Online backlash ridiculing the woman’s gullibility has resulted in a decision by TF1 to pull the program
A computer-generated fake Brad Pitt used by a scammer has duped a 53-year-old French interior designer into thinking he was hospitalized with kidney cancer and needed funds to pay for it.
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The following day, Anne received a second message from an account posing as Pitt, saying his mother had spoken about her to him.
The victim said the unlikely friendship began in February 2023. She told the scammer she was going through a difficult period with her millionaire husband, 19 years her senior, at the time. She told the French TV interviewer she received poems and kind affirmations in response.
“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,” she said.
While she was suspicious at first, constant, daily messaging, which included photos and videos, caused her to let down her guard.
She agreed and that encouraged the scammer to push for more, especially after Anne revealed she was expecting a sizeable divorce settlement.
That’s when fake Brad Pitt claimed to be undergoing kidney cancer treatment, stating he couldn’t pay for it out of his own funds because Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts due to their ongoing divorce proceedings.
(Brad Pitt and Jolie agreed on a divorce settlement in December of 2024. The terms have not been made public.)
Anne began to receive what were later revealed to be AI-generated images of Brad Pitt, apparently lying in a hospital bed. Meanwhile, she said fake Brad Pitt always had an excuse for not speaking with her on the phone.
Multiple X accounts have shared the AI-generated images of Pitt, garnering millions of views.
She reported the scam the authorities, who launched an investigation.
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