A 53-year-old French interior designer, identified as Anne, fell victim to a romance scam involving a fake Hollywood actor, Brad Pitt, and ultimately lost €830,000 ($890,000).
The fraudulent activity began in September 2023 when Anne was contacted via Instagram by someone claiming to be Brad Pitt’s mother. The scammer, posing as “Jane Etta Pitt,” flattered Anne and suggested she would be an ideal match for her “son.”
“It is a woman like you that my son needs,” the scammer had wrote in one of the messages sent to Anne.
Soon, a new account reached out, posing as Brad Pitt himself, and the two began talking. Though Anne was at first skeptical, she eventually fell into the trap as the scammer sent AI-generated photos and romantic messages, poems and songs to gain her trust.
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“At first, I thought it was fake, but I could not understand what was happening to me. After that, we would contact each other every day and we became friends.”
Anne at the time, was struggling with relationship issues, including a divorce, which made her emotionally vulnerable.
Anne narrates how he used to send her expensive gifts and flowers which she had to for Customs. This way she already did away with €9,000.
The fraudster claimed to be Pitt later claimed he was suffering from kidney cancer and that his ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen his accounts, leaving him unable to afford treatment.
He sent her fake images of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed strapped to an IV Machine, which convinced Anne to send him money. Over time, she transferred significant funds amounting to €830,000, believing she was helping the actor, her now love interest, with his medical bills.
Anne realized the scam only in mid-2024 after seeing Pitt with his girlfriend on the news, and reading news about Pitt’s actual life.
Since lodging a complaint to the Police, investigations and the hunt to for the scammer has been ongoing, while Anne receives medical therapy as she has been plunged into severe depression.
