Fake Brad Pitt scams French woman online

A representative for Brad Pitt has warned fans to be wary of impersonation scams after a French woman lost her life savings to fraudsters posing as the Hollywood star. The 53-year-old victim told France's TF1 channel she believed she was in a romantic relationship with who she believed to be Pitt for almost 18 months, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros ($850,000) to the scammers.

"It's awful that scammers take advantage of fans' strong connection with celebrities," a spokesperson for the Fight Club actor told Entertainment Weekly. The spokesperson added it was "an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence."

The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as AI image-creating technology to send the woman what appeared to be selfies and messages from the Oscar-winning actor. To extract money, they pretended that the 61-year-old needed money to pay for kidney treatment, with his bank accounts supposedly frozen because of divorce proceedings with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie. The victim, named only as Anne, realised she had been scammed only when news emerged of Pitt’s real-life relationship with girlfriend Ines de Ramon.

RELATED POST

COMMENTS