Mumbai: A French woman was tricked into believing that she was dating Hollywood actor ‘Brad Pitt’ and was duped of over 800,000 euros.
The scammer used AI generated videos and photos to convince the 53-year-old Anne that he was undergoing treatment at a hospital and required financial assistance as his bank accounts were frozen amid his ongoing divorce case with Angelina Jolie.
Over time, their smooth conversations made the victim believe that she was in a relationship with Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.
The victim told French channel TF1 that she got trapped in the scam after receiving a message on Instagram from an account named after the actor’s mother Jane Etta Pitt.
The following day, the fake ‘Brad Pitt’ contacted her using another account and they started chatting and soon became friends.
“Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more,” read the message.
Recollecting the incident, Annie said, “At first, I thought it was fake, but I could not understand what was happening to me. After that, we would contact each other every day and we became friends.”
The scammer contacted her only through text messages and avoided phone calls, said the victim.
The victim, who was going through a rough patch in her marriage with a millionaire, even divorced her husband after being entangled in the web of deceit.
The scammer claimed that he was suffering from kidney cancer and needed financial help as his bank accounts were blocked.
The scammer’s fake photos from a hospital bed, strapped to an IV machine, were enough to make the victim believe that he was in great need.
Eventually, Anne transferred around 800,000 euros, which she had received as a compensation from divorce, to the scammer’s account.
