Ex-con traces fake Brad Pitt who stole $1.2 million from French woman

A former crook turned ethical hacker tracked down and trapped fake Brad Pitt who extorted more than $1.2 million from a 54-year-old French woman. We summarize this affair which has gone around the world in recent days.

“In the report, the only thing we will remember is that Anne fell in love with a fake Brad Pitt. But that’s not the story at all. I am not crazy or stupid as some people claim and write on social networks. I just wanted to help one person. I was fooled, I admit it. That’s why I testified, because I’m not the only one in this situation,” Anne tells the online media Legend.

On the show Seven to Eight broadcast on Sunday on the French channel TF1, the interior designer said he was scammed for more than $1.2 million by crooks posing as actor Brad Pitt.

For a year and a half, she believed she was in a relationship with the famous Hollywood actor.

Since the report was broadcast, Anne has become the laughing stock of the whole world.

Hundreds of social media users have mocked the mother, who is believed to have lost all her savings and attempted to end her life three times since the scam was revealed.

On Tuesday, the TF1 channel announced that it had removed the report devoted to this story from all its platforms.

But Anne does not intend to stop there.

With the help of the founder of the site dedicated to finding scammers and recovering stolen money, Find My Scammer, she prepares the response.

Scammers exposed

Marwan Ouarab is a former scammer turned ethical hacker. He is now a hunter of online fraudsters.

Thanks to the information provided by the victim, he managed to contact the fake Brad Pitt and trap him in turn.

“He was sent a booby-trapped link disguised in a message. By clicking on it, he unknowingly gave us access to his phone,” reports Mr. Ouarab.

With his team, he was able to collect information on the scammer such as his identity and the exact address of his headquarters in Nigeria. He was also able to trace the funds paid by Anne to this criminal who did not act alone.

In all, no less than 34 people were allegedly scammed by this small group of three or four young people who also posed as the actor Keanu Reeves.

“Anne was the biggest victim of celebrity impersonation fraud in the world,” confirms the ethical hacker who says he made it a personal matter.

He emphasizes to the media Legend working for free for the 54-year-old woman. He is also the one who pays his lawyer fees.

The fraudsters will perhaps never be charged by the Nigerian justice system. Anne could nevertheless recover a good part of her money, as her financial institution made serious mistakes.

“The bank did not comply with the TRACFIN law which aims to control the financing of money laundering and terrorism. As a result, Anne made banking transactions to accounts abroad without the bank making her sign anything,” explains Marwan Ouarab.

But how do you get trapped like this?

Manipulating vulnerable people

Anne’s story begins in February 2023, while she is still married to a wealthy entrepreneur.

After downloading Instagram, the Frenchwoman was contacted by a person who said she was Brad Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta. She tells him that her son “needs a woman like her.”

The next day, a person claiming to be the actor contacted her. Not being familiar with social networks, she does not fully understand what is happening to her.

After months of conversation, fake Brad Pitt claims he tried to send him luxury gifts without being able to pay customs duties. He claims his bank accounts are blocked due to his costly divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Anne therefore transfers more than $13,000 to the scammers.

Demands for money multiply as fake Brad Pitt gains his victim’s trust. He signals to Anne that he needs money to pay for treatment for kidney cancer, by sending her several photos generated by artificial intelligence in a hospital bed.

“I thought maybe I was saving a man’s life,” said Anne, who is herself in remission from brain cancer.

Anne and her husband have since divorced. The approximately 1.1 million obtained in the dispute went into the pockets of the group of scammers.

“I assume it”

When images of the real Brad Pitt with his new girlfriend Inès de Ramon appear in gossip magazines, the hackers try to keep her on the hook.

They send him a fake report in which a host generated by artificial intelligence reveals Brad Pitt’s “exclusive relationship with a special person called Anne”.

The video comforts her, until the real actor formalizes his new relationship in June 2024. She then decides to end her life.

In no case would Anne, who had never heard of artificial intelligence, have thought she would fall into this trap.

“I was scammed. I recognize it. And now you know who I am and I accept it. I no longer have a roof over my head. My life is a six square meter box with a few boxes inside. This is what I have left of my life,” she concludes in an interview with Legend.