In the times when most people get to know each other as well as communicate over the internet, the line between reality and fiction is most often erased.
The sad tale of Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer from France, will convince one of how hi-tech contemporary frauds are.
Her trial started in January 2023 when she received a direct message from Instagram with a message that looked like it was sent by the fake Brad Pitt’s mother.
This was then succeeded by over 18 months of orchestration of a highly planned fraud that targeted Anne’s weak state.
The imposter posing as the Hollywood actor met Anne online, and began sending her love messages and poems.
This performance made Anne quite attracted until he even proposed to her marriage, making her emotionally involved.
“I told him there are so few men who write to you this kind of thing,” Anne says. I liked the man that I was speaking with. The man also understood how to approach women and it was always more of a professional approach.”
They used fake pictures of Brad Pitt involving him in various scenarios difficult to dispute that were created by artificial intelligence.
Such images included, the actor faking weakness by lying in a hospital bed with ostensible cancer treatment and the actor holding a placard with inscription ‘Anne, I love you’.
The fraudster said that Pitt required some monetary aid due to the divorce with Angelina Jolie regularly.
Anne was even more susceptible because she was already dealing with a challenging marriage.
He deceived her into believing him and encouraged her to dump her husband who gave her €775,000 (£652,310) in the divorce settlement.
Thinking that she was assisting “Pitt” for treating his sickness including cancer, Anne forwarded 98% of these monies to the con artist.
The fraud didn’t stop there. The trickster convinced Anne to send £9,000 extra for a customs fee for luxury gifts that he claimed the impersonator sent him.
Her daughter started getting jealous of the man and warned Anne, but the latter simply ignored her daughter’s words.
She told her daughter: You’ll see when he’s here in person; then you’ll say sorry, when she thought the man was sincere.
This was Anne’s belief brought about through regular conversation with the scammer, who never picked calls, or said he was too busy.
She started to lose confidence in the relationship when she had a glimpse of Brad Pitt and his girlfriend, Ines de Ramon in the summer of 2024 through the media .
This created some sort of conflict in her mind, and it made Anne get private investigators.
What they discovered was more horrific – Anne fell for a highly intelligent and psychological scam.
Realization finally dawned on her and it was heartrending and absolutely humiliating. “I even asked myself why it was me who chose to do such harm like this,” Narrated Anne.
“I’ve never harmed anyone. Those people should go to hell,” she said before she called on the police for assistance in identifying the culprits.
Thus, Anne was exposed to a great deal of emotional and material stress which led her to severe depression.
She is admitted in a hospital and finding it hard to deal with betrayal and criticisms that came along with her story.
He said the scam became popular online with many people laughing at Anne and even making fun of her which made her feel even more uncomfortable.
In light of the feedback the French television program who interviewed her has since edited the segment in a bid to minimize further attacks on her person.
Legal counsel for Brad Pitt personally responded to the calls made to the actor by online con artists and declared that the fans of the actor were being ripped off.
“There must be nothing better for scammers to rely on the close-knit relationship between fans and celebrities,” a representative offered a comment from Pitt.
“The joy has served as a reminder not to reply to ‘stranger’ messages on the internet especially from actors who may not even have accounts on social media platforms.”
Finding and using advanced mes(s)ages based on AI-generated images gives evidence to the growing tendency of sophistication of scammers.
These technologies overlay a veneer of legitimacy to scams and make it difficult for a particular person to discern between the actuality and fiction.
Anne’s story is relevant to the matter of caution in internet communication and disbelief to such messages.
To avoid similar incidences, the public must always be taught on the dangers of being on the internet as scams continue to go high.
Although many would describe Anne’s case as an example of the worst that can happen to one involved in one of those scams, it also shows the physical and psychological toll that such scams have on their victims.
Her story is another rub that anyone could fall victim to fake personalities hence the need to be very careful in whatever we do online.