Legendary American con-man ‘Hungry’ Joe Lewis penned the memorable phrase – often attributed to Circus pioneer P. T. Barnum: ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’.
And while the world has changes in a myriad of ways from the 19th century, Confidence Artists still abound, and use ever more advanced technology to reach into the mind, the heart and pocket of their ‘marks’.
A report today (15) tells of a romance scammer playing the ‘long con’, interacting with the victim during one and a half years before fleecing her of all her money.
The con artist pretended to be ‘an ailing Brad Pitt’ to swindle a French woman out of $850,000.
The criminal used AI-generated images and a chatbot to win the French woman’s heart.
A 53-year-old interior designer named Anne went on French TV to disclose how someone, pretending to be his mother, Jane Etta Pitt, contacted her first.
‘She told me that her son needed someone like me’ – Anne, on France 24.
New York Post reported:
“’There are few men who write to you like that’, she said. ‘I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together’.
‘We’re talking about Brad Pitt here, and I was stunned’, Anne said. ‘At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me’.”
The victim reportedly received messages for 18 months – poems, words of love and even a marriage proposal.
“’There are few men who write to you like that’, she said. ‘I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together’.”
This was taking place while Anne was divorcing an older, millionaire husband.
Read: Here Come the Lying AI Robots: Study Alerts That AI Systems Are Getting Adept at Deceiving Humans
The confidence artist offered to send her expensive purses but asked her to pay the customs fee.
That way, he took her first for $9,200. She was now primed for the real scam. The endgame.
At that point, ‘Pitt’ announced that he had kidney cancer and needed money for hospital treatments – after all, ‘his bank accounts were frozen’ by the ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.
Forged photos of the star in a hospital and a doctor’s email established that he was in a near-death state.
“So, Anne sent boatloads of money — more than $850,000 — to a Turkish account, the outlet said. She only realized she was being scammed over the summer, when Pitt was seen with current beau Inès de Ramon. It’s unclear if the scammer was ever caught.”
Read: Frustrated Customer Gets AI Service Chatbot to Joke, Swear and Trash Its Own Company – International Parcel Delivery Firm Disables the Bot Pending Reprogramming
“Her daughter told her she was being conned. But Anne refused to believe it. ‘You’ll see when he’s here in person, then you’ll say sorry’, the victim said.”
Anne has now been hospitalized for severe depression.
“’I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?’ she said of the scammers. ‘I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell’.”
Read more here.
The post French Woman Scammed Out of $850K by Con-Man Posing as ‘Brad Pitt in the Hospital’ With Ai-Generated Images and Chatbot appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.