Victim of AI Brad Pitt who was scammed out of $850,000 is now 'homeless' with 'severe depression'

The French woman who was conned out of $850,000 by a scammer posing as Brad Pitt with the help of AI, revealed that she is suffering from homelessness, depression, and financial loss while she lives with a friend amid efforts to recover her money. The victim's lawyer detailed her problems to the Daily Mail. 

Paris-based lawyer Laurène Hanna shared how her client has been targeted on social media and labelled, 'dumb', 'naive', and 'stupid' which pushed her to attempt suicide. Hanna said that she was 'astonished' by the reaction online adding that, "Love scams on the internet are not new. Anne is really not the only one. What my client needs is to be given some sensible advice and to be treated with dignity". The lawyer is now helping Anne pursue a civil case against her French bank for allowing her to transfer large sums of money to overseas accounts unchecked.

The victim, known as Anne, made headlines after it was revealed that she lost nearly a million dollars after believing that she was helping the actual Brad Pitt fund his cancer treatment. Anne, an interior designer by profession, said that the scammers contacted her on an internet page posing as Pitt.

After striking up a friendship with the victim who was going through a divorce from her millionaire husband, the scammer started sending her badly photoshopped images of Pitt in a hospital  To extract money, they pretended that the 61-year-old actor needed money to pay for treatment, as his bank accounts were frozen because of divorce proceedings with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

Anne only suspected something was wrong after reading about Pitt’s real-life relationship with Ines De Ramon. Eventually, she realized that she had been tricked and filed a lawsuit, prompting a police investigation.

Pitt’s representatives have since condemned the scam, stating that “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence".