French woman tricked by artificial intelligence, Brad Pitt faces ridicule online

A French woman who was bilked out of €830,000 (£700,000; $850,000) by fraudsters posing as actor Brad Pitt has faced a barrage of abuse, prompting French broadcaster TF1 to ax a program about her.

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

She has since told a popular French YouTube show that she is not “crazy or a moron”: “I admit that I was just played and that’s why I came forward because I’m not alone.”

A representative for Pitt told US publication Entertainment Weekly that it was “terrifying that scammers are taking advantage of the strong connection that fans have with celebrities” and that people should not respond to spam online, “especially from actors who are not on social media”.

Hundreds of social media users mocked Ann, who the program said lost her life savings and attempted suicide three times after the scam came to light.

Netflix France published a post on X promoting “four movies with Brad Pitt (for real)”, while in a deleted post FC Toulouse said: “Hi Ann, Brad told us he will be at the stadium on Wednesday . .. and you?”

The club has since apologized for the message.

On Tuesday, TF1 said it had axed a segment about Ann after her testimony sparked a “wave of harassment” – although the program can still be found online.

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

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

Someone purporting to be Pete got in touch the next day, much to Ann’s dismay. “But as someone who’s not very used to social media, I really didn’t know what was happening to me,” she said.

“Brad Pitt” once said he tried to send her lavish gifts but couldn’t pay the customs fees because his bank accounts were frozen. due to divorce proceedings with actor Angelina Joliewhich prompted Ann 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.

The number of requests for money increased when the fake Pitt told Ann he needed money to pay for kidney cancer treatment by sending her several AI photos of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed. “I looked up those photos online but couldn’t find them, so I thought that meant he took those selfies just for me,” she said.

Meanwhile, Anne and her husband divorced and she received €775,000 – all of which went to the fraudsters.

“I told myself I might be saving someone’s life,” said Ann, who is herself in remission from cancer.

Daughter Ann, now 22, told TF1 she had been trying to “get her mother to sort it out” for more than a year, but her mother was too excited. “It hurts to see how naive she is,” she said.

When pictures of the real Brad Pitt with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, surfaced in gossip magazines, causing Anne to become suspicious, scammers sent her fake news in which an AI-generated host talked about “Pete’s unique relationship with one special person. .. under the name Ann.

The video comforted Ann for a short time, but when the real Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon officially announced their relationship in June 2024, Ann decided to call it quits.

After scammers tried to extort money from her under the guise of “FBI Special Agent John Smith,” Ann went to the police. An investigation is now underway.

The TF1 program said that Anne was broken by these events and that she tried to take her own life three times.

“Why was I chosen to suffer like this?” Ann said tearfully. “These people deserve hell. We need to find these crooks, please help me find them.”

But in a YouTube interview on Tuesday, Anne hit back at TF1, saying it failed to mention the details of her repeated doubts about whether she was talking to the real Brad Pitt, adding that anyone could have fallen for the scam if they had been told ” 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. This is all I have left.’

While many netizens overwhelmingly mocked Ann, some took her side.

“I understand the comic effect, but we’re talking about a woman in her 50s who has been duped by deep fakes and artificial intelligence that your parents and grandparents wouldn’t be able to spot,” read one popular post on X.

An article in the newspaper Libération said Anne was a “whistleblower”: “Life today is paved with cyber traps… and the development of AI will only worsen this scenario.”