Associated Incidents
UPDATE: 1/16/25 at 12:53 p.m. ET --- Brad Pitt has broken his silence after a woman came forward saying a scammer conned her out of more than $800,000 by claiming to be the Fight Club actor and making her believe the two were in a romantic relationship.
"It's awful that scammers take advantage of fans' strong connection with celebrities," a spokesperson for Pitt said in a statement to E! News. "But this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence."
Original story below:
A French woman reportedly transferred more than $800,000 to scammers after being fooled into believing she was dating Brad Pitt.
Led to believe that Brad, 61, was in need of funds to pay for kidney treatment, the 53-year-old woman, identified as Anne, allegedly told French TV outlet TF1 about her ordeal. (The original interview was removed on Tuesday, January 14, due to the online harassment Anne received, however, French news outlets AFP and BFM TV reported on the scam, as well as the subsequent cyberbullying.)
According to BFM TV, interior designer Anne was recently interviewed on TF1's Seven to Eight, where she explained that she was contacted in February 2023 by a person claiming to be Brad's mother, Jane Pitt. Anne had been on a ski trip in Tignes, France, and posted photos from the trip via Instagram when she was contacted by so-called Jane.
The outlet reported that Anne discovered the following day that Jane's account was "apparently linked to the actor," and that scammers posing as Brad told Anne that his "mother has spoken ... a lot about her."
A relationship quickly developed and Anne, who was allegedly married at the time, then reportedly received, "poems and numerous declarations." Anne reportedly told TF1, "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."
AI-generated videos, fake social media and WhatsApp accounts were utilised by the scammers to maintain the ploy, and alleged examples of these efforts were posted via X and included in BFM TV's report.
According to BFM TV, Anne allegedly told TF1, "At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it's ridiculous. But I'm not used to social media and I didn't really understand what was happening to me."
As Anne's trust grew, she then sent almost €10,000 to the scammers after telling her that customs tariffs required payment to enable gifts to be sent to her.
Anne then allegedly informed the criminals that she had divorced her husband and followed up her initial transfer with another totalling just under €775,000 --- almost the entirety of her divorce settlement.
The second transfer allegedly occurred as a result of Anne being told that "Pitt" had kidney cancer and required financial assistance due to his accounts being locked while ongoing divorce proceedings with Pitt's real-life ex Angelina Jolie took place.
U.K. newspaper The Times reported that TF1 removed the original news article to protect Anne from a "wave of harassment" received online after going public with her story.
Anne has allegedly filed a lawsuit and a police investigation has been launched, according to multiple outlets.
This is not the first time Brad has been criminally impersonated online. The actor's publicist Matthew Hiltzik told Us Weekly in a statement on September 25, 2024, that, "It's awful that scammers take advantage of fans' strong connection with celebrities," after Spanish police arrested five people for allegedly acting as Brad.
The September ordeal saw two women scammed out of at least $350,000.