A woman in France has been scammed after she became convinced that she was in a relationship with Hollywood actor, Brad Pitt.
The 53-year-old victim, who gave her name as Anne, is the latest woman to fall for the “Fake Brad Pitt Scam” after several cases were reported in Spain in 2024.
The interior designer told French channel TF1 that the nightmare began in September 2023 when she received a message on Instagram from “Jane Etta Pitt, the actor’s mother – or so they claimed.”
Their chat quickly turned to Brad Pitt and how the two would make a great romantic match.
Anne was told by the fraudster posing as Brad’s mum: “It is a woman like you that my son needs.”
The very next day that another account contacted her, writing: “Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more.”
At first, she suspected it may be a scam, but she soon fell in the fraudster’s tangled web of deceit.
Anne recalled being flabbergasted that she was actually speaking with Brad Pitt, adding: “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.”
Woman in France scammed of �700,000 after believing she was in relationship with Brad Pitt
At the time, she was going through a rough patch in her personal life and her relationship with a millionaire entrepreneur, 19 years her senior, was in tatters, newspaper Sud Ouest reported.
Posing as Brad Pitt, the fraudster sent her poems and songs and AI photos to look like the actor.
“He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done,” Anne said.
He started buying her luxurious bags, but told her that she had to pay for customs. This is how Anne lost her first €9,000 (£7,580).
Eventually, the scammer, still impersonating the actor, claimed that he had kidney cancer and needed money for treatment.
He told Anne that his ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts and he had no access to his fortune.
Fake photos of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed, strapped to an IV machine, soon followed and the victim was convinced.
Woman in France scammed of �700,000 after believing she was in relationship with Brad Pitt
She eventually transferred 830,000 euros (£697,000) to help with what she believed was cancer treatment for the film star.
It was only after Anne saw pictures of Brad Pitt with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in the newspapers that she began suspecting the scam.
The victim went to the French police with the story, who then launched an investigation in he summer of 2024.
Following the con, BFMTV reported that Anne is currently hospitalised in a clinic, with severe depression.
