French Woman Who Fell In Love with Fake Brad Pitt Faces Merciless Cyberbullying as She Is Hospitalized for Severe Depression

The French woman who made headlines for falling in love with a scammer pretending to be Brad Pitt has been facing merciless cyberbullying while being hospitalized for severe depression.

For months, the 53-year-old woman named Anne thought she was messaging the actor through text messages as the scammer would send AI-generated videos of Pitt, BFM TV reported. She ended up sending the scammer about $800,000 after the fake actor told her he needed help with treatments for kidney cancer.

The woman is said to suffer from severe depression, and has since been hospitalized for mental health treatment, as reported by TF1.

After her story aired on national television, it went viral on social media, prompting social media users from around the world to mock the woman for falling for the scam.

"But Anne when she watched a movie with Brad Pitt in it in her head she must have been in 'that my boy' mode," one user tweeted in French. "Are you dumb?" another user wrote in English.

"How does anyone that MORONIC have 700k????" a third user wrote. Other users called the story "hilarious," while some said that the woman "deserved" what happened to her.

Corporate social media accounts also joined in making jokes in reference to the story. Netflix France tweeted, "four films to see with Brad Pitt (promise)."

In a now-deleted tweet, Toulouse Football Club wrote, "Brad told us that he would be at the stadium on Wednesday." The club has since apologized, as reported by AFP.

Romance scams have become more popular in recent years. In 2024, a California woman became homeless after sending a scammer she believed to be Keanu Reeves thousands of dollars.