The scam is even more complex than “Oceans 11.”
As part of a complex, year-long scheme involving an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated version of the “Moneyball” actor, a French woman who believed she was in a romantic relationship with Hollywood star Brad Pitt gave 830,000 euros ($855,000) to con artists.
To make matters worse, the 53-year-old French interior designer, who goes by the name “Anne,” was subjected to such a barrage of mocking and derision when she talked about her bad luck on French television channel TF1 that the network had to delete her interview from its Seven to Eight program.
A wave of harassment has been directed at the witness as a result of the story that was broadcast this Sunday. On Tuesday, TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack posted on his X account. We have made the decision to remove it from our platforms in order to safeguard the victims.
When an Instagram account pretending to be Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, messaged Anne while she was on a skiing vacation in the French Alps in February 2023, Anne said she started corresponding with the phony version of the “Fight Club” star.
According to AFP, Anne stated on TF1 that the account informed her that her son needed someone similar to me.
She communicated with the phony Pitt on several social media and messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, over the course of the following few months. She even got AI-generated selfies of the 61-year-old actor, whose doppelgänger informed her that he need funds for cancer treatment.
I initially told myself that it was phony and absurd, she went on. However, I’m not accustomed to social media, so I wasn’t fully aware of what was going on.
The con artists said that Pitt’s bank accounts were frozen because of his divorce procedures with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, but Anne was informed that Pitt was in the hospital with kidney cancer and required money for treatment.
After getting an email from the doctor of the bogus star, she was initially apprehensive but ultimately sent the substantial amount of money to an account in Turkey.
After seeing photos of the real Pitt with his current companion, In ez de Ramon, last summer, Anne claimed she finally understood she had been duped. Why did they pick me to do this kind of violence, I wonder? “I said,” she said. No one has ever been hurt by me. Hell is what these folks deserve.
According to the French publication Sud Ouest, Anne and a billionaire businessman were going through a divorce at the time. After the swindle, she apparently had acute depression and was admitted to the hospital.
Despite the fact that police are currently looking into the scam, the interview has nonetheless generated a ton of jokes on the internet.
Netflix France, which offered four films featuring Brad Pitt (truly) for free in Aposton X, was one of the people, groups, and businesses making fun of Anne.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, artificial intelligence has raised the risk of online fraud and identity theft, which has resulted in losses of over $8.8 million in the United States.
According to a global research by the computer security firm McAfee, one in four people globally had either fallen victim to or heard of an AI voice cloning scam.