A scammer who conned a French woman out of almost £700,000 by posing as Brad Pitt has been tracked down in Nigeria, according to local media reports.
Marwan Ouarab, founder of the site Find My Scammer, has been helping victim Anne to find the person responsible for scamming her out of £697,000 using deep fake images.
It comes after the 53-year-old divorcee shared with French media this week that she had parted with a fortune to help with what she believed was cancer treatment for the film star.
According to 20 Minutes, Mr Ouarab contacted the fake Brad Pitt using information given to him by Anne.
He then sent him a ‘booby-trapped link’ disguised in a message, which when clicked on, gave him access to the con artist’s phone.
This was a success, Mr Ouarab told the news outlet, and his team managed to uncover the identity of the scammer, as well as the address for where he carries out his scams in Nigeria.
Not only that, but Mr Ouarab said the scammer is now pretending to be another A-list celebrity with the aim of scamming other victims out of a fortune.
‘Today, he is still active, except that he is now pretending to be Keanu Reeves,’ he told 20Minutes.
Mr Ouarab added: ‘It’s a small group of three or four fairly young people who are causing damage. On the fake Brad Pitt’s device alone, we counted 34 victims.’
He told the news outlet he had contacted the Nigerian authorities and has promised to hand over all the information he had on the scammer.
Victim Anne told French channel TF1 that she had received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother before hearing from an account she believed to be Brad Pitt himself.
Anne thought she had grown close to the actor after months of talking, before things took a romantic turn. But after disclosing that she had separated from her millionaire partner, she said she was asked for money to help with health complications as his money was tied up in divorce proceedings.
The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as AI image-creating technology to send Anne what appeared to be selfies and messages from Pitt, stringing her along until things came to a head last summer.
The victim ultimately realised the mistake when she saw that the actor was not, in fact, in hospital, and had been pictured with a new girlfriend. She was later hospitalised with severe depression, but decided to speak out and raise awareness.
Responding to Anne’s story, The Fight Club actor’s agent told Entertainment Weekly that it was ‘awful’ that ‘scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities’, before warning others ‘not to respond to unsolicited’ messages, ‘especially from actors who have no social media presence’.
Since speaking out about her experience, Anne says she has been on the receiving end of a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading to the interview being withdrawn.
