Do you remember those episodes of KBC in the 2000s where SRK and Amitabh used to call people for the phone-a-friend lifeline? Some acted surprised, and some almost fainted, but many of them used to give them an earful thinking that those were scam or fraud calls. Well, they were not completely wrong in their place. Why would most of us, the common people get a call from our favourite celebrities? I wish poor Anne had done the same when she was contacted by scammers pretending to be Brad Pitt and his mother.
The shocking case has emerged involving 53-year-old French woman Anne, who was duped into believing she was dating Brad Pitt and was subjected to a high amount of extortion. Appearing on the show “Sept a huit” on a local news channel TF1, she revealed that the scammers deceived her into handing them over a sum of nearly 850,000 euros, which is around ₹7.5 Cr.
First, she got a message while she was on a ski trip from an account posing as the actor’s mother Jane Etta Pitt. The text read – “It’s a woman like you that my son needs”. Though Anne was skeptical at first, she began chatting before being contacted by a person posing as Brad himself, telling her, “My mother told me a lot about you”.
Thus started a series of poems and declarations of love from that fake account to Anne. While the scammers always avoided her calls, a few AI-generated videos led Anne to be convinced that she was indeed talking to the Hollywood star. “There are so few men who write such things. I liked the man I was talking to and he knew how to talk to women,” she said. Anne soon started believing that she had a real connection with Pitt.
The financial scam however began relatively small, when the scammers told her that they had sent her expensive gifts from luxury brands like Chanel and Hermès. They insisted she pay 9,000 euros in customs fees to receive them, which Anne paid and of course, received no gifts.
The matter worsened when the imposters got to know about her divorce and the huge settlement she had received from it. They convinced Anne to send more money claiming he had kidney cancer, for the treatment of which he required money. Well, one obviously will doubt that such a huge star would be in dire need of money. However, the scammers fabricated a story that all of Brad’s accounts were frozen due to divorce proceedings with actress Angelina Jolie. Blinded by love and the doctored photos, she sent most of her compensation amount of 775,000 euros.
When did Anne know that she was being scammed? Well, she had constant doubts when she was reading reports of Pitt dating the Swiss businesswoman Inés de Ramón. However, the scammers sent her a fake television report denying those claims. Anne finally accepted the truth last summer when she read further articles about Pitt and De Ramón. She also filed a criminal lawsuit claiming to be the victim of a scam, prompting a police inquiry.
However, this doesn’t end here, TF1 said she had since made three suicide attempts and has been admitted to hospital for severe depression. After her interview went live, she became the victim of severe cyberbullying.
Well, we as humans mostly give an unknown caller the benefit of the doubt – is that person really in trouble? We get swayed away quite easily when someone talks to us sweetly, and gently. Listen to us, don’t. Do the due diligence. Trust us, it’s for the best.