It’s unclear if the scammer has been identified or caught.
Marrakech – A French interior designer named Anne, 53, found herself ensnared in an elaborate romance scam involving someone pretending to be Hollywood icon Brad Pitt.
Over the course of 18 months, the con artist manipulated Anne into sending over $850,000 (approximately MAD 8,556,950) using AI-generated images and heart-wrenching tales to tug at her emotions.
The ordeal began when someone claiming to be Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, reached out to Anne.
“She told me that her son needed someone like me,” Anne shared in an interview with France 24.
Initially skeptical, Anne couldn’t help but feel drawn in. “We’re talking about Brad Pitt here, and I was stunned,” she explained.
“At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
The scammer, posing as Pitt, showered Anne with poetic messages, declarations of love, and even a marriage proposal.
“There are few men who write to you like that,” she admitted. “I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together.”
At the time, Anne was navigating a divorce from her wealthy entrepreneur husband, a man nearly 20 years her senior.
Her emotional vulnerability made her a prime target for the scammer, who claimed Pitt was battling kidney cancer.
Using AI-generated hospital photos and fake emails from a “doctor,” the con artist painted a picture of desperation.
To add legitimacy, they alleged that Angelina Jolie had frozen Pitt’s bank accounts, leaving him unable to afford his treatments.
The requests for money started small, with the scammer claiming Anne needed to cover customs fees for luxury purses he had sent her.
These payments escalated, eventually reaching a staggering total of $850,000, all wired to a Turkish account.
Anne’s daughter tried to warn her that she was being conned, but she refused to believe it.
“You’ll see when he’s here in person, then you’ll say sorry,” she told her daughter.
The truth became undeniable when Pitt was photographed with his current girlfriend, Inès de Ramon, over the summer.
Heartbroken and financially devastated, Anne came forward to share her story on the French TV show Seven to Eight.
However, her public disclosure sparked a wave of online bullying, prompting the network to pull the interview. Anne has since been hospitalized for severe depression.
“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?” she lamented. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”
Anne’s story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of romance scams and the lengths to which con artists will go.
