Brad Pitt has spoken out following an incident where a woman was defrauded of $850,000 by an individual posing as the actor online.
A French woman, known only as Anne, shared her story of being tricked into sending thousands of euros, believing it was to cover the actor’s supposed ‘cancer treatment’.
Her initial interaction with the impostor began in February 2023 when an Instagram account, pretending to be Pitt’s mother, reached out to her, as reported by BFM TV.
Shortly thereafter, Anne received messages from someone claiming to be Pitt himself.
During an interview with TF1, Anne expressed her shock upon receiving the message, stating: “In fact, we’re talking about Brad Pitt, I’m falling from the clouds. At first, I tell myself it’s fake, but I don’t really understand what’s happening to me. After that, we will contact each other every day and we become friends.
“There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done.”
Through romantic gestures and affectionate words, Anne developed a relationship with the person, who eventually proposed marriage.
The impersonator claimed financial difficulty due to Pitt’s divorce from Angelina Jolie and shared AI-generated images of Pitt allegedly in a hospital, one bearing a message that read ‘Anne, I love you’.
Promises of luxury gifts followed, on the condition Anne paid a €9,000 custom fee, which, according to BFM TV, she never recovered.
Pitt’s representatives have now addressed this scam.
Speaking to The Independent, they remarked: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities.
“This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”
Anne’s deception became apparent in the summer of 2024 when she saw photos of Pitt with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, online.
By then, she had lost nearly one million euros to the scam and reported the incident to authorities.
BFM TV reports that Anne has since been hospitalized for severe depression, and it remains uncertain if she has been able to recover any of her lost funds.