French Woman Faces Online Harassment After Falling Victim to Romance Scam Posing as Brad Pitt

A French woman, identified as Anne, publicly shared her harrowing experience of being scammed by individuals pretending to be the Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. In a segment aired on the TF1 program "Seven to Eight," she described how the deceptive relationship led her to divorce her husband and transfer approximately $850,000 to the scammers. They employed fake social media profiles, WhatsApp accounts, and advanced AI-generated images to make their communications seem credible, even claiming that Pitt needed urgent financial assistance for kidney treatment due to frozen bank accounts associated with a divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Anne, an interior decorator who has struggled with mental health issues, spent over a year believing she was in direct communication with Pitt. Her realization of the scam came only after learning about his actual relationship with Ines de Ramon. The broadcasting of her interview sparked a torrent of ridicule and abusive comments online, prompting TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack to announce the withdrawal of the footage for the victim's safety.

During the interview, Anne showed vulnerability by sharing personal photos and expressing her emotional turmoil. The backlash against her was swift, with some critics targeting the network for exposing someone they deemed fragile and susceptible to further harm. After the interview aired, social media posts, including a tweet from Toulouse Football Club, added to the mockery but were later deleted.

Experts highlight that romance scams have been prevalent since the dawn of digital communication. Nonetheless, the rise of artificial intelligence has exacerbated the issue, amplifying the risks of identity theft and online fraud. In 2023 alone, more than 64,000 Americans suffered over $1 billion in such scams, a stark increase from previous years. The FBI also noted that seniors lost around $3.4 billion to various financial crimes, emphasizing that the nuanced capabilities of AI have made scams increasingly convincing.