The interview was withdrawn by a French woman on Tuesday after she revealed that scammers impersonating Brad Pitt had stolen her life savings.
Anne, a woman who went by the name of Anne, said on the “Seven to Eight’ program broadcast on TF1 that she believed she was having a romantic relationship, which led her to divorce and transfer her $850,000.
Scammers created fake Facebook and WhatsApp accounts and used AI to create images to send Anne fake selfies and messages that appeared to come from Pitt.
They pretended to be 61-year old actor Angelina Jolie , who was allegedly going through a divorce with . To extract money from him, they claimed that his bank account had been frozen due to divorce procedures with his ex-wife.
Anne, a 53 year old interior decorator who has mental health issues, believed she was in contact with Pitt for a full year and a half. She only realized that she had been conned when the news broke of Pitt’s relationship with Ines de Ramon.
Harry Roselmack , TF1’s presenter, wrote in his X account Tuesday that “the story broadcast on Sunday resulted a wave harassment against the witnesses.” We have removed it from our platforms to protect victims.
The channel said that Anne suffered from severe depression at the time it broadcasted and was hospitalized.
On Monday, the interview went viral. She was filmed in an open manner and shared photos of her family with reporters.
The incident sparked an avalanche of jokes and mocking comments, but online critics claimed that TF1 failed to protect the vulnerable individual who may not have known what would happen if he went public.
The Toulouse Football Club initially tweeted “Brad told me that he’d be at the stadium tomorrow” for their next match. They then retracted the tweet and apologized.
Netflix France also promoted “four films with Brad Pitt to see (really) free” on social media .
Romance scams are a common feature on the internet, and have been since the introduction of email. However, experts claim that artificial intelligence has increased online fraud, identity theft, and hoaxes.
“These people deserve hell”
Anne told TF1 she was contacted first by someone posing Pitt’s mom shortly after using Instagram for the very first time on a skiing trip in France with her family.
Anne explained, “She told me her son needs someone like me.”
Scammers posed as Pitt and messaged her several days later.
Anne told TF1 that at first she thought it was a fake and that it seemed ridiculous. “I’m not familiar with social media, so I didn’t understand what was happening.”
“I wonder why they selected me to cause such harm?” She continued. She continued. These people deserve hell.”
According to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2023, more than 64,000 Americans fell victim to romance frauds worth over $1 billion. This is double the $500 millions that were stolen just four years ago.
According to FBI data, in 2023, seniors were defrauded of approximately $3.4 billion through a variety of financial crimes. recently warned about the increasing “believability of criminal scams” due to AI. AI can “assist in content creation and correct human errors which could otherwise serve as warning signals of fraud.”
