Anne parted with nearly £700,000 as the AI scam led her to think she was dating Hollywood legend Brad Pitt, who she believed required the cash for cancer treatment
A woman who was duped into handing over nearly £700,000 by a scammer using AI to pose as Brad Pitt is homeless and penniless, it is reported.
The woman, only referred to in media reports as Anne, has been harassed so mercilessly online she’s deleted all her social media pages, it is understood. Since her misfortune emerged, the 53-year-old woman has been branded “dumb”, “naïve” and “stupid” by trolls.
Anne parted with the cash after believing that the Hollywood star needed the money for cancer treatment. She had reportedly become convinced that she was communicating with the real person due to AI-generated images.
The French woman said that she fell for the scammer as her relationship with her millionaire husband hit the rocks and she was taken in by poems and romantic gestures.
But now, her lawyer Laurène Hanna said Anne is desperately trying to recover the money and, in doing so, is homeless and broke. Ms Hanna, based in Paris, said: “Love scams on the internet are not new. Anne is really not the only one. What my client needs is to be given some sensible advice and to be treated with dignity.”
Ms Hanna told how she is helping Anne pursue a civil case against her French bank for allowing her to make such huge money transfers to overseas accounts unchecked.
Anne, an interior designer, said the ordeal started when she received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother after sharing photos of her lavish ski trip to Tignes on Instagram.
A day later, she received a second message from an account posing as Brad Pitt, saying his mother had spoken a lot about her already. The victim, who said she was going through a difficult period with her millionaire husband, told how she struck up an unlikely friendship with the account from February 2023, receiving poems and kind affirmations.
“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,” she said, as reported by BFMTV.
She revealed she did have her suspicions and thought the account was fake at first, but after messaging every day and receiving AI generated photos and videos of the star, she became more at ease.
Mail Online reports the fake Brad Pitt proposed to Anne and overwhelmed her with the promise of fancy gifts. The only catch was that she would need to pay customs fees to receive them. This soon added up to 9,000 euros (£7,566).
With the victim already having shown willing to part with money, the scammer went on to make more and more absurd requests. When the victim told her ‘friend’ she was expecting a hefty divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer upped the stakes – and appealing for funding for urgent cancer treatment.
