A 53-year-old French woman, Anne, was convinced she was in a long-distance relationship with actor Brad Pitt after messaging him on Instagram and receiving artificial intelligence-generated videos and images. The fake account, posing as Pitt’s mother Jane Etta Pitt, sent her poems and declarations of love. Anne, who was going through a rough patch after a failed marriage, believed the man knew how to talk to women.
The scam unfolded when the fake account asked Anne to pay 9,000 euros for luxury gifts, but she received nothing. After her divorce was finalized and she received a compensation of 775,000 euros, the fake account shared doctored videos and photos claiming Pitt needed a kidney surgery and was hospitalized.
However, after seeing reports of Pitt’s relationship with jewelry designer Ines De Ramon, Anne discovered the truth and was hospitalized for severe depression. This is not an isolated incident, as similar scams have been reported in Spain, where five people were arrested last year for scamming two women out of 325,000 euros by posing as Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages.
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/account-locked-amid-divorce-how-brad-pitt-scammed-woman-of-8364-800-000-7471453