Brad Pitt has responded after a woman was tricked into sending $850,000 to a fake account pretending to be the actor, claiming he needed the cash for cancer treatment.PauseMute
53-year-old Anne said she was fooled by an online scammer after she received messages on social media, with the account pretending to be Brad Pitt’s mother.
Only a day later, Anne was sent another DM in February 2023, which allegedly read: “Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more.”
Speaking to French TV TF1, she said: “In fact, we’re talking about Brad Pitt, I’m falling from the clouds. At first, I tell myself it’s fake, but I don’t really understand what’s happening to me. After that, we will contact each other every day and we become friends,”.
“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.”
The account then claimed to be going through ‘cancer treatment’ but due to his ongoing divorce with Angelina Jolie, he could not afford it. They sent photoshopped AI images of the Fight Club actor in a hospital to fool Anne.
However, when she wanted to call him, the account said they were too ‘busy’.
After months of conversation, the victim even agreed to marry the man behind the profile – after she divorced her husband and received €775,000 ($798,894).
The account had promised to buy her gifts such as Chanel and Hermès purses and so she sent the entire amount of money to the fake account. They also said she would have to pay a customs fee of €9,000 ($9,277).
After the real Brad Pitt was spotted in public with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, Anne became suspicious and made the decision to get investigators to look into her case.
As reported by BFM TV, Anne is now in a hospital clinic with severe depression and it has not been reported if she got her money back from the scammer or not.
With the story going viral, the real Brad Pitt has since responded. A spokesperson on his behalf said: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,”.
“This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”
