adminPARIS. – A French woman, who was conned out of US$850 000 by scammers using Artificial Intelligence to pose as actor Brad Pitt, has faced a huge wave of mockery, leading French broadcaster TF1 to withdraw a programme about her.
The primetime programme, which aired on Sunday, attracted national attention on interior designer Anne, 53, who thought she was in a relationship with Pitt for a year-and-a-half.
Anne and her husband divorced and she was awarded €775,000 – all of which went to the scammers.
She has since told a popular French YouTube show that she was not “crazy or a moron”: “I just got played, I admit it, and that’s why I came forward, because I am not the only one.”
A representative for Pitt told US outlet Entertainment Weekly that it was “awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities” and that people shouldn’t respond to unsolicited online outreach “especially from actors who have no social media presence.”
Hundreds of social media users mocked Anne, who the programme said had lost her life’s savings and tried to take her own life three times since the scam came to light.
Netflix France put out a post on X advertising “four films with Brad Pitt (for real)”, while, in a now-deleted post, Toulouse FC said: “Hi Anne, Brad told us he would be at the stadium on Wednesday . . . and you?”
The club has since apologised for the post.
On Tuesday, TF1 said it had pulled the segment on Anne after her testimony had sparked “a wave of harassment” – although the programme can still be found online.
In the report, Anne said her ordeal began when she downloaded Instagram in February 2023, when she was still married to a wealthy entrepreneur.
She was immediately contacted by someone who said they were Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta, who told Anne her son “needed a woman just like her”.
Somebody purporting to be Pitt got in touch the next day, which set off alarm bells for Anne. “But as someone who isn’t very used to social media, I didn’t really know what was happening to me,” she said.
At one point, “Brad Pitt” said he tried to send her luxury gifts but that he was unable to pay customs on them as his bank accounts were frozen due to his divorce proceedings with actor Angelina Jolie, prompting Anne to transfer €9000 to the scammers.
“Like a fool, I paid… Every time I doubted him, he managed to dissipate my doubts,” she said.
The requests for money ramped up when the fake Pitt told Anne he needed cash to pay for kidney cancer treatment, sending her multiple AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed.
“I looked those photos up on the internet but couldn’t find them so I thought that meant he had taken those selfies just for me,” she said. – Mailonline
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter