AI deepfake scam impersonating Brad Pitt defrauds French woman of €830,000
A French woman lost €830,000 in a scam where Nigerian fraudsters used AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate Brad Pitt in a fake romantic relationship. The scammer, identified by an anti-scam website, reportedly defrauded at least 34 victims using the same method and also impersonated other celebrities including Keanu Reeves.
What happened
A 53-year-old divorced French woman was defrauded of €830,000 by scammers who used AI technology to create fake images and videos impersonating Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. The scammers convinced the woman that she was in a romantic relationship with Pitt.
Find My Scammer, a website tracking scam operations, identified the perpetrator as operating from Nigeria and defrauding at least 34 victims using the Brad Pitt impersonation. The same scammer was also found to be impersonating another Hollywood actor, Keanu Reeves, to defraud additional victims.
Reported impact
The victim, identified as Anne, reportedly developed depression and made three suicide attempts following the fraud. She was hospitalized in a psychiatric facility and cancelled all her social media accounts after experiencing online mockery from people calling her 'stupid' and 'naive'.
Brad Pitt's representatives issued a statement warning fans not to respond to unsolicited online messages, particularly from accounts claiming to be actors who do not use social media, describing such scams as a 'terrible' exploitation of the connection between fans and celebrities.
Index analysis
The scam demonstrates how AI-generated synthetic media can be weaponized to impersonate real individuals at scale. The perpetrator's ability to maintain multiple impersonation operations simultaneously on different devices suggests the use of generalized AI tools with minimal adaptation between victims.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.