A French woman deceived by AI Brad Pitt is the subject of online mockery

A French woman who was scammed out of €830,000 (£700,000; $850,000) by scammers posing as actor Brad Pitt has faced a huge wave of mockery, leading French channel TF1 to pull a show on her.

The prime-time show on Sunday brought national attention to interior designer Anne, 53, who thought she had been in a relationship with Pitt for a year and a half.

She has since declared on a popular French YouTube show that she was neither “crazy nor stupid”: “I just got played, I admit, and that’s why I came forward, because I’m not the only one.”

A representative for Pitt told US media outlet Entertainment Weekly that it was “horrible that scammers are taking advantage of the close connections between fans and celebrities” and that people should not respond to unsolicited online communications “especially from share of actors who have no presence on social networks”.

Hundreds of social media users mocked Anne, who the program claimed had lost all her savings and attempted suicide three times since the scam was exposed.

Netflix France published a post on Wednesday.. and you?”

The club has since apologized for the post.

On Tuesday, TF1 announced that it had removed the segment on Anne after her testimony triggered “a wave of harassment” – even though the show is still available online.

In the report, Anne says her ordeal began when she downloaded Instagram in February 2023, while she was still married to a wealthy entrepreneur.

She was immediately contacted by someone who said it was Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta, who told Anne that her son “needed a woman like her.”

Someone claiming to be Pitt made contact the next day, which set off alarm bells for Anne. “But since I’m not very used to social media, I didn’t really know what was happening to me,” she said.

At one point, “Brad Pitt” said he tried to send her luxury gifts, but was unable to pay customs because his bank accounts were frozen. due to his divorce proceedings with actress Angelina Joliewhich prompted Anne to transfer €9,000 to the scammers.

“Like a fool, I paid… Every time I doubted him, he managed to dispel my doubts,” she said.

Demands for money mounted when the fake Pitt told Anne he needed money to pay for her kidney cancer treatment, sending her several AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt in a bed. ‘hospital. “I looked for these photos on the internet but couldn’t find them, so I thought that meant he took these selfies just for me,” she said.

In the meantime, Anne and her husband divorced and she received €775,000, all of which went to the scammers.

“I thought maybe I was saving a man’s life,” said Anne, herself in remission from cancer.

Anne’s daughter, now 22, told TF1 that she had tried to “make her mother listen to reason” for more than a year but that her mother was too excited. “It hurt to see how naive she was,” she said.

When images appeared in gossip magazines showing the real Brad Pitt with his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon, arousing Anne’s suspicions, the scammers sent her a fake news report in which the AI-generated presenter talked about Pitt’s “exclusive relationship with a special someone.” .. whose name is Anne.”

The video comforted Anne for a short while, but when the real Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon made their relationship official in June 2024, Anne decided to end it.

After scammers tried to extract more money from her under the guise of “FBI Special Agent John Smith,” Anne contacted the police. An investigation is now underway.

The TF1 program indicates that the events left Anne broke and that she attempted to end her life three times.

“Why was I chosen to be hurt like this?” Anne said through tears. “These people deserve hell. We need to find these crooks, I’m begging you – please help me find them.”

” words you’ve never heard from your own husband.

Anne said she now lives with a friend: “My whole life is a small room with a few boxes. That’s all I have left.”

While many Internet users massively mocked Anne, several took her side.

“I understand the comic effect, but we’re talking about a woman in her 50s who was fooled by deepfakes and AIs that your parents and grandparents would be unable to spot,” reads one popular article on X.

In an editorial in the newspaper Libération, Anne was a “whistleblower”: “Life today is paved with cyber traps… and progress in AI will only make this scenario worse.”