French woman who believed she was in a relationship with Brad Pitt scammed out of €800,000

A French woman has spoken out about how she was scammed by someone posing as Brad Pitt who made her believe she was in a relationship with the Oscar winner. Picture: Jennifer Graylock/PA Wire.

The story of a woman who was scammed out of more than €800,000 by a Brad Pitt catfish has been going viral on French social media.

The French woman, identified as Anne, fell victim to an elaborate scam where she was tricked into believing that she was in a relationship with the Hollywood actor.

Multiple French TV reports have claimed that the woman was scammed out of more than €800,000 in an elaborate scheme that also caused the breakdown of her marriage.

The 53-year-old said that her ordeal began in February 2023, when she received a Facebook message from someone posing as Pitt’s mother.

She said that the scammer used AI-generated videos and photos to convince her that he was the real Brad Pitt and sparked an online romance with her, telling her that he loved her.

Maintaining contact only through text, the scammer started ‘buying’ her luxurious gifts, telling her she would have to pay for customs on the items - which is how Anne lost her first €9,000.

The scammer proposed marriage which prompted Anne to divorce her millionaire husband and then claimed that he needed money for kidney cancer treatment, claiming he was unable to pay for the treatment as his funds had been frozen amidst a divorce settlement with Pitt's now ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

Divorcing her husband, Anne gave her settlement of more than €800,000 to the scammer before realising it was all fake when she saw the news that the real Brad Pitt was in a new relationship.

It is reported that Anne is now working to rebuild her life following the scam and hopes that her testimony will make others more aware of the use of deepfakes and artificial intelligence to manipulate and scam people.

Anne is not the only one who has fallen victim to a Brad Pitt scam, as reports from Spain last year claimed that fraudsters posing as the actor saw two women scammed out of €325,000.

In September 2024, it was reported that Spanish police had arrested five individuals, seized various items and recovered part of the stolen funds.

Closer to home, Daniel O’Donnell told fans back in December that he would “never” ask for money after discovering that a Facebook account was posing as him and replying to comments on his official Facebook page asking fans to contact him privately on the fake account.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “I stress so often, I make videos saying I will not contact you, I will never ask you for money."