Getty Image
A 53-year-old French woman named “Anne” was scammed out of ~$850,000 after she was duped by AI-generated images of Brad Pitt that were used to convince her he needed money for cancer treatment. The scammer, pretending to be Pitt, claimed they needed the money because their bank accounts were blocked due to his divorce from Angelina Jolie.
According to reports, beginning in February 2023, Anne developed on online relationship with the fake AI Brad Pitt over Instagram that lasted over a year and a half, with the woman believing the pair were in a relationship.
Eventually, Fake Brad Pitt asked Anne to marry her, and she was “very close to saying yes,” she told French documentary show Sept à huit. Fake Brad Pitt then claimed to be in a hospital for kidney cancer treatment, leading to Anne wiring ~$60,000 to a bank account in turkey.
“While Anne had her doubts, she was reassured when the fake star’s ‘doctor’ wrote to her by email and explained that her ‘husband’ was ‘in a worrying state and is fighting to survive.’”
“‘It cost me to do it, but I thought that I might be saving a man’s life,’” she said, according to The Telegraph.
A french woman was scammed out of over $800K by someone pretending to be Brad Pitt
• Scammer DM’d her on Instagram and convinced her with AI-generated videos and edited images
• She divorced her husband thinking they would get together
• Scammer convinced her his bank… pic.twitter.com/VWD3RtvIO3
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) January 14, 2025
Despite raised suspicions after seeing Pitt with his current partner Ines de Ramon last summer, Anne continued to wire money to the scammers until she was broke, resulting in her moving in with her friend and three subsequent suicide attempts (Anne was since admitted to a clinic for depression).
Last September, a similar scam unfolded in Spain, as five people were arrested for defrauding two women of ~$325,000 by pretending to be the Academy Award-winning Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star.