A conman has made a French woman pay hundreds of thousands of euros after convincing her he was Brad Pitt using images generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The 53-year-old victim paid 830,000 euros to help with the film star's cancer treatment, the Daily Mail reported.
The interior designer told French channel TF1 that the ordeal began when she received a message on social media from a person posing as the actor's mother after she shared photos of her lavish ski trip to Tignes on Instagram.
A day later, she received a second message from an account posing as Brad Pitt. It said his mother had already spoken highly of her.
The victim, who said she was going through a difficult time with her millionaire husband, said she had struck up an unusual friendship with the account since February 2023. She has received poems and kind reassurances.
"Not many people write you things like that. I liked the man I talked to. He knew how to talk to women," she claims.
She revealed that she was indeed suspicious and at first thought the account was fake, but after writing to herself every day and receiving AI-generated pictures and videos of the actor, she became more relaxed.
The blossoming relationship soon took a turn as the fake Brad Pitt proposed marriage to her and showered her with promises of luxury gifts.
The only catch was that she had to pay customs fees to get them.
Soon the amount reached 9 000 euros.
Once the victim had shown her willingness to part with the money, the fraudster continued to make increasingly absurd demands.
When the victim told her 'friend' that she expected a large divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer upped the ante.
Brad Pitt's account appealed for help to fund emergency kidney cancer treatment, lamenting that he had no access to funds due to his ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The scammer has reportedly started sending AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt from his hospital bed.
The two communicated via text messages and photos, but the victim said the scammer was never available to call.
She ended up parting with nearly €1 million during the relationship, until her suspicions were awakened after seeing the actor with his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon in the press.
The victim approached the authorities with the story, who launched an investigation.
She is reportedly currently hospitalized in a clinic with severe depression. | BGNES
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