A woman was scammed into handing over €830,000 (£700,000) by an AI-generated Brad Pitt, who convinced her they were in love and needed money for cancer treatment.
The 53-year-old French woman said the “relationship” began soon after she received a message from an account claiming to be Jane Etta Pitt, the Hollywood star’s mother, telling her she was exactly the woman her son needed. The computer-generated imitation of the Fight Club actor messaged her the next day, asking to know more about her.
Over the next year-and-a-half, her fake ‘lover’ would send her poems, declarations of love and eventually asked her to marry him – in an elaborate plot by scammers designed to get her to hand over money. Police are now investigating the con that left the woman hospitalised with depression.
“There are few men who write to you like that,” the interior designer told French media. “I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together.”
She was going through a divorce with a millionaire entrepreneur, 19 years her senior, at the time, according to French newspaper Sud Ouest.
The requests for money began as the scammer behind the AI claimed to be sending her luxurious handbags – but told her she had to foot the customs bill – the first being €9,000. Eventually, the AI – still impersonating the actor – claimed he was in hospital with kidney cancer and needed money for treatment.
He even told her that Pitt’s real-life ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts and he had no access to his fortune.
Despite her doubts, she was reassured by the fake star’s “doctor” who emailed her explaining Pitt was dying and fighting to survive, at which point she transferred around €800,000 to an account in Turkey.
“We’re talking about Brad Pitt here and I was stunned,” she said. “At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
When the victim’s daughter warned her mother that she was being conned, she said: “You’ll see when he’s here in person then you’ll say sorry.”
However, the woman realised she was being scammed in the summer of 2024 when the real Pitt was seen with his current partner Inès de Ramon.
She opened up about the con to French broadcaster TF1, who later took down the interview after she was subjected to cyber-bullying.
