A scammer duped a French woman into paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds after convincing her they were Brad Pitt with reels of AI-generated images.
The 53-year-old victim shelled out 830,000 euros (£697,000) to help with what she believed was cancer treatment for the film star.
The interior designer told French channel TF1 that the ordeal started when she received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother after sharing photos of her lavish ski trip to Tignes on Instagram.
A day later, she received a second message from an account posing as Brad Pitt, saying his mother had spoken a lot about her already.
The victim, who said she was going through a difficult period with her millionaire husband, said she struck up an unlikely friendship with the account from February 2023, receiving poems and kind affirmations.
‘There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done,’ she said, as reported by BFMTV.
She revealed she did have her suspicions and thought the account was fake at first, but after messaging every day and receiving AI generated photos and videos of the star, she became more at ease.
Soon the blossoming relationship took a turn as the fake Brad Pitt proposed to her and overwhelmed her with the promise of fancy gifts.
The only catch was that she would need to pay customs fees to receive them.
This soon added up to 9,000 euros (£7,566).
With the victim already having shown willing to part with money, the scammer went on to make more and more absurd requests.
When the victim told her ‘friend’ that she was expecting a hefty divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer upped the stakes.
The Brad Pitt account appealed for help in funding urgent kidney cancer treatment, lamenting that they could not access funds due to their ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The scammer reportedly began sending AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt apparently from the confines of a hospital bed.
The two communicated by text and with photos, but the victim said he was never free for a call – a trope of online scam artists.
In sum, she parted with nearly one million euros over the course of the relationship until her suspicions were roused by seeing the actor with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in the press.
The victim went to the authorities with the story, who launched an investigation.
It was unclear whether she had been able to recoup any of her money nearly two years since the relationship started.
BFMTV reports that the victim is currently hospitalised in a clinic, with severe depression.
Followers of the story shared some sympathy for the victim.
Sarah Bee wrote on X: ‘Romance scams are the cruellest.’
Another user questioned whether the victim could have Googled whether the Fight Club star was in hospital to verify the claims.
One user weighed in: ‘Why you need to know what your old folks are up to before they give away your inheritance to Brad Pitt’
User Jay Kennedy replied: ‘My step mom will not stop sending money to the Cello player.
‘My father and I keep telling her. She just keeps going to get gift cards.
‘It’s sad how lonely and lost older people get. To where they are so delusional and do this.’
