New Delhi:
Brad Pitt has issued a statement after a French woman was defrauded of 8,00,000 euros by a man posing as Pitt. The actor’s team urged fans “not to respond to unsolicited online outreach,” especially from actors without a social media presence.
The story dates back to February 2023, when 53-year-old Anne was on a ski trip to Tignes and received a message on Instagram from an account posing as Pitt’s mother Jane Etta Pitt. A day later, she received a message from another account pretending to be the actor himself and they immediately hit it off.
The alleged Brad Pitt report sent poems and declarations of love to Anne, leading her to believe the two were in a long-distance relationship. The timing of this was appropriate as Anna, married to a millionaire, was going through a rough patch in her relationship.
While the person posing as Pitt avoided phone calls, he sent artificial intelligence-generated videos and images to Anne to convince her of his identity and love for her. He even asks her to marry him.
Shortly afterwards, Anne’s divorce was finalized and she received compensation of 7,75,000 euros. At the same time, fake Pitt shared doctored photos of him in a hospital, asking Anne for money to treat an alleged kidney cancer. He said his bank accounts have been frozen due to his ongoing divorce case with Angelina Jolie.
“It hurts me to do it, but I tell myself that I could save a man’s life,” she said on the show “Sept a huit” that aired Sunday evening (January 12) on local news channel TF1 .
When Anne saw reports about Pitt’s relationship with jewelry designer Ines De Ramon many months later, in 2024, she realized she had been scammed. Anne is in hospital and is being treated for severe depression.
After the news came to attention, Pitt’s representative addressed the situation shared a statement with E! News. “It’s terrible that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ strong bonds with celebrities,” the spokesperson said on January 15, “but this is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who don’t have a social media presence to have.”
This isn’t the first time someone has been duped by ‘Brad Pitt’. In September 2023, Spanish police arrested five people accused of defrauding two women of €325,000 by posing as Brad Pitt through online and WhatsApp messages.