Brad Pitt not only made headlines recently regarding his high-profile settlement with Angelina Jolie but also due to a horrifying scam affecting one of his fans. While the actor was busy battling it out legally, a fraudster seized this opportunity to scam a 53-year-old French woman out of over 830000 euros.
In the aftermath of this shockingly sad event, Brad Pitt cautioned his fans to be keen and careful with online outreach. His representative told a US outlet on January 15th that unsolicited setups should not be responded to at all, particularly when they involve celebrities who are inactive on social media platforms.
Brad Pitt does not have any public social media accounts, including Instagram, TikTok, and X.
The victim, Anne, a French interior designer, was first contacted via Instagram by an account claiming to be Pitt’s mother. "She told me that her son needed someone like me," Anne explained to TF1. At first, she was sceptical, dismissing it as a fake message, but her lack of experience with social media led her to engage further.
Soon after, an account claiming to be Brad Pitt himself reached out to her directly. "At first, I thought it was ridiculous. I didn’t believe it," Anne explained further to TF1. “But I’m not used to social media, and I didn’t fully understand what was happening.”
The scammers brainwashed Anne into believing that Brad Pitt needed financial help for his kidney treatment and that he could not access his own funds as his bank account was frozen due to his ongoing divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie. To further deceive her, the fraudsters even sent AI-generated images of Brad Pitt lying in a hospital bed in a way that made Anne believe it was real.
Anne was convinced that she was in some sort of romantic connection with the actor and gave away her life savings, which was about 850k$ towards their bank account and even went as far as getting a divorce from her husband so she could be with Pitt.
Anne only learned she had been conned when she came across a news clip of Pitt with his real-life girlfriend, Ines de Ramon. She instantly filed a report with the police.
"I keep asking myself, why did they choose me? What did I even do to deserve this? I have never harmed anyone. Those people deserve hell." Anne told TF1.
This incident offered a reminder to all regarding the hazards of online fraud and to be cautious of any unsolicited contacts, especially those concerning high-profile celebrities.
