Cyberbullied after being scammed: the double punishment of a French sufferer of the ‘Brad Pitt rip-off’ | Society | EUROtoday

First she was scammed after which harassed on social media for having been the sufferer of a rip-off. A 53-year-old French lady suffers from an avalanche of criticism and mock on social media after falling for what is called the “Brad Pitt scam,” during which somebody pretending to be the well-known actor seduces folks and takes cash from them. They stole 830,000 euros from her. The fraudster approached her in February 2023 on the social community Instagram and entangled her in his lure for a yr and a half. He posted pretend photos of the Hollywood star in several on a regular basis conditions and even despatched her a video generated with Artificial Intelligence: “He sent me photos and when I searched online, I didn’t see them,” the sufferer mentioned within the tv program. French Seven to eight to clarify that this was why she thought they had been snapshots taken for her.

The tv channel TF1, the place the report was broadcast, has already eliminated the content material concerning the sufferer after he grew to become a laughing inventory on social networks. The usurper of Brad Pitt’s id obtained a big amount of cash from this lady, to whom he instructed that he wanted surgical procedure for kidney most cancers and didn’t have entry to his financial institution accounts as a result of sophisticated divorce with Angelina Jolie. She was additionally going via a troublesome emotional second together with her husband.

After 18 months, she found the deception when the press reported that the actor was starting a romantic relationship. The sufferer, who suffers from despair, lives at a pal’s home after dropping virtually all of her property to the rip-off, together with the 775,000 euros she obtained after her divorce. “I wonder why they chose me to harm me to such an extent. “I have never hurt anyone in my life,” he lamented.

His participation on tv unleashed a wave of jokes in opposition to him. After rampant cyberbullying, this system Seven to Eight communicated in X the elimination of its passage via the chain: “We deal with social issues neutrally. The report aired on Sunday unleashed an avalanche of harassment against a testimony. To protect the victims, we have decided to remove it from our platforms.”

Scam instances in Spain

This rip-off is neither new nor unique to France. In 2022, a middle-aged lady from Granada was robbed of 170,000 euros when she joined a Brad Pitt fan membership on Facebook. Interaction on the social community was growing and the scammers, hidden within the fan group, They posed because the actor in order that she would fall in love with him with the last word aim of requesting cash in alternate for false guarantees. The impostors made her consider that the well-known performer would meet her in individual and that they might document a film collectively. The lady transferred 30,000 euros in a single go.

There are two different instances in Spain. Another resident of Granada misplaced 175,000 euros attributable to this rip-off and an individual in Vizcaya had 150,000 euros stolen. This police operation, which started shortly after the primary case in Spain grew to become recognized, resulted in 5 detainees and 10 beneath investigation.

According to the Civil Guard, the cybercriminals studied the victims’ social networks and made a psychological profile, thus discovering that each folks had been weak folks, with emotional deficiencies and in a depressed state. From there, and thru WhatsApp, they started a relentless dialogue with them till they made them consider that they had been in a loving relationship. Then got here the time to ask for cash for numerous tasks, which individuals transferred little by little.