ECONOMY & WORK
MONEY 101
NEWS
PERSONAL FINANCE
NET WORTH
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use DMCA Opt-out of personalized ads
© Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Market Realist is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
MARKETREALIST.COM / NEWS

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

Following the incident, Brad Pitt's representative has issued a warning to all fans.
PUBLISHED OCT 1, 2024
Cover image source:  (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Cover image source: (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

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. 



 

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. 

Brad Pitt attends the premiere of 20th Century Fox's
Brad Pitt attends the premiere of 20th Century Fox's "Ad Astra" | Getty Images | Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer

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.

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. 

Representative image | Getty Images | Stock Photo
Representative image | Getty Images | Stock Photo

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.

MORE ON MARKET REALIST
She's married with two kids, but she's been chatting about everything with this person, from morning meals to steamy shower scenes.
3 hours ago
Franco was feeling so lucky while buying those tickets, that he even thought of winking at a camera.
10 hours ago
Although the auction house did not reveal if an expert was consulted, the painting did trigger a bidding war.
14 hours ago
The list clearly shows that lessons have not been learned despite the surge in cyber-crime.
15 hours ago
"I'll take the blame for that. Ronnie, I'm so sorry," the host told the contestant.
1 day ago
The woman was told by the management that they had received dozens of complaints against her.
1 day ago
One of the women said she had no idea that the other had such a bill and was just riding along.
1 day ago
Even though the buyer wasn't able to keep all of it, he did walk away with a massive profit.
1 day ago
It came into existence during the English Civil War, when colonists in Boston seized an opportunity to create their own currency
2 days ago
The vessel ended up with a hole and caused an oil spill that raised concerns among the locals.
2 days ago
The artist and the owner of the artwork were unfazed since the banana would go bad at some point anyway.
2 days ago
One of the customers contacted her employer after receiving her wage twice, and soon realized it was an error.
3 days ago
She first bought 20 tickets and then went back to buy 10 more after she had an intuition.
3 days ago
In an attempt to surprise Sandler, Spade ended up being more generous than he planned.
4 days ago
The man's presence at a women-only poker event also sparked a huge online debate.
4 days ago
He revealed that the piece of advice that changed his outlook toward money came from a celebrity business manager Lester Knispel.
4 days ago
The workers chose to stick to the company's core values and did the right thing.
5 days ago
The guest revealed that she didn't know about the trade mentioned on the disk when it was purchased.
5 days ago
The CEO at the local casino decided to make her birthday even more special by adding a gift to her winnings.
5 days ago
Sometimes things that don't shine turn out to be worth more than gold.
6 days ago