A French woman has come forward to reveal she lost her life savings in a romance scam in which the perpetrator pretended to be an ailing Brad Pitt, according to France 24.
The woman, a 53-year-old interior designer named Anne, told her story during Seven to Eight on France’s TF1 channel Sunday. The fake Brad Pitt used AI images to pull at her heart strings and make believe a romance between them. She ultimately divorced her husband in the hopes that she and Pitt would be together. The scammer sealed the deal with fake social media accounts, and Anne ultimately forked over $850,000 over the course of the interaction.
The outlet also notes that she sufferers from mental health problems.
Anne was first contacted by an account pretending to be Pitt’s mother, she said during the TV interview. “She told me that her son needed someone like me,” she said, according to France 24. The messages kept on coming, and Anne explained that she began to believe despite her better judgement: “At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it’s ridiculous,” she said, “But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
Anne only realized she’d been scammed after seeing a news story reporting Pitt’s relationship with Ines de Ramon. Her devastation intensified, however, after her story was publicized on Sunday. The segment attracted trolls who were “harassing” Anne, the TF1 network tweeted Tuesday, as one of its presenters’ announced on X that her story would be removed from its platforms, according to French 24.
France 24 also reports that even the official Netflix France account got involved, putting up a post promoting “four films to see with Brad Pitt (really) for free,” referencing her now viral story. TF1 reported that Anne had been hospitalized for severe depression.
While reflecting on the experience, she shared her resulting anger after the scam in the Sunday broadcast. “I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?” she said. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”
