Pensioner duped by faux ‘Brad Pitt’ scammer is tricked into handing over £90,000 then flying to US and spending three weeks alone in a lodge room ready for him to indicate
A Swiss pensioner who believed she was in a romantic relationship with Brad Pitt was duped into handing over £90,000 and even flew to the United States, where she spent three weeks alone in a hotel room waiting for him to appear.
The woman, using the name Patricia, said she was convinced for months that she had fallen for the real Brad Pitt.
Instead, she had been targeted by an online scammer who posed as the American star and drained her savings.
Patricia said it began in May 2024 when she followed the Hollywood star’s Instagram page and received a message from someone claiming to be his manager.
The person asked if she would agree to speak to the actor directly, to which she said yes. She recalled: ‘We started communicating normally, like two people meeting, very gently.’
As time went on, their messages became much more frequent, with the man eventually professing his love for her.
Speaking on the show Mise Au Point, she explained: ‘He asks me a lot of questions about what I feel, about how I like things, how I see life, and then one day he makes me understand that he is in love with me.’
The scammer also asked her to keep their supposed romance quiet. He sent affectionate messages, including one that read: ‘My love, you are my everything now and forever.’
Patricia said she allowed herself to believe it, saying: ‘This is a real relationship developing, so I’m letting myself drift into this feeling of love.’
The deception escalated when they discussed meeting. The fake Brad Pitt claimed he needed money to make the meeting possible, writing: ‘Baby, it’s $50,000 requested by my management.’
Brad Pitt on the red carpet for a movie premiere in Mexico earlier this year. The Swiss woman believed she was in a secret relationship with the actor and sent thousands to him
He told her it was the standard fee for anyone who wanted to spend time with him.
At first, she refused, but then convinced herself it might be legitimate. She explained: ‘I thought to myself, “Well, maybe that’s just how they do things… I’ve never been in contact with an actor before.”‘ She sent thirty thousand dollars, then another twenty thousand.
As the real Brad Pitt appeared at the Venice Film Festival later that summer, Patricia hoped her dream would finally come true.
She packed a small bag, waiting for instructions to join him, but he never called her. Instead, he sent flowers and a message that said: ‘I love you so much, baby. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Pitt.’
After the first payments, she found it increasingly hard to walk away. The scammer demanded ten thousand dollars for supposed medical expenses, then another ten thousand.
Patricia said she was overwhelmed by stress but kept paying because she believed he loved her.
It was then suggested that she meet him in the United States. Patricia booked a flight to Los Angeles, convinced she would finally get to meet her partner.
However, she ended up spending three weeks in a hotel, drinking cocktails by herself as she waited. She never met him and ended up sending an extra $20,000 before returning home.
Back in Switzerland, she came across a story about a French woman who had lost €830,000 to another Brad Pitt impersonator. Patricia said it was only then that she realised the truth after seeing the similarities in their stories.
She eventually went to the police to make an official complaint. She said: ‘When I arrived and said, “I think I’ve been scammed,” I couldn’t even pronounce Brad Pitt’s name.’
When she was asked how much money she had lost, she told the cops she had given away ‘almost 100,000 francs’.
Although she is now trying to rebuild her life, she said the emotional damage has been severe.
She said: ‘There’s an indescribable shame. I know I spent almost a year living a relationship that didn’t exist. You ask yourself: “How could I have been taken advantage of like that?”‘
In the French case, an interior designer called Anne was also duped into believing she was in a relationship with the big screen superstar earlier this year.
Patricia came across the story of Anne, who began to receive fake pictures of the Hollywood star in a hospital bed claiming to be suffering from kidney cancer
In one of the pictures sent to the interior designer, ‘I love you Anne’ is written on a piece of paper held up to the camera
In another picture sent to Anne, the AI-generated image of the star is seen being examined by doctors
The scammer used a fake social media page and AI-generated images to persuade the woman into thinking Pitt needed the money for kidney cancer treatment.
She was first sent a message by someone purporting to be Jane Etta Pitt, the actor’s mother, telling her she was the right woman for her son.
She then began to get messages from an AI imitation of the actor. At the time, Anne was going through a divorce with her multimillionaire ex-husband.
Speaking on the French TV show, Sept à Huit, she explained how the scammer declared his love for her and even asked her to marry him.
He started sending luxury items to her but made her pay for the customs bills. She had to fork out €9,000 for one item.
She also received AI images of the star on a hospital bed. In one of them, the impersonation holds up a piece of paper with ‘I love you Anne’ written on it. Another sees him being examined by doctors on a hospital bed.
The scammer even went as far as sending a fake email from a doctor explaining that the actor was fighting for his life.
The excuse given to Anne was that he couldn’t access his funds as Pitt’s real-life ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, had put a freeze on his bank account.
When Pitt was pictured last summer with his partner Inès de Ramon, Anne realised she had been scammed all along.
She said: ‘I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this. I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.’
With the advancement of AI technology, there have been several reports of people who have been scammed by fraudsters using fake images of public figures.
