New Delhi:

Brad Pitt has issued a statement after a French woman was scammed to the tune of 8,00,000 euros by a man impersonating Pitt. The actor’s team urged fans “to not respond to unsolicited online outreach”, especially from actors with no social media presence.

The story dates back to February 2023 when 53-year-old Anne was on a ski trip to Tignes and received a message on Instagram, from an account posing as Pitt’s mother Jane Etta Pitt. A day later she got a message from another account posing as the actor himself and the duo hit off immediately.

The alleged Brad Pitt account sent poems and declarations of love to Anne, making her believe that the two were in a long-distance relationship. The timing of this was apt as Anna, married to a millionaire, was going through a rough patch in her relationship.

While the person pretending to be Pitt avoided calls, he sent Artificial Intelligence-generated videos and images to Anne to convince her of his identity and love for her. He even asks her to marry him.

Soon after, Anne’s divorce was finalised and she received compensation of 7,75,000 euros. At the same time, fake Pitt shared doctored photos of him in a hospital, asking Anne for the money to treat an alleged kidney cancer. He said his bank accounts are blocked due to his ongoing divorce case with Angelina Jolie.

“It hurts me to do it, but I tell myself that I might save a man’s life,” she said on the show “Sept a huit” broadcast on Sunday (January 12) evening on local news channel TF1.

Many months later, in 2024, when Anne saw reports of Pitt’s relationship with jewellery designer Ines De Ramon, she realised she had been scammed. Anne is in hospital, being treated for severe depression.

After the news came to limelight, Pitt’s representative addressed the situation and shared a statement with E! News. “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities,” the spokesperson said on January 15, “but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”

This is not the first time someone has been cheated by ‘Brad Pitt’. In September 2023, Spanish police arrested five people accused of scamming two women of 325,000 euros by posing as Brad Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages.

New Delhi:

With photos from the hospital and smooth conversations, a French woman was convinced she is talking to actor Brad Pitt and scammed to the tune of 800,000 euros. The suspect messaged her on Instagram and convinced her to help him with medical treatment as his bank accounts were blocked amid an ongoing divorce case with actor Angelina Jolie.

53-year-old Anne said on the show “Sept a huit” broadcast Sunday evening on local news channel TF1  that she got a message while she was on a ski trip to Tignes from an account posing as the the actor’s mother Jane Etta Pitt. A day later an account posing as the actor contacted her and the duo started talking and soon became friends.

Anne, who was married a millionaire but going through a rough patch, continued to receive poems and declarations of love from the fake account as she remained convinced she was in a long-distance relationship with Mr Pitt. “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.

While he always avoided her calls, he sent Artificial Intelligence-generated videos and images to convince Anne of his love for her. At the same time, he also asked her to marry him. He also told her that he had sent her luxury gift and asked her to pay 9,000 euros, but she received nothing, BFMTV reported.

Soon after, Anne’s divorce was finalised and she received a compensation of 775,000 euros. It was then that he shared more doctored videos and photos to say he was slated to undergo a kidney surgery and was already admitted to a hospital.

The scam came to light in 2024 when Anne saw reports of Brad Pitt’s relationship with jewellery designer Ines De Ramon. She was then hospitalised for treatment of severe depression.

A similar scam was reported in September last year when Spanish police arrested five people accused of scamming two women of 325,000 euros by posing as Brad Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages. The suspects made contact with the women on an internet page for fans of the Oscar-winning actor and led them to believe “they had a sentimental relationship with him”, Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said in a statement. Posing as Pitt, the members of the gang then allegedly proposed that the women invest in various projects that did not exist.

Luke Ford, 35, an actor from Stirling, Scotland, has been given a 16-year sentence for a series of sexual and physical offences against women. Ford was found guilty of 19 charges that included violence, sexual assault, threats, and abusive behaviour.

Ford, who said he was a body double for Brad Pitt in the 2013 filming of World War Z in Glasgow, used this claim to gain the trust of his victims. The case marks Scotland’s first prosecution of its kind, and it highlights a disturbing campaign of abuse.

According to The Independent, one of the seven rape charges he was convicted of involved behaviour referred to as “stealthing,” which is defined as failing to use a condom without a partner’s knowledge or consent. Ford was found to have deliberately had unprotected sex despite the woman only agreeing to sex with a condom.

He was given a 21-year extended sentence with 16 years in custody at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, the Crown Office said.

The court heard Ford targeted nine female victims over a 12-year campaign of offending that lasted from 2008 to 2020.Non-harassment orders were also granted, banning Ford from contacting or attempting to contact the women.

Detective Inspector Steven Gray said in a statement: “Ford is a dangerous and manipulative sexual predator. I would like to acknowledge how hard this has been for those involved and to also tell them that their testimonies vastly contributed to Ford being convicted. I hope that knowing he is now behind bars for his crimes helps them continue to move forward with their lives.

“Anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault or abuse should contact us. Please be assured that we will do everything we can to ensure we arrest the perpetrators of such crimes.”

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt has sought to drop “Pitt” from her name. On her 18th birthday on May 27, she filed a petition in the Los Angeles County Superior Court to get her name changed. Her current full name is Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.

Shiloh is the third-eldest of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s six children.

This comes after the the celebrity ex-couple’s 15-year-old daughter Vivienne had also reportedly dropped “Pitt” from her name. In a poster for the for the new musical The Outsiders, her name was listed as Vivienne Jolie and not Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, reported People. 

Last November, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s eldest daughter Zahara introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie in her induction into the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College, a video revealed.

These name changes come amidst ongoing reports of tension in Brad Pitt’s relationship with his children since Angelina Jolie initially filed for divorce and sole physical custody in 2016. The divorce was apparently set off by an event on a private flight from France to Los Angeles in September 2016. There were reports of an altercation on the flight which also involved the children.

Brad Pitt, however, has denied these allegations. He was not charged by the FBI, which was probing the incident.

The former couple are also at loggerheads over a French winery they once owned together. In 2022, Brad Pitt sued Angelina Jolie’s company Nouvel for secretly selling her share of their winery without his consent.

In her rebuttal, filed in a Los Angeles court, Ms Jolie has said in the document that she tried to sell the Miraval winery but the negotiations broke down after Mr Pitt influenced her into signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that “prohibited Jolie from speaking (other than in court) about Pitt’s abuse”.