PETALING JAYA: A French woman lost €830,000 (RM3.8 million) after falling victim to a ‘love scam’ by an AI-generated Brad Pitt.
According to French newspaper Sud Ouest, Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer shared she was initially contacted on Instagram back in Feb 2023 by a scammer who pretended to be the actor’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt.
“Jane” informed her that she was just the woman her son needed.
The very next day, “Pitt” messaged her from another account wanting to know more about Anne.
This left her confused as she was not “used to social media and didn’t really understand what was happening” to her.
However ‘Pitt’ and her began contacting each other everyday and soon became friends.
During this period, she was reportedly going through a rough patch with her husband.
‘Pitt’ went to the extent of sending her poems, songs and even artificially generated videos and images of himself.
At one point, “Pitt” told her he tried sending her luxury gifts, however, was unable to pay customers as his bank accounts were frozen due to his divorce proceedings with actor Angelina Jolie.
This led Anne to transfer him an amount of €9,000 (RM41,600).
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The request for money took a huge turn when fake Pitt told Anne he needed more money to pay for his kidney cancer treatment and his accounts were frozen due to his divorce.
“Pitt” even sent Anna AI-generated pictures of him in a hospital bed. However Anna assumed those “selfies” were meant just for her as she could not find the images on the Internet.
Meanwhile, Anne and her husband divorced, and she was awarded €775,000 (RM3.58 million) which she then sent to the “actor’s doctor”.
It was then she came across a newspaper article showing the actual actor with his new girlfriend, Anna became suspicious but the fake Pitt went to the extent of sending her a fake news report in which the AI-generated anchor talked about Pitt’s “exclusive relationship with one special individual… who goes by the name of Anne.”
According to BBC, when the real Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon made their relationship official in June 2024, Anne decided to end things.
However the scammers attempted again, this time under the guise of “Special FBI Agent John Smith” which led to Anne contacting the police.
“My whole life is a small room with some boxes. That’s all I have left,” said Anne, who now resides with a friend.
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Loneliness key factor in women falling victim to love scams
