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A French woman was duped into believing she is in a romantic relationship with Brad Pitt and sent €830,000 to help him with supposed medical treatment for kidney treatment.

Love scams is nothing new. These schemes involve scammers posing as romantic partners on dating apps, social media, or even messaging services. Once the target is hooked, the scammers will tell stories to manipulate their victims into sending money. Now, scammers are getting more high tech, using AI and Deep Fake technology to be more convincing.

How It Happened

The scam started in February 2023, when the victim shared pictures of ski trips on Instagram. There, she was contacted by someone posing as the actor's mom and later, supposed to be Brad Pitt himself.

The victim who was undergoing a divorce then spent over a year chatting with "Brad Pitt". The scammer used artificial intelligence and deep fake technology to send her selfies and other messages, including poems and songs and an apparent copy of Pitt’s passport. Among the things they talked about was her large divorce settlement received from her former husband. Next, she received AI-generated pictures of the actor in hospital, asking her to send money for his kidney treatment. She sent a total of €830,000 to help him for supposed medical costs.

image from ndtv.com

How She Found Out

The victim saw a picture of Brad Pitt in perfect health with his current girlfriend, Inés de Ramon. That's when she realised she had fallen for a scam.

image from vogue.com

Not The First Time

Scammers seem to be favoring Brad Pitt as bait since the victim was not the first woman to be duped by scammers pretending to be the actor. In September last year, five people were arrested for scamming two Spanish women of €325,000. They pretended to be the actor on WhatsApp and found the women on an social media page for fans of the Oscar-winning actor.