PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 14: Actor Brad Pitt attends the Paris premiere of ‘Babylon’ at Le Grand Rex on January 14, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
Everyone talks about it. A woman from Granada in southern Spain filed a lawsuit, claiming she was the victim of fraud €170,000 (approximately US$184,229 or more than 3 million Mexican pesos) by someone posing as Brad Pitt. Yes, the Hollywood star. One of the highest paid in the industry. The victim asserts that they contacted the internet and established an “online” relationship. with romantic plans and even shooting a movie together. And it didn’t take long for the ridicule to flood social media.
And it is that the story obviously immediately evokes disbelief since it is a scam that is easily recognizable at first glance.. Brad Pitt asks for money if he makes $20 million a movie? Impossible. Brad Pitt discusses wedding plans with a stranger and on the internet while every step of his life is followed by the tabloids? Impossible. Additionally, a simple internet search reveals that he is worth $400 million while dating rumors constantly follow him.
Everything turns out to be so unbelievable that the whole world seems to have reacted in unison with skepticism and ridicule as the banner.. Less than 24 hours after the news broke, jokes and hilarious comments flooded social media, mocking the victim’s gullibility in the face of a scam we think we’d all recognize instantly. However, it would not be that easy.
But let’s go to the beginning. Apparently, according to the victim’s lawyer (via EFE), Antonio Estella Aroza, the middle-aged woman had been in touch with an alleged fan club of the actor via Facebook in early 2022. One contact would have led her to the next, until one day she thought she had contacted Brad Pitt himself. As the lawyer explained to RTVE’s La hora de la 1, the scammer or scammer network posed as representing the seven actor. At first, they encouraged her to join the fan club and suggested they talk to the actor until they started impersonating him.
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August 1st, 2019, Berlin: The actor Brad Pitt (right) comes to the premiere of his film “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” and takes selfies with the audience and/or writes autographs. The Hollywood production will start in German cinemas on August 15, 2019. Photo: Annette Riedl/dpa (Photo by Annette Riedl/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
This is how the alleged Brad Pitt began to gain his trust until he formed a relationship and promised to visit Spain to record a movie together.. “After a few months of no financial requests and when they already had their trust, they started requesting money. “They start with small amounts and end up with large amounts, in this case up to 35,000 euros,” the lawyer told the Spanish TV show.
In order to make the victim believe he was talking to Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband, the alleged scammer sent him red carpet photos and a photomontage with a handwritten message. One of them, and the one circulating on social media, clearly shows that the photo is fake, while the alleged Brad Pitt shows a sign written in Spanish that reads: “Honey, I love you really and i promise pay you everything. Well darling, I still love you and I’m still here for you, my beautiful.
The victim believed the story so much that she came to prepare clothes for the next day Brad Pitt I wanted to visit them, convinced that they would get married and do the damn movie. And at that moment, our glowing skepticism is awakened. How could he fall into a trap that smells like league cheating? However, the lawyer says they were “professional” scammers who asked for complete confidentiality, misleading the alleged actor into believing that the relationship would leak to the press. In addition, the victim asked for explanations several times, but they responded by playing with their feelings.. “The scammers always know what to say, when to get angry, or when to be tender. He told the woman that they were at a festival, at a premiere or outright sick,” the lawyer said.
However, seeing that the promises were not being kept, he finally opened his eyes and decided to take legal action and file a complaint (which was pending at the time of writing). possible crimes such as fraud, identity theft and money laundering.
The scam is so obvious that we inevitably feel like joking about it. And it’s not just me saying that. A mere check of Twitter confirms that the entire world has responded with all sorts of ridicule in the same way, as if it were something that would never happen to us and elevates our intelligence above that of the victim. However, we must take into account that according to the lawyer, this is a victim who “He has neither children nor a close circle that supports him“. In other words, he went through the experience trustingly and believing out of solitude.
VENICE, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 08: Brad Pitt attends the ‘Blonde’ red carpet at the 79th Venice Film Festival on September 08, 2022 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
That sad reality reminded me of another scam involving a woman in the UK in 2022, when she was tricked into believing she was speaking to Nicolas Cage (via Sky). Also on Facebook. In her case, the fake Nicolas Cage made her believe he needed money for her taxes by telling her he was planning to visit her country while asking her to keep the relationship a secret. He extorted £10,000 (about US$12,619) from her.
On this occasion, a UK charity was tasked with explaining the emotional background behind this type of scam. As Lisa Mills, Victim Support’s fraud manager, told Sky: Love scams involving fake celebrity profiles are “challenging” because victims often have an “overwhelming desire” to believe they are communicating with the real stars.
A sad reality that tells us about the stratospheric level in which we socially usually place celebrities. As if they were unreachable characters that scammers use to get in touch with the victims’ most vulnerable side and challenge them to create a fictional bridge that connects them to this unreal world, so far away and untouchable. And if there’s one actor that cinema and society has brought to this star level through his films and physical beauty, it’s undoubtedly Brad Pitt.
“I think it’s hard to convey to society in general: people just scoff and think, ‘I’m not going to let that fool me,'” Mills said in 2022. “But it’s real, it’s happening and we have to support the people who have been through it. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.”
could it happen to you Me? To all? I think we all react with the belief that no. That we would recognize it immediately. But what if everything depends on the personal situation we find ourselves in? Of our vulnerability at a certain point in life? Perhaps behind the mocking and skeptical reaction that such a story evokes in us is a reality that grips many people, and it would be interesting for us to take up the case with the necessary caution.
This article was written exclusively for Yahoo en Español by Cine54.
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