Pensioner duped by fake ‘Brad Pitt’ scammer is tricked into handing over £90,000 then flying to US and spending three weeks alone in a hotel room waiting for him to show

A Swiss pensioner who believed she was romantically involved with Brad Pitt was deceived into handing over £90,000 and even flew to the United States; Here she was left alone in a hotel room for three weeks, waiting for Brad Pitt to show up.

The woman, who uses the name Patricia, said she believed she was in love with the real Brad Pitt for months.

Instead, she became the target of an online scammer who posed as an American star and drained her savings.

Patricia said it started in May 2024, when she followed the Hollywood star’s Instagram page and received a message from someone claiming to be her manager.

The person asked if he would agree to speak to the player directly, and the player said yes. He recalled: ‘We very politely began to communicate normally, just like two people who meet.’

As time went by, her messages became more frequent and he eventually confessed his love for her.

Speaking on the programme, Mise Au Point explained: ‘He asks me a lot of questions about how I feel, how I like things, how I see life, and then one day he lets me know he’s in love with me.’

The scammer also asked her to keep their alleged romance secret. She sent loving messages that read: ‘My love, you are my everything, now and forever.’

Patricia said she gave herself permission to believe this and said: ‘This is a real relationship developing, so I’m getting caught up in this feeling of love.’

The deception escalated further when they discussed the meeting. Fake Brad Pitt claimed he needed the money to make the meeting possible, writing: ‘Baby $50,000 requested by my management.’

He said it was standard fare for anyone who wanted to spend time with him.

At first he refused, but later convinced himself that it might be legitimate. He explained: “I thought to myself, ‘Maybe that’s the way they do things… I’ve never contacted an actor before.'” He sent thirty thousand dollars, then another twenty thousand.

When the real Brad Pitt took the stage at the Venice Film Festival that summer, Patricia hoped her dream would finally come true.

She packed a small bag, waiting for instructions to join him, but he never called her. Instead he sent flowers and a message that read: ‘I love you so much baby. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Pitt’s.”

He found it increasingly difficult to leave after the first payments. The scammer demanded ten thousand dollars, then another ten thousand dollars, supposedly for medical expenses.

Patricia said she was overwhelmed with stress but continued paying because she believed he loved her.

He was then suggested to meet her in the United States. Convinced that she could finally meet her partner, Patricia booked a flight to Los Angeles.

But he ended up spending three weeks in a hotel, drinking cocktails alone while he waited. He never met her and sent an extra $20,000 before returning home.

When she returned to Switzerland, she came across a story about a French woman who lost €830,000 to another Brad Pitt impersonator. Patricia said that it was only after she saw the similarities in their stories that she realized the truth.

She eventually went to the police to make a formal complaint. He said: ‘When I arrived and said, ‘I think I’ve been scammed,’ I couldn’t even pronounce Brad Pitt’s name.’

When asked how much money he lost, he said he gave the police ‘almost 100,000 francs’.

Although he is now trying to rebuild his life, he said the emotional damage is severe.

He said: ‘There is an indescribable shame. I know I spent almost a year having a relationship that didn’t exist. You ask yourself: “How could I benefit this way?”

In the French case, an interior designer named Anne was also tricked into believing she was having an affair with the big screen superstar earlier this year.

Patricia came across the story of Anne, who began receiving fake photos of the Hollywood star in his hospital bed claiming to be suffering from kidney cancer.

In one of the pictures sent to the interior designer, a piece of paper held up to the camera reads ‘I love you, Mom’.

Another photo sent to Anne shows the star being examined by doctors in an AI-generated image.

Using a fake social media page and AI-generated images, the scammer tricked the woman into thinking she needed money for Pitt’s kidney cancer treatment.

First, a person claiming to be the actor’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, sent him a message saying she was the right woman for his son.

He then started receiving messages from the actor’s AI impersonator. At the time, Anne was in the process of divorcing her multimillionaire ex-husband.

Speaking on the French television program Sept à Huit, the woman described how the fraudster declared his love for her and even asked her to marry him.

He started sending her luxury items but made her pay the customs bills. He had to pay €9,000 for one product.

It also took AI footage of the star in her hospital bed. In one of them, the impersonator is holding a piece of paper with the words ‘I love you, Mom’ written on it. Another sees him in his hospital bed being examined by doctors.

The scammer even went so far as to send a fake email from a doctor explaining that the actor was fighting for his life.

The excuse given to Anne was that she couldn’t access her funds because Pitt’s real-life ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen her bank account.

When Pitt was photographed with partner Inès de Ramon last summer, Anne realized she had been scammed all along.

He said: ‘I ask myself why they chose me to inflict such damage. I didn’t harm anyone. These people deserve hell.’

With the advancement of artificial intelligence technology, there have been numerous reports of public figures being scammed by scammers using fake images of themselves.