AI Brad Pitt Convinced a French Woman To Pay €830K for Kidney Treatment

• A French woman was scammed out of $857,900 after believing she was in a long-term romantic relationship with Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.
• The woman was deceived through a series of AI deepfakes and fake WhatsApp and Instagram accounts.
• Meta recently announced it would do more to crack down on pig butchering scams.

A woman was deceived by a series of AI deepfakes and fake social media accounts into believing she was in a long-term romantic relationship with Brad Pitt.

The French native was scammed out of €830,000 ($857,900) after being deceived into thinking her Hollywood actor boyfriend was in need of money for a kidney replacement.

After Anne, 53, appeared on national television to share the tale of her scam, the broadcaster was forced to remove the program due to a wave of online mockery.

AI Brad Pitt

The disturbing scam dates back to February 2023, when Anne joined Instagram to share her recent holiday photos in the French Alps.

Anne, who was then married to an entrepreneur, was contacted online by someone posing as Brad Pitt’s mother, Jane Pitt. The bad actor posing as Jane told Anne she would be an excellent match for her son.

After a while, another account contacted Anne—this time posing as Brad Pitt.

The two traded messages every day for over a year and a half. During that time, Anne received selfies of the Hollywood superstar and photos of his passport, all of which were made with AI technology.

“I was in love with the man I was chatting to,” Anne said. “He knew how to speak to a woman.”

During their time online, the fake Brad Pitt sent Anne AI-generated photos showing the actor in hospital, requesting funds to pay for treatment on his kidney, the Guardian reported .

Anne transferred hundreds of thousands of euros to the bad actor, believing the relationship was entirely real.

Only when the Hollywood superstar was photographed in the media with his partner did Anne realize she had been scammed.

Scam Leads to Online Ridicule

Anne appeared on the French program TF1 to discuss how she had fallen for the tragic scam.

“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this,” she told TF1. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”

However, the program was forced to pull itself from broadcast after Anne began to receive a flurry of online ridicule.

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack wrote on X, “For the protection of victims, we have decided to withdraw [the segment] from our platforms.”

At the time of broadcast, TF1 said Anne had been hospitalized with treatment for mental health difficulties. Anne has now reportedly filed a police complaint over the scam.

Pig Butchering Scams on the Rise

In November last year, Meta announced it would dedicate a team of staff to identify pig butchering scammers on its platforms and would take down over 2 million accounts this year.

Meta said in a blog post that it would begin automatically flagging potential scam messages when strangers message people over Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp:

“On WhatsApp, if you’re added to a group chat by someone you don’t know, you’ll now see a context card giving you more information about the group.”

“It’ll show who added you, how recently the group was created and who created it so you have context on this outreach.”

Pig butchering scams are an elaborate form of online fraud where scammers build trust and emotional connections with victims before manipulating them into making financial investments.

The name comes from the analogy of “fattening up the pig” before slaughter: Scammers take time to gain their target’s trust before taking their money.

Roman Bieda, Head of Investigations at Token Recovery, previously told CCN that pig butchering scams should be changed to “romance scams” or “romance investment scams” due to their dependence on emotional connection.

Estimated to have cost victims over $4.4 billion in 2023, these elaborate scams utilize emotional manipulation and fake identities, making them difficult to infiltrate and stop.