Someone pretending as Brad Pitt conned two women out of $360,000, promised a 'great future together'

In the Brad Pitt’s imposter case, the Spanish police have arrested five people accused of scamming two women out of 325,000 euros or ~$362,000. The group pretended to be the Hollywood star and made false romantic promises to extract payments from the victims, according to a statement from the Guardia Civil. Apart from the five accused, the police also investigated 10 other people, across eight provinces as part of Operation Bralina. 

Picking out vulnerable victims 

According to the investigation, the accused contacted the victims through an online fan page dedicated to Pitt. They posed as the Oscar-winning actor and conned women into chatting with them on instant messaging platforms and via emails. The New York Times reported that the fraudsters managed to convince the women that the actor wanted to invest in various projects with them. 

They also convinced the women that it was Pitt himself who was chatting with them on WhatsApp and promising a romantic relationship and a great future together. 

“My love for you is true. Feeling from my heart and forever, please forgive me and accept me," one handwritten letter that was found during the search of the criminals' property read, as per the Times of London.

The police further stated that the cyber criminals carefully picked out their victims by studying their social media accounts. They put together a psychological profile of them and determined that the two victims in particular were vulnerable and "suffering from depression and a lack of affection.'

Eventually, the imposters started asking the victims to make payments to take their projects ahead. As a result, both women made numerous payments to the person they thought was Pitt. When they realized that they were being scammed they reported to the police.

The scale of the scam

One woman, who is a resident of Bilbao in the north of Spain, sent 150,000 euros, or about $167,000 in a series of bank transfers. The second victim from Granada sent 175,000 euros or about $195,000, as per The Times. 

Out of the total, the police have managed to recover only about 85,000 euros (~$95,000), the statement said. Investigators also found that a network of bank accounts were created using fake IDs and 'mules' were used to help launder the money in exchange for a small payment. 

The suspects, whose names have not been released, now face charges of fraud and money laundering, as per the Spanish police. Reflecting on the scam, Pitt’s publicist Matthew Hiltzik issued a statement to The Times.  “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," the Hiltzik said.

The publicist emphasized that people shouldn't respond to people pretending to be actors who are known to have no social media presence. In this case, Pitt is one such actor who remains to be offline without any social media presence. 

Romance scams involving fake celebrity profiles have cost thousands of people across the globe. These scams are often aided by AI tools that make them appear more convincing. Last year, American consumers lost a whopping $1.14 billion to general romance scams according to the Federal Trade Commission.