Like many French people (and now part of the connected world), you must not have missed the fake affair Brad Pitt. On January 12, 2025, the broadcast Seven to Eight presented by Harry Roselmack on TF1 broadcast a report on the case of Anne, a 52-year-old woman who paid more than 830,000 euros to a man posing as Brad Pitt on social networks. Fueled by lunar conversations and photomontages generated by artificial intelligence, this story was quickly taken up by Internet users. On the Internet, we have since witnessed a barrage of comments and mockery regarding the considerable sum sent by this woman, but above all criticizing the aberrant photo and video montages sent by the scammer.
Brad Pitt in a hospital bed, a bad Photoshop of the actor holding an “Anne I Love You” sign, montages created at home or via AI that digital regulars recognize as fake in the blink of an eye… If many people laugh about it, even mocking the naivety of this woman, I am revolted to see to what extent these people cruelly lack empathy and minimize a strong and more than worrying social issue. If someone you know has been or is a victim of this type of scam, believe me, you would have no reason to laugh. In addition to the financial aspect of the money sent (which you will never see again) for supposed medical or transport expenses, the psychological distress is much stronger and complicated to manage in this type of business, which can leave traces for years on the victim and their loved ones.
What is the scam of a network of grazers like that of the fake Brad Pitt?
Believing to live a true love story, Anne was in fact the victim of a more than widespread scam: a gang of grazers. The grazer scam is an online fraud where scammers, often located in networks in West Africa, emotionally manipulate their victims, mainly women between 40 and 60 years old, via social networks, dating sites or emails, impersonating trusted people, celebrities or in emergency situations. After creating a relationship with the victim, often in psychological distress or isolated from those around them, the scammer asks for money under the pretext of medical, legal or other emergency expenses. Smitten with a new love or caught in the web of beautiful words promising a bright future, vulnerable victims risk losing large sums of money, suffering psychological damage, seeing their private lives exploited and finding themselves in a situation of shame or guilt.
In 2022, the platform Pharos (French Ministry of the Interior) recorded a sharp increase in reports of online fraud with more than 50,000 reports linked to this type of digital and romantic scam. These 2.0 robberies, however, have a lasting impact on the victim’s real life: psychological distress, loss of money, isolation, depression, suicide attempts… Much more than jokes and coffee machine jokes, the story of the fake Brad Pitt highlights a phenomenon that could affect you or a member of your family, and from which it is much more complicated to escape than it seems.
In the various cases of online scams that I know of, the victims and their entourage took between several months and two years to escape: a significant loss of money is often followed by episodes of depression which can destroy a person for a long period. Finally aware of the bad buzz and the relentlessness against Anne (testifying openly) provoked by the broadcast, TF1 removed the replay of the report two days after its broadcast as announced on X: “The report broadcast this Sunday (January 12, 2025) sparked a wave of harassment against a witness. For the protection of victims, we have decided to remove it from our platforms.” In 2020, the FBI recorded financial losses of more than $600 million due to romance scams. For the case ofAnnethe victim got out of the scam thanks to the support of his daughter and after discovering photos of Brad Pitt and his new companion Ines de Ramon. The scammer was found in Nigeria thanks to a former repentant hacker and a lawsuit was filed against the victim’s bank, but the outcome of this type of scam is generally not so positive, due to the complexity of the international networks to be dismantled digitally. So if your aunt tells you about her new virtual love story with Keanu Reevesdon’t make fun, but learn more to avoid a situation that is much less funny than a simple family meal joke.
How to help in the event of an online romance scam?
If one of your loved ones begins to fall for this type of scam, they require human, medical or even legal support to stop the spiral. Here are some tips to try to help someone who is the victim of love scams or love scams.
