Fraudsters impersonating Brad Pitt convince woman to wire $800,000

A French woman reportedly wired more than $800,000 to scammers after being tricked into dating. Brad Pitt.

The 53-year-old woman, identified as Anne, suggested that Brad, 61, needed the funds to pay for kidney treatment, French TV channel TF1 for her ordeal. (The original interview was taken down on Tuesday, January 14 due to online harassment Anne received, however French news releases AFP and BFM TV reported the scam as well as the subsequent cyberbullying.)

According to BFM TVinterior designer Anne was recently interviewed by TF1 Seven to eightwhere she explained that in February 2023 she was contacted by someone claiming to be Brad's mother, Jane Pitt. Anne had been on a ski trip in Tignes, France and was posting photos from the trip via Instagram when she was contacted by what she calls Jane.

The outlet reported that Anne discovered the next day that Jane's account was “apparently linked to the actor” and that scammers posing as Brad told Anne that her “mother has been talking about him a lot.”

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A relationship developed quickly, and Anne, who was supposedly married at the time, subsequently received “poems and many declarations”. Anne told TF1: “There are so few men who write you such things. I liked the man I spoke to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done.

Fraudsters used AI-generated videos, fake social media and WhatsApp accounts to keep up the ruse, and alleged examples of these efforts were published via X and included BFM TVin the report.

According to BFM TVAnne allegedly told TF1: “At first I told myself it was fake, that it was funny. But I'm not used to social media and I didn't really understand what was happening to me.

As Anne's confidence grew, she sent almost €10,000 to the scammers after telling them that customs tariffs required payment in order to send her gifts.

Anne then allegedly informed the criminals that she had divorced her husband and then matched her original transfer with another amount totaling just under €775,000 – almost the entire divorce settlement.

The second transfer may have been because Anne was told that “Pete” had kidney cancer and needed financial help as his accounts were frozen while his divorce from Pete's ex-spouse was pending. Angelina Jolie happened.

British newspaper The Times reported that TF1 removed the original news article to protect Anna from the “wave of harassment” received online after her story became public.

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Anne may have filed a lawsuit and police have opened an investigation, according to multiple outlets.

This isn't the first time Brad has been criminally framed online. Actor's publicist Matthew Hiltzick told Us Weekly In a statement on September 25, 2024: “It's terrible that scammers are taking advantage of fans' strong connection with celebrities,” then Spanish police arrested five people for allegedly impersonating Brad.

In the September ordeal, two women were defrauded of at least $350,000.