We can never repeat it enough, we must be wary of what happens on the Internet and social networks. American star Brad Pitt has just found himself, without his knowledge, at the heart of a scam that has brought in several hundred thousand euros. Explanations.
The fake Brad Pitt identified his vulnerable victims thanks to their social networks
Beware of appearances … this is how these two women who are fans of the American star should have been advised. Indeed, then that they used to visit a site dedicated to fans of the actor of Fight Club, these two Internet users, one from Andalusia in Spain and the other from the Basque Country, fell into the trap of a scam organized by several suspects who were arrested by the Spanish police.
Indeed, the Guardia Civil announced in a press release having arrested five people in Spain after they managed to extort 325,000 euros from these two women who were considered to be “vulnerable” and “in a depressed state“. Thus, by pretending to be Brad Pitt on the fan site, but also on WhatsApp, the cybercriminals managed to identify their targets by studying “their social networks“. The scammers then drew up their psychological profile and discovered “that the two women were vulnerable” and presented “emotional deficiencies and a depressive state“. For the scammers, this type of profile is a godsend!
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A gang of 5 people arrested, part of the sum recovered
By talking to their victims, The masterminds of this scam managed to make them believe that they had a romantic relationship with the Hollywood actor and then managed to propose them to invest money in various projects that, as you can imagine, did not exist. One of the two women lost the sum of 175,000 euros while the other saw 150,000 euros disappear from her bank account.
The Spanish police managed to arrest five members of this gang who came up with this scam. During the searches, the police were able to get their hands on several mobile phones, bank cards, two personal computers and a diary in which “phrases used by fraudsters to deceive their victims” were written. The police were still able to recover 85,000 euros on the entire of the amount swindled.
#OperacionesGC | 5 people detained by #estafa 325 mil euros to dos mujeres by the method recognized as #FalsoBradPitt
u25b6ufe0fSe have investigated also 10 persons lost to the #organizacióncriminal and have se ha Conseguido locate and block 85 thousand euros of total money… pic.twitter.com/qc4AouztgO
September 23, 2024
This isn't the first time that scammers have impersonated Brad Pitt. In July 2023, a Spanish woman was scammed out of 170,000 euros thinking she was in a relationship with the actor. In France, it was the singer Florent Pagny who pushed a rant on social media after scammers impersonated him using AI to scam his fans out of money. strong>