An investigation has been launched on the island of La Reunion with authorities trying to identify the perpetrators of a fraud in which they managed to extort the sum of 830.000 euros from a French woman who was convinced that she was helping American actor Brad Pitt financially, the French news agency reported today, citing a police source.

Currently, no suspect has been identified and officers from the financial police, who are in charge of the investigation, are trying to trace the accounts into which the money of this woman, who filed a lawsuit in La Reunion, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, ended up.

During the show Sept à huit, which aired on Sunday on the private television network TF1, a woman named Anne, aged about 50, complained that she paid the sum of 830,000 euros to scammers who impersonated the American movie star by sending her two fake selfies, forged identity documents and resorted to artificial intelligence to allay her doubts.

Claiming to need money to pay for an operation for kidney cancer, the fake Brad Pitt managed to extort this substantial sum from his victim, who was financially devastated and made three suicide attempts.

After the show aired, the woman was the subject of ridicule from internet users, who mocked the gullibility she displayed. Since then, the report has been pulled from all platforms by TF1, following a “wave of harassment against a witness.”

The case reached the actor’s entourage, who warned his fans about scammers using his image.

“It’s terrible that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ strong ties to celebrities,” a spokesman for the actor told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday.

“At first I told myself it was fake”

Speaking to French channel TF1, the 53-year-old woman, named Anne, said she was initially attracted by a female profile posing as Brad Pitt’s mother. According to the Guardian, the scam began in February 2023, when Anne opened an Instagram account to share photos of her holiday in the Alps. “She texted me and said her son needed someone like me,” Anne said, noting that a few days later, she was contacted by “Brad Pitt himself.” “At first I told myself it was fake. But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t understand what was going on,” she explained.

Thinking they were having an affair, Anne eventually sent, the money, while she also broke up with her husband so she could be with Brad Pitt. “I was in love with the man I was chatting with. He knew how to talk to a woman,” the woman says. She goes on to say that she only realized her mistake when she saw reports of Pitt’s affair with Inés de Ramon. Then, she decided to file a complaint with the police for fraud. “I wonder why they chose me to do me such harm. I have never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell,” he concluded.

Brad Pitt warns fans after cheating

The actor himself, after the issue took on a new dimension, issued a statement through a spokesperson warning his fans to be careful.

“It’s awful that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ strong ties to celebrities. But it’s important to remember not to respond to approaches from unconfirmed social media contacts, especially when they allegedly come from actors with no social media presence,” he said.