An AI-Generated Brad Pitt Scored Almost $1 Million From A Victim

AI is on the rise and so are AI scams. Now, with the ability to generate images, videos, text, and audio, scammers have all the tools they need to fleece unwitting individuals out of thousands of dollars. In a wild score, an AI-generated Brad Pitt scored hundreds of thousands of dollars in a massive scam.

This is still a developing story with the French authorities looking into the matter. However, the damage has already been done. The story revolves around a French woman who prefers to be called “Anne”. Our victim was going through a rocky divorce when she received a message from Brad Pitt’s mother. Mother Pitt told Anne that he was dying of cancer.

If you hear an odd noise, that’s just the sound of all the alarm bells going off in your head. This is the kind of scam that most people would see right away. However, the story gets more weird.

How AI-generated Brad Pitt scored nearly $1 million in a massive scam

The AI comes in when Anne started receiving AI-generated images and videos of Brad Pitt. Admittedly, it’s easy to see how this could fool those not too familiar with AI technology. One image shows an AI-generated Brad Pitt with a note reading “Anne Love you”. So, the fake account was able to generate images of Brad with customized love notes for Anne, enhancing the believability. Anne said that she was a bit suspicious about the account at first, but when it started sending the videos and pictures, she felt at ease.

Initially, the account romanced her, proposed to her, and promised to send her lavish gifts. For the gifts, the account said that she had to fork over money for the customs fees. Anne did, and this cost her €9,000 ($9,321). While that’s a lot, “Mr. Smith” wasn’t done digging her for money, not by a long shot.

Here’s the kicker!

An important thing to know about Anne is that she was married to a wealthy man, and she was going to get some serious cash as a divorce settlement. When she told the fake account that, it then told her that Brad Pitt (THE famous and wealthy Hollywood actor, Brad Pitt, mind you…) needed money for his kidney cancer treatment.

This led to Anne paying €830,000 to the account ($851,355). That’s a pretty massive sum of money, and we don’t know if she was able to get that money back. What we do know is that she contacted the authorities soon after paying the money.