Conman tricks French woman into believing she is dating Brad Pitt, dupes her of 800,000 euros

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In a bizarre incident, a conman tricked a French woman into believing that he was Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, leading to a scam of 800,000 euros, News18 reported quoting French channel TF1.

The scamster texted the woman on Instagram and shared pictures with her from hospital, the report said. The man used smooth conversations to make the 53-year-old victim, identified as Anne, believe that she was in a relationship with the actor.

The story began in 2023, when Anne received a message from an account that pretended to be actor’s mother Jane Etta Pitt.

Later, another account posing as Brad Pitt contacted Anne, saying “Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more.’ Anne claims that at first, she didn’t believe that she was speaking to the actor, but soon she got trapped in the scam, the website reported.

“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," Anne said, recalling that she was ‘flabbergasted’ that she was actually talking to Brad Pitt.

According to Anne, the man was using artificial intelligence to share fake videos and pictures to convince her, according to the report.

Later, the man claimed that he had kidney cancer and required money for treatment as his ex-wife and Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts over divorce proceedings. Following this, Anne transferred 800,000 euros, which she received as compensation from her husband after divorce, to the account of the fraudster, the report said.