Brad Pitt romance scam

[TwistedWonder]

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/french-woman-faces-online-mockery-after-being-conned-out-of-700-000-by-fake-brad-pitt-13289657

First of all I want you to say that no one deserves to be scammed and I’m sorry this woman lost money but come on, how naive does someone have to be to fall for this?

The photos are so poor that surely anyone with eyes can see they’re fake. And since when did a A+ celebs mum contact randoms on SM?

To seriously think Brad Pitt can’t afford medical treatment and needs money sent to his American doctors Turkish bank account - words fail me.

I'm going to try to not mock and berate because I know it's quite unkind - and I seriously believe these women must have some kind of mental health issue. Really severe loneliness, or anxiety, or some kind of chronic depression or something. There has to be something mentally wrong with them, even if it's not glaringly obvious at first glance - to other people...

I can honestly say - not in a million months of Sundays - would I fall for anything like this, ever. I would never part with a single penny if somebody asked me for money online by pretending to be Brad Pitt, or Johnny Depp, or some Nigerian Prince. I just PMSL at any messages/fake emails/scam emails I get, as they are so ludicrous. I struggle to fathom why people are taken in, and actually believe this crap!

About every two to three weeks, I get a Facebook request from some random bloke usually in America, sometimes in Canada, occasionally in Australia, who claims to be a pilot, or a neurosurgeon, or doing some government job where he has lots of secret work where he has to spend weeks at a time in Saudi Arabia or Dubai. 😆

He's always got multiple letters after his name and a few pictures of himself in really exotic locations ... I 'reverse image' the photos instantly and they are never ever the person that they claim to be. (I absolutely know this. I just look out of curiosity.) They always want me to go onto 'Telegram' to chat too. (That's because there is NO trace of anything left there, so it enables people to scam people and even the feds can't trace them!) It's completely anonymous.

I don't claim to be the most intelligent or savvy or clever person in the world, but I can honestly guarantee virtually 100%, that I will never get scammed because I barely trust anyone. Not 100%. And I would never, ever, ever give anyone any money, not even most people I actually know, let alone people I don't know. I mean you can never say never I guess, but it would have to be extremely sophisticated to con me. I honestly can't see myself falling for some random person online pretending to be someone they're not, and then giving them money.

Certainly shows a number of people have more money than sense though. Giving £700,000 to someone pretending to be Brad Pitt! And he is ill hospital and 'needs money for treatment,' and is in love with you??? I mean, come on, really, who's believes this?!!! It's so hard to not mock and deride, as it's breathtakingly ridiculous!

Finally, regarding the posters claiming they know someone this happened to (or something similar,) and she was apparently an intelligent, highly educated woman. This doesn't mean she has basic common sense. Some of the most educated people I know are not street smart, and are quite gullible. Just because a person has a University Degree, and a good job, that doesn't necessarily mean they are really smart, savvy, and clever, it just means they are good at their job/what they do/what they know...

And no, I am not 'smug.' I am just sensible, cautious, and street-smart, and I trust very few people.

If only I could screenshot from her social media but now it’s deleted. When she started speaking to Brad Pitt, she was going through a ‘difficult period’ with her husband. They were not yet going through a divorce. Some time later and fake Brad Pitt proposed to her. Surprise surprise that’s when she started the procedure to divorce her husband. You can literally read that in the most recent Daily Mail article (I clicked on the first one that came up on Google).

I find the fake Brad Pitt pictures HILARIOUS actually. Sorry not sorry

The (now ex) husband of a friend of mine has totally fallen for a scam involving a fake female celebrity. Left his wife, sent thousands and thousands of pounds and ended up living at his mums. He took VR and sent all the money to the scammers. He has basically had a total mental health breakdown but refuses all help. Its actually really frightening to see someone who was just a normal guy working in a factory with a wife and kids turn into this totally delusional recluse, its taken a real hold on him. Its as if he needs to believe that it is all true otherwise he would have to face that he has been conned out of tens of thousands and he cant do that.

I cant help thinking that there must be a lot more of these victims out there who dont come forward due to the shame of falling for it.

And what’s crazy is she only realised it was fake when she saw the real Brad Pitt on TV with his girlfriend. At no point did she decide to go on google and type in ‘Brad Pitt cancer’ like come on!

Pots and kettles and glass windows galore on here

You have absolutely no idea what you may or may not fall for one day - many vulnerable people are mentally unwell (and don't realise it), or have the beginnings of dementia or other illnesses. They're not acting rationally or using any kind of logic because their brains aren't functioning properly.

I found this at last - YouTube - an intelligence officer falls prey to a similar scam

Please don't mock this lady

Unfortunately some people also judge victims of domestic violence like this. " why did she not leave after he beat her black and blue?"

I think no matter how good the fakes are, or how clever, the golden rule should obviously remain that you don't ever send money to someone you've never met.

I think the crux of it is loneliness and desperation. Very sad.

I urge everyone to watch Love Rats on Netflix, the levels of stupidity behind the people being scammed is crazy. Some stories you can sympathise with, others just make you wonder wtf these people are thinking!

So I have some answers to you questions:

• You said yourself that she is a successful interior designer with a millionaire husband. So, she was not entirely a "rando" on SM
• If she already believed everything so far, she would have no cause to do an online search. Furthermore, how can you trust what those search results return?
• I got no responds to the photo's in question
• I personally would think he is well insured, so wouldn't need to ask anyone for money when it comes to health care costs. However, health insurance in the US is weird
• This would not surprise me, since plenty of celebrities have been known to use a Panamanian bank accounts. Indeed, why would any rich celebrities use foreign bank accounts? Usually, it is to dodge taxes in their own country.

My actual answers don't really matter. My point is that we are all vulnerable to scams. Deep down we usually know when something is too good to be true. However, sometimes what we want to be true overwrites our common sense.

It's also often people who believe they would never fall for "this scam" or "that scam" that appear to be the most susceptible, particularly when they are also going through a tough time.

We also play into the scammer's hands if ridicule people who come forward with their stories of being scammed. If people stay quiet out of fear of ridicule, we can't learn from their mistakes either.

All the 'you've got to be stupid to be scammed' comments are the reason that more people don't come forward and report scams. They know, by that point, that they've been silly. They don't need everyone to say 'well, what did you think?' They KNOW. So if we stop calling everyone who's scammed stupid and learning disabled and blind and desperate and admit that ANYONE can get scammed (yes, even you, who think you're so savvy and would never fall for anything - it might not be a romance scam, maybe you'll pay money for something that doesn't arrive. Maybe you'll get your email address cloned and start getting weird emails. Maybe someone will clone your identity and take out credit cards in your name) the more people will come forward and report these charlatans, and the more chance we have of eliminating some of the more egregious types of scam.

Hope you never have an illness or accident that causes a brain injury then as presumably you won't be looking for any compassion or empathy from your fellow humans?

Well, yes. But the people who fall for these kinds of scams aren't thinking straight - they're mentally unwell, vulnerable or otherwise struggling cognitively in some way.

Exactly. Some of these comments are so unkind.

I wonder if some of these responses would change if posters themselves had vulnerable parents or relatives.

Much suffering would be avoided if more people could a) accept that there is a league of sexual attractiveness and b) be realistic about which division they are playing in.

I can see how people fall for it. Some people are a little bit more naive.

And some people are also not very good with technology.

My elderly mum was convinced that she was talking to prince harry on Facebook.

I told her it wasn't him. She said "but it says it is him! It says his name!".

I had to explain to her that anyone can go on Facebook and pretend to be anyone. She said "I still think it might be him"

She is just naive. And she wants to believe thar prince harry could message her. It's the fantasy she wants to believe in. And thata how scammera work.

I have sat her down and had a talk with her about scammers.

I said to her "if anyone online ever asks you for money. Do not ever give money to them. Call me and tell me about it"

You absolutely don’t have to be stupid to be scammed. A lot of scams are extremely sophisticated. Just really not this one.

I think if some women are lonely they really want to believe in a fantasy kind of scenario.

Scammers prey on those kind of women

Not stupid but anyone who thinks brad Pitt is messaging them is extremely naive.

I saw a documentary about these scammers. They intentionally use spelling mistakes and obviously fake photos to lure in only vulnerable people who won't question the scam.

You've got to be cynical and wary online!

When I'm a celebrity get me out of here, was on tv earlier this year, I put a comment on danny jones mcfly instagram page. I said something like "well done on winning you were great"

The next day i got a private message from a different account "dannyjones451" saying "thanks so much for the comment. That's my business instagram page. I use this private page to interact with my fans. Send me a message here".

I knew it was a scam and if I replied I'd probably be asked to send a thousand pounds.

But see how these scams are. Someone else may think "oh my God Danny's replying to me" because they would be excited to get a reply from him. And get sucked in

What a shame 😞 this stuff is always so sad to read

People do have to take a bit of responsibility for themselves.

It would be extremely naive for me to think that brad Pitt wants a relationship with me, a woman that he has never met.

And for me to then send him 700,000 pounds.