The real “Brad Pitt” warns his fans about the fraudulent “Brad Pitt”… What is the story?

A spokesman for actor Brad Pitt warned his fans of scammers exploiting his image, after a French television station ran a report about a woman being defrauded by people impersonating the Hollywood star.

The spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly: It is terrible for scammers to take advantage of the strong relationship between fans and celebrities.

He added that it is “an important reminder not to respond to unwanted requests online, especially if they come from actors who are not on social media,” such as Brad Pitt.

Fake Brad Pitt cheats on a woman

In a program on the French station TF1, a fifty-year-old woman named Anne, who showed her face clearly in front of the camera, narrated that she paid 830,000 euros to fraudsters who claimed to be Brad Pitt by sending her fake personal photos and identity documents that were forged using artificial intelligence to dispel her doubts.

The fake Brad Pitt claimed that he needed money to pay for surgery to remove kidney cancer, which enabled him to extort large sums of money from this woman, who became depressed and attempted suicide 3 times.

The report stated that she filed a complaint, and is now hospitalized in a hospital specialized in treating severe depression.

Mocking women

Since the report was presented, the woman has become the subject of ridicule by Internet users who criticized what they considered to be her naive behavior.

As a result, TF1 took the initiative to withdraw the episode from its platforms on Tuesday, after “a wave of harassment against one of the witnesses,” according to what the French channel wrote on the page of its “Sept a Huit” program on the X platform.

Some social media users criticized the television station for not protecting the victim, who may not have been aware of the consequences of presenting her story publicly.

Emotional fraud

Emotional scams have been around since the beginnings of email, but the rise of artificial intelligence has increased the risk of identity theft, scams and online fraud, experts say.

The Spanish police arrested 5 people last September on charges of defrauding two women and stealing 325,000 euros from them by impersonating Brad Pitt online and on the WhatsApp application.

The authorities explained that the suspects contacted their victims through a website dedicated to the actor’s fans.

Brad Pitt was the focus of media attention last month when he signed a divorce agreement with Angelina Jolie, which constituted a turning point after a legal dispute between them that lasted 8 years.