ABrad Pittmega-fan was recently scammed out of over $800 thousand dollars, after the scammers impersonated the A-list actor, pretending to need money for kidney surgery — we’re barely two weeks into 2025 and the new year is already wild. Pitt isbest known for his performancesinOnce Upon a Time in… Hollywood,Mr. and Mrs.,Fight Club,Se7en, and many, many more. With such a string of hits, Brad Pitt is considered by some to be one of the last true movie stars. That level of fame has power and influence, anda scammer recently used it to win over an unsuspecting fan, costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As revealed by the French news outlet,TF1, a French fan was contacted by the scammer who DM’d her on Instagram, convincing her they were Brad Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, using AI-generated images and videos.One message read, “It is a woman like you that my son needs.“She was then contacted by a separate account, claiming to be Brad Pitt himself.“Hello Anne, my mother told me a lot about you. I would like to know more,“that message read. Reflecting on the experience, the victim said:
“At first, I thought it was fake, but I could not understand what was happening to me. After that, we would contact each other every day and we became friends.”
The victim was so convinced it was the real Brad Pitt, she divorced her husband,hoping to shack up with the Hollywood legend. “Brad Pitt” then bought her luxury handbags, but they were “stuck at customs,” leading her to send the scammer thousands. The scammers then said that Pitt’s bank accounts were locked as a result of hisdivorce with Angelina Jolie,and he urgently needed money for kidney surgery.After receiving fake AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed, the woman sent her €830,000 ($851,000).She only realized it was a scam when she later saw photos of the real Brad Pitt with his girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in tabloid newspapers. Check out some of the AI-generated photos above, via@CultureCrave.
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If we had a nickle for every time someone had beenscammed by a fake, AI-generatedBrad Pitt pretending to have kidney surgery, we’d have three nickles — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened thrice. In 2024, two more victims fell for the Brad Pitt honeypot trap. Two Spanish fans sent the scammers a combined total of $365,000, after falling for WhatsApp messages and more fake photos.
Spanish police arrested five men in September last year.The victims reportedly stalked potential victims online, developing profiles of the women, before sending targeted messages to scam them. During the arrests, police found a note (viaHola!) that read:
“My love for you is true. Feeling from my heart and forever, please forgive me and accept me … it is because I love you and am very much in love with you.”
