A French woman was scammed out of $850,000 when she drained her bank account to give the money to who she thought was Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt.
Spoiler alert, it wasn't.
The 53-year-old fell victim to increasingly popular scams luring unsuspecting people with AI-generated images, notably ones that look convincingly real to celebrities.
This was not the first time Pitt's likeness was used to prey on women for their money.
According to Newsweek, five people were arrested in Spain for swindling two women out of more than $330,000 in a scam tied to the Ad Astra actor.
In this recent incident, French broadcast network BFM TV reported that a woman identified as Anne received a message on Facebook in 2023.
Anne, who was married to a millionaire at the time, first got a message from an individual claiming to be Pitt's mother, then Pitt in later correspondences.
Thus kicked off her "affair" with the Hollywood luminary.
Things escalated further when the scammer asked Anne to marry him, which of course she consented to after divorcing her husband.
Anne reportedly sent the scammer $9,000 after the individual claimed they were to cover the costs of delivering the gifts allegedly bought for her to go through customs.
Next, Anne was scammed into sending the fraudster more than $800,000 that she got from her divorce settlement.
The money was allegedly to pay for Pitt's cancer treatments, which was a no-brainer for Anne after she was sent AI-generated images of what she interpreted as Pitt lying in a hospital bed.
Anne was informed Pitt was unable to use his money to cover the hospital bills because of his divorce proceedings with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
None of this raised a red flag for Anne, even after she was told she could only correspond strictly via text message, never through phone calls.
Pitt and Jolie reached a divorce settlement in December 2024 after Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. The terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed.
Anne realized the hard truth when she saw a photo of the real Brad Pitt photographed with his current girlfriend, Ines de Ramon.
Those who couldn't believe how Anne fell for the scheme were face-palming, especially after noticing how unconvincing some of the doctored photos were.
A few expressed sympathy for the victim.
Others detected a twist.
As of this writing, the scammer is still on the prowl, possibly looking for their next victim, according to the French media.
