Brad Pitt, fake soldier… victims of love scams, they lost everything

Since the health crisis linked to Covid-19, love scams have been on the rise. The usurpers take advantage of their victims’ feelings of loneliness to extract money from them.

According to figures from the National Consumer Institute (INC), each year in France, thousands of people are being tricked online. Nearly 80% of them are women over 50 years old. And the sums extorted sometimes reach hundreds of thousands of euros.

The scammer often spots his target on social networks or via a dating site. And everything happens very quickly, with victims quickly developing feelings. So Anna, 50, fell in love with a man who didn’t exist.

Anna offers 5,200 euros to a fake legionnaire

In 2019, registered on a Facebook group dedicated to TV series, she was approached by a certain Adrian Fernandez. Discussion begins and photos are exchanged. Adrian presents himself as a legionnaireresiding in Aubagne (Bouches-du-Rhône).

“In my relationship, it was routine after 26 years of living together. This man was attentive, he said nice things to me. It took me out of my routine,” she confided to our editorial team Shortbread News.

He said I was the woman of his life. That he couldn’t wait to meet me. He wanted us to have a baby together.

Anna can’t wait to meet him, but the appointment is constantly postponed. After two months of complicity, “Adrian” asks him “50 euros to pay for his telephone plan. He told me that without that we wouldn’t be able to call each other.” Until reaching larger sums, “150, 200, even 500 euros”. In total, she gives 5,200 euros to this strangereven if it means not paying your bills and your rent.

It was only at the end of 2020 that Anna discovered a “fake military” scamwhere around twenty legionnaires’ identities were usurped, and realizes that she has fallen into a trap. “When we finally called each other, it was very brief. I recognized the Eastern accent in his voice. This confirmed my doubts. »

Scammed by a supposedly rich English sixty-year-old

Similar story, for a 61-year-old resident of Saint-Raphaël (Var), who thought she had found the right fit on the internet. For her part, she was the victim of romantic scam worth 150,000 eurosreports our editorial staff Act Var.

The facts date back to the summer of 2023, when she came across the profile of a certain René Williams, described as a rich sixty-year-old originally from Manchester. Convinced of her good faith, she draws on her savings and even requests a loan from her father to help him. The investigation will reveal that of his numerous payments, 5,000 euros were transferred to the account of a law student at the Sorbonne, of Congolese origin.

The so-called David Hallyday promises him wonders

Roselyne, a nurse in Loconville (Oise), for her part believed for many months to maintain a romance with David Hallyday.

If her town is known for having hosted the wedding of Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan in 1965, Roselyne would have seen herself passing the ring on her son David. “He told me it was the real one,” she testifies in the show 66 minutes on M6taken up by Oise news.

It was on a dating site that she was contacted by her imposter. He sends her sweet words, comforts her, before asking her for money. She spends a total of 40,000 euros. A virtual romance that lasts a year.

“He explains to me that with his father’s inheritance, his accounts were blocked. He therefore asks me for financial help to unfreeze his accounts, recover the money and reimburse me, and for us to live together,” she explains.

Brad Pitt falls under her spell, an 830,000 euro scam

When it comes to romantic scams, this one is worthy of a Hollywood film. This fifty-year-old believed she was having a romantic affair on social networks with Brad Pitt. Before she realizes the scam, built from scratch by artificial intelligence.

It all starts in February 2023. The mother registers on Instagram and receives a message from an alleged Jane Etta Pitt. “It’s a woman like you that my son needs. » I answer her: “what are you talking about, you are completely delusional”, she testifies in a recent report by Seven to eight on TF1, removed from replays following an “unworthy wave” of harassment.

Eventually, she took the bait the next day. “Hello, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more. In fact, we’re talking about Brad Pitt, I’m amazed. At first, I told myself that it was fake. » Then, finally, the one who is going through a complicated romantic period, ends up falling under the spell of “the actor”.

There follows a unimaginable financial scam. The fifty-year-old spends 9,000 euros in customs fees for gifts from prestigious brands, the color of which she will never see. “He tells me that his accounts are blocked because of the lawsuit he has against Angelina Jolie. » The scam doesn’t stop there. She goes up to finance so-called kidney cancer by Brad Pitt.

It was only in the fall of 2023, after eight months of scam, that the actor, the real one, appeared everywhere with his new partner, before making his real affair official. She then discovers the pot of roses.

He attacked “single or psychologically fragile women”

Another similar story this time concerns a 55-year-old Breton woman who, divorced, claims to have been the victim of a romantic scam. Living in the Rennes region (Ille-et-Vilaine), his manipulator would have taken nearly 80,000 euros from him.

The scammer with 47,000 subscribers on Facebook began contacting her in 2015. “I was passionate about boats, too. He commented on my posts and had flattering compliments. The current is going well,” she indicated in February 2023 tonews Rennes. The two lovebirds meet and a romantic relationship begins. As the weeks went by, the man said he needed money.

5 000, 13 000, 46 000 euros… Colossal sums are regularly fired by the fifty-year-old between 2017 and 2020. “He told me to take medication. I was like a drug addict,” she explains. It was only in 2020 that she suffered an “electric shock” when she learned that he had hacked her cell phone. “I kicked him out,” she says, before starting legal proceedings.

How should we protect ourselves from such scams?

To avoid becoming a victim of such a scam, it is better to pay attention to a few signals. If your interlocutor constantly postpones the meeting, this should alert you. In this case, do not hesitate to ask the opinion of a loved one. And above all, never give money to someone you’ve never met in person. Even if you know her, remain vigilant in the face of this type of request.

Are you already a victim? Stop any relationship with the scammer, even if he is still trying to blackmail you. Keep all evidence in your possession, including telephone numbers, messages received or payments made.

You can report the scam or attempted scam at the police station, the gendarmerie brigade or in writing to the Public Prosecutor of the judicial court to which you report.

The dedicated THESEE platform also makes it possible to file a complaint online for this type of offense. Victim or witness of a situation of romantic fraud, know that you can be supported and obtain free advice via the Info Escroqueries platform of the Ministry of the Interior on 0 805 805 817.

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