Woman who lost $850,000 to scammers posing as Brad Pitt faces wave of online harassment and ridicule

A French woman who revealed on television how she lost her savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and ridicule, leading to the interview being withdrawn on Tuesday.

The woman, named Anne, told TF1’s “Seven to Eight” program that she believed she was having a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, which prompted her to divorce her husband and transfer $850,000.

The scammers used social media and fake WhatsApp accounts, as well as AI image generation technology to send what appeared to be personal photos and messages from house to house.

In order to extract the money, they pretended that the 61-year-old actor needed money to pay for his kidney treatment, while freezing his bank accounts due to… Divorce proceedings with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Pitt, and only realized she had been scammed when news emerged of Pitt’s real relationship with his girlfriend, Ines de Ramon.

“The story that aired on Sunday led to a wave of harassment against the witness,” TF1 presenter Harry Rozelmack said. He wrote on his account: Tuesday. “In order to protect victims, we have decided to withdraw it from our platforms.”

The channel said at the time of its broadcast that Anne was suffering from severe depression and was receiving treatment in the hospital.

The interview, in which she was publicly filmed and shared family photos with reporters, went viral on Monday.

The matter sparked a flood of sarcastic comments and jokes, but some online critics accused TF1 of failing to protect a vulnerable individual who may not have been aware of the consequences of going public.

Toulouse Football Club tweeted that “Brad told us he will be on the field on Wednesday” for the team’s next match, before retracting the message and apologising.

Netflix France too Posted on social media Promoting “Four movies to watch with Brad Pitt for (really) free.”

Romance scams Artificial intelligence has been a feature of the Internet since the advent of email, but experts say AI has increased the risks of identity theft, phishing and online fraud.

“These people deserve hell.”

Anne told TF1 she was first contacted by someone posing as Pete’s mother shortly after she first started using Instagram while on a skiing trip with her family in France.

“She told me her son needed someone like me,” Anne explained.

The scammers sent them again several days later, this time posing as Pete.

“At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it was ridiculous,” Anne explained to TF1. “But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”

“I ask myself why did they choose me to cause such harm?” I continued. “I never hurt anyone. These people deserve hell.”

More than 64,000 Americans were kidnapped for more than $1 billion Romance scams In 2023 — double the $500 million just four years ago, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

In 2023, seniors were scammed out of nearly $3.4 billion in a range of financial crimes, according to the FBI. Data. agency recently to caution That AI has increased the “authenticity” or criminal scams because it “helps generate content and can correct human errors that may serve as warning signs of fraud.”