A representative for Brad Pitt is warning fans about a recent scam involving the actor’s likeness that cost a 53-year-old French woman everything.
The victim, identified only as Anne, said she was contacted on social media in 2023 with images that appeared to show Pitt hospitalized in grave condition. She eventually wired the scammer $850,000 under the false impression that she was paying for the actor’s kidney treatment.
Pitt’s camp addressed the matter Tuesday in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, days after actor Johnny Depp warned about scams targeting his fans last week.
“It is awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities,” a spokesperson for Pitt told ET, “but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”
Anne explained on Sunday’s “Seven to Eight” news broadcast on French channel TF1 that someone claiming to be Pitt’s mother had contacted her on Instagram.
“She told me that her son needed someone like me,” she said Sunday, per France 24.
An account impersonating Pitt himself then contacted Anne, who reportedly spent the next year and a half believing she’d struck up a romantic relationship with the actor and that his bank accounts were frozen amid his then-ongoing divorce with Angelina Jolie.
“At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it’s ridiculous,” Anne told TF1, France 24 reported. “But I’m not used to social media, and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
Anne not only believed the images of Pitt were real and sent the scammer her fortune, but also divorced her husband — admitting on “Seven to Eight” that she “was in love with the man” she was chatting with because he “knew how to speak to a woman.”
She said she only understood she’d fallen for a scam after Pitt’s actual romance with Ines de Ramon hit the news. She’s reportedly since filed a police report, although the swindler remains unidentified. The channel also reported that Anne had suffered severe depression.
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“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?” she told TF1. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”
Since her interview aired, Anne has been being widely mocked for her mistake. Netflix France jokingly promoted “4 films to see with Brad Pitt (promise)” and the Toulouse Football Club wrote, “Brad told us he’ll be at the stadium Wednesday” — before apologetically deleting the post.
TF1 eventually pulled the “Seven to Eight” episode from circulation after the cyberbullying came to light.