This was a real “Inglourious Basterd.”
A romance scammer posing as an ailing Brad Pitt has swindled a French woman out of $850,000 using AI-generated hospital selfies of the 'Fight Club' member to woo her.
The victim — a 53-year-old interior designer named Anne — told French TV show “Seven to Eight” on Sunday that someone posing as the actor’s mother, Jeanne Etta Pitt, called her first, the Daily Beast reported. .
“She told me that her son needed someone like me,” she told France 24.
“We're talking about Brad Pitt here, and I was blown away,” Anne said. “At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
The letters kept arriving over the next 18 months, with Anne's fake lover sending poems, declarations of love and eventually a marriage proposal, according to The Independent.
“There are few men who write to you like that,” she said. “I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, and he was very well groomed.
At the time, Anne was divorcing her millionaire and businessman husband, a man nearly two decades her senior.
Meanwhile, the scammer running the AI bot claimed he would send her expensive bags, but noted she would have to pay customs duties.
The Independent said that, of course, this started at about $9,200.
The requests continued, and eventually the fake Pitt told her he had kidney cancer and needed money for hospitalization since Pitt's ex, Angelina Jolie, had frozen his bank accounts.
This was followed by doctored photos of Pitt in a hospital room and was followed by an email from a “doctor” saying “Mr.” The actor and Mrs. Smith were on their deathbed.
The agency said that Anne sent large amounts of money – more than $850,000 – to a Turkish account.
Her daughter told her she had been tricked. But Anne refused to believe it.
“You will see when he comes here in person, then you will say sorry,” the victim said.
She only realized she had been scammed over the summer, when Pete was spotted with current beau Ines de Ramon. It is unclear whether the scammer has been caught.
The Independent said she shared her story on French station TF1, but the network later pulled the interview because she was being bullied online.
She was also hospitalized for severe depression, the Daily Beast said.
“I ask myself why did they choose me to cause such harm?” She said of scammers. “I never hurt anyone. These people deserve hell.”
