For Anne, a French woman in her fifties, things began innocently enough in early 2023.
The interior designer, who had no experience with social media, opened an Instagram account and began posting holiday snaps.
While browsing the site, she saw a picture of Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and hit “Like.”
That’s all it took for Anne to be targeted by a scammer.
Anne received a message from a woman introducing herself as Jane Etta Hillhouse, the mother of William Bradley Pitt – known to the world as Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt.
For months, Anne chatted to the woman she believed to be Brad Pitt’s mother about everything. Until one day, “Jane” said she would like to introduce Anne to her famous son.
Initially, “Brad Pitt” acted uninterested in Anne’s messages, embarrassed that his mother had put them in touch. But over time, the virtual relationship blossomed as he bombarded her with loving messages and poems.
Although their apparent friendship was going well, life wasn’t so good for “Brad.”
He told Anne he had kidney cancer and sent her photographs of himself receiving treatment in his hospital bed.
“I searched for those photos online but couldn’t find them, so I thought he had taken those selfies just for me,” Anne later told the French press.
The phoney “Brad” began asking Anne for money for his treatment, claiming his bank accounts were frozen after his high-profile acrimonious separation from Angelina Jolie, and he needed to pay off production companies due to filming delays caused by his dialysis.
Anne was hesitant. But she was sent what appeared to be Pitt’s bank statements, medical documents from someone claiming to be Pitt’s doctor, and a phone call from someone claiming to be Brad Pitt’s manager.
Anne was told by the man claiming to be Brad Pitt’s manager that “He speaks a lot about you, he adores you.”
Anne’s daughter Margot was suspicious and tried to warn her mother that she was the victim of a scam. But the scammers had already ensnared Anne, and by now she was transferring large amounts of money to overseas bank accounts.
Believing she was helping pay for specialist equipment for Pitt’s treatment, Anne transferred 100,000 Euros and then another 100,000 Euros…
But Anne didn’t worry, because she believed that one day the two of them would be together in a loving relationship.
So you can imagine Anne’s emotional state when she saw media reports that Brad Pitt had been spotted walking on a beach with a glamorous young woman. Tabloid newspapers had photographed Brad Pitt with his arm wrapped lovingly around 31-year-old Inés De Ramón and claimed that he was “smitten” and “on top of the world.”
Anne was furious that her “Brad” had cheated on her and told him she wanted to end the relationship.
The fake “Brad” claimed it was “all a movie scene being taken out of context.”
When Anne doubted his explanation, a “doctor” told her that “Brad” had taken an overdose and was in a coma – distraught that he was not being believed.
Next, Anne received a fake “breaking news” report that Brad Pitt had declared his love for a woman named “Anne.”
“Brad” pretended he wasn’t happy the media learned about his romance with Anne, accusing her of telling the media… all in an attempt to ensnare her further.
The video comforted Anne briefly, but when the real Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon made their relationship official in June 2024, Anne decided to end things once and for all.
Even that wasn’t enough to stop the scammers, who still tried to get more money out of her under the guise of “Special FBI Agent John Smith,” who offered to hunt down those responsible.
According to Anne, she wired a total of 830,000 Euros (approximately US $850,000) to the person she believed was Brad Pitt.
The whole scam has left Anne penniless and homeless, she told French TV, and since breaking up with “Brad” she says that she has attempted suicide three times.
Most recently, Anne has employed a cybersecurity expert to try to track down the culprits, who believes he has identified them and their location.
But Anne’s pain isn’t over. Since she appeared in a recent French TV documentary, she has been the subject of “a wave of harassment” from viewers who have ridiculed her for believing she was speaking to the real Brad Pitt.
“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond fans have with celebrities, but it’s an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who have no presence on social media,” said a spokesperson for the genuine Brad Pitt.
Anne didn’t know about deepfakes… She didn’t know documents and photographs could be edited with Photoshop… She didn’t know about verified ticks on celebrity accounts… or many of the lessons that internet users need to learn in order to stay safe online in the modern world.
Now she has learnt these lessons, but at an enormous financial and psychological cost. And now she finds herself the subject of mockery online, due to her terrible mistake.
