Ben Thompson
Brad Pitt has spoken out after news broke that a French woman had been conned into leaving her husband, thinking Pitt had reached out to her online.
The ordeal began back in 2023 when 'Anne' was contacted by an Instagram account claiming to be Pitt's mother.
From there, she was lured into shelling out a jaw dropping €830,000 (£697,00) to help pay for 'cancer treatment' for the Mr and Mrs Smith star.
Advert
Over the course of the con, she believed that she was in a relationship with Pitt, who needed money to get the expensive gifts he claimed to be sending her through customs.
Once 'Pitt' proposed marriage to her, she left her millionaire husband.
Anne was later awarded a very large sum of money through her divorce settlement, resulting in the scammer telling her he needed treatment for kidney cancer.
Any doubts she had were alleviated by AI images which showed the Hollywood A-lister in a hospital bed.
The scammer claimed that Pitt was unable to pay his way, because his ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie had left him without means to access his funds.
Pitt has now spoken out about the incident.
In a statement, he said: "It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities.
"This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks."
Anne only realised she'd been scammed when she saw photos of Pitt and his girlfriend on the news.
Explaining why she'd fallen for the scam, Anne told French broadcaster TF1: "There are few men who write to you like that. I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together.
"We’re talking about Brad Pitt here and I was stunned.
"At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.
"There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done."
Police are still searching for the scammer, whilst Anne is receiving treatment for severe depression at a clinic.
It's currently unclear whether or not she will recover the money she lost to the scammer.