When people find themselves in a desperate situation, they will often go to great lengths to get out of it. Sometimes, they may even do things that seem irrational.
That is how many people are looking at a 53-year-old woman named Annie. She fell victim to a scam and ended up sending £697,000 to a ‘fake Brad Pitt’ to help him with his cancer treatment.
It all started when Annie received a message on social media from someone who said she was Brad Pitt’s mother. The next day, another DM came in to her account from someone posing as Brad Pitt himself. The message said: ‘Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more.’
Annie spoke to a French channel about the situation, saying that she was dealing with a difficult time in her life with her husband. She felt that she needed someone to confide in.
“In fact, we’re talking about Brad Pitt, I’m falling from the clouds. At first, I tell myself it’s fake, but I don’t really understand what’s happening to me. After that, we will contact each other every day and we become friends.
“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.”
According to the messages from the fake celebrity, he was going through cancer treatments but couldn’t afford that because of his divorce from Angelina Jolie. She would receive pictures of the actor in the hospital that were AI-generated. They would include him holding up cards with personalized messages but they would never talk on the phone because they were busy.
Annie chatted with him for months and then eventually agreed to marry the person after she received £652,310 from her own divorce. The money was sent to a fake account and she was promised luxury gifts in return. The only thing was she would have to pay a customs fee but she never received it back.
When Pitt was seen out in public with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, Anne got suspicious and got investigators involved.
After all of this happens, it seems as if Anne is dealing with severe depression and is in the hospital clinic. An investigation is underway and is not certain if she ever got any of the money back.
A representative for Brad Pitt spoke about other instances involving people who are under investigation, this time for defrauding two women out of $350,000.
They said: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, and this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”
