talk to women”she assures in the report of “Sept à quatre”.
Anne ends up leaving her millionaire husband, really thinking of maintaining a long-distance relationship with the American star. However, every time she tries to call him, the scammer makes excuses and tries to coax her with photo montages and fake videos, recorded with Brad Pitt's voice. Of the “deepfakes” made using artificial intelligence, which makes it possible to reproduce the face and voice of anyone. Scammers also send fake IDs. Other people wrote to him, one claiming to be Brad Pitt's agent, another one of his daughters, Shiloh. The fifty-year-old lets herself be caught up in this spiral of lies.
The fake Brad Pitt, with whom she believes she has a passionate relationship, then demands increasingly large sums of money from her, reports “Sept à Eight”. First, 9,000 euros in customs duties to unlock so-called luxurious gifts that he would have bought for her and that he could not pay, because of his lawsuit with Angelina Jolie, from whom he is separated. Then, the scammer assures him that he suffers from kidney cancer and says he needs a transfer to finance his treatment, his accounts being blocked, still because of the legal proceedings. Anne then transferred almost all of her compensatory benefit, received during her divorce, or 775,000 euros, to an account in Türkiye.
The incredible scam lasted a year and a half, until the real Brad Pitt made his relationship with another woman official in the media. Shocked, Anne asks for explanations. The scammers go so far as to shoot a fake news flash which denies the information, and formalizes the affair with Anne. But faced with the numerous press articles reporting this new romantic relationship of the actor, the victim ends up understanding the truth and filing a complaint.
Devastated, Anne confides having made three suicide attempts and having been hospitalized at her request in a specialized clinic, for severe depression. After paying a total of 830,000 euros to her scammer, she explains that she had to sell her house and her furniture. She is now staying with a friend on Reunion Island.
Since the broadcast of the report, Anne's story has been massively relayed and commented on on social networks, quickly ranking at the top of the trends on memes (viral humorous montages). Anne's supposed gullibility is the subject of a barrage of mockery from Internet users.
TFC, the Toulouse football club, posted a message on “Hello Anne, Brad told us that he will be at the Stadium on Wednesday for #TFCLAVAL. And you?”. Under fire from critics, the Ligue 1 club then backtracked by presenting its “sincere apologies”.
Netflix also published a message on the same social network, listing four films available on its platform in which the American star appears. “Four films to see with Brad Pitt (promise) it’s a gift”it is mentioned. The comedian and France Inter columnist, Matthieu Noël, made ironic comments about the fate of the victim in his post Tuesday morning. Singer Camille Lellouche also had fun with the situation. “I'm sorry but ma'am, really, love makes you blind, it's not possible”, she says, crying with laughter, in a video posted on her Instagram account.
Other messages, fewer in number, show compassion for the victim, criticizing “grazers”, these scammers who pretend to be others online. Thus, singer Vianney regrets that the victim is ridiculed. “I can't make fun of a vulnerable woman who was scammed”he wrote in an Instagram story. “I have met a few who have experienced this, on different scales, and it is infinitely sad”adds the artist.
-It is in the face of this surge of reactions that “Sept à Eight” removed the subject from all its platforms. “The report broadcast this Sunday sparked a wave of harassment against a witness. For the protection of the victims, we have decided to remove it from our platforms,” writes the show presented by Harry Roselmack on his X account.
Insufficient for Anne, who spoke on the YouTube channel “Legend” the same day. “In this report, the only thing we will remember is: 'Anne fell in love with a fake Brad Pitt'. However, initially, I never cheated on my husband in my life”, she begins by defending herself, claiming to be “a kind woman” and not “crazy or stupid as some people claim” on social networks.
“Indeed, I was fooled, I admit it, and that’s why I testified, because I’m not the only one in this situation”she continues, before recalling that she did not “no more roof”. “My life is a six square meter box, with a few boxes inside.” She then attacks the TF1 show: “Know that the journalist stayed two days to interview me… And he only retained what should not have been retained. To tarnish my image, solely with the aim of attracting an audience.“
“In my place, you would have fallen into the trap.”
Anne, victim of a scammer pretending to be Brad Pitton the Legend channel, on YouTube
In this same video, Marwan Ouarab, founder of the site Find My Scammer (which can be translated as “Find my crook”) explains that he founded a company to help victims of online scams and claims to have succeeded in identifying the the author of the scam, via a trapped link which allowed access to his entire phone. He claims that the man is from Nigeria and has made several other victims, posing as Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves, the actor of the trilogy Matrix.
According to the hacker, the man does not act alone but with “a small group, of three or four fairly young people, who causes damage”. “On the device of the fake Brad Pitt alone, there were 34 victims”, he notes, ensuring that the main instigator should be arrested “in the days to come.”
Tuesday, a spokesperson for Brad Pitt (the real one this time), reacted in the columns of the American media Entertainment Weekly. “It’s awful that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities,” he declared. For him, this terrible scam “is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who do not have a social media presence.”
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