TSR DECISIONS DROP IN Q and A NOW OPEN - GET FREE ADVICE HERE >>

Thoughts on this celebrity situation?!

A woman in France was scammed out of $850K after believing she was in a relationship by a fake Brad Pitt sending her scammed/fake ai pic, have u heard this story, any thoughts on it?!

Reply 1

gdunne42

Some vulnerable people are easily scammed by unscrupulous con artists. Some people are ridiculously stupid and easily separated from their money. The person scammed in this story seems to be one of the stupid ones.

Reply 2

Ciel.

Original post by Anonymous

A woman in France was scammed out of $850K after believing she was in a relationship by a fake Brad Pitt sending her scammed/fake ai pic, have u heard this story, any thoughts on it?!

honestly? i think she must be mentally vulnerable or something.

Reply 3

Old Skool Freak

Original post by Anonymous

A woman in France was scammed out of $850K after believing she was in a relationship by a fake Brad Pitt sending her scammed/fake ai pic, have u heard this story, any thoughts on it?!

Anyone can be scammed... because everyone has a weakness (a "vice" or an Achilles heel, if you like)… for some people, it's the thought of easy money; other's it's an immense fear of something terrible; others it's the need for love / companionship. All the scammer has to do is identify what the victims weakness is and exploit it... Unfortunately, once they've got their teeth into you, they can be pretty relentless; they don't care if the money was raised by a GoFundMe page for a loved one's rare ad essential cancer treatment... if they know you've got money, they'll do anything to get it. In fact, there are pretty much only two things that will stop a scammer:-

•

1) The victim realising they're being scammed and somehow putting a stop to it

•

2) When it's clear the scammer has rinsed every last penny they can from you, and it's clear they're not going to get any more.

Considering the latter scenario may well mean you've lost everything (e.g. your home, car, and ALL your material possessions), and you've literally nothing left but the clothes on your back, it's in everyone's interest to know the signs of a scam. As I said earlier, they may either present something that sounds too good to be true (we all know the rule of that lol), or something terrible is going to happen if you don't comply. Either way, they'll typically involve a sense of urgency to get you to act in their favour (once you take the time to think about these things, or discuss with someone else, the cracks soon appear).

This kind of Romance fraud has become very common since current trends and Lockdown has meant more people look online for love (one of the reasons I'm not a fan of Internet dating). Stealing someone's social media pictures is normally how they do this. It's unusual to use someone as famous as an "A" list celebrity, and is more common to use someone who has a moderate social media presence. Quite often, it's someone who's (supposedly) based overseas, and present themselves as the ideal partner (the overseas part is just an excuse to how / why a face to face meeting is not feasible). They'll start with the love-bombing, and once a connection is established, they then present a scenario where they're in some kind of financial difficulty, and need you to help them out with funds etc. (while continuing with the constant relentless "I love you, I can't live without you blah blah" façade.)

IMHO, if there's a genuine connection, most people would who meet would want to do so fairly quickly. If there's always some excuse, then alarm bells would start ringing. Another thing you can do In to help protect yourself from Romance Fraud, you can do a Reverse Image Search (most web-browsers will allow you to do this... instructions are only a Google click away), to see if the persons photos appear anywhere else on the Internet. Quite often the scammer may have several profiles using the same set of photos/ profile text.

Just to reiterate, Cliches exist for a reason:- "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is"

EDIT:-

It's these kind of assumptions that are the reason some people are reluctant to report scams... because they feel stupid and embarrassed. The scammer often relies on this, which allows them to get away with it even more. It's dismissive and naïve to assume it's only vulnerable and stupid people who can get scammed; especially as scammers are often very smart and manipulative people (if it's a business scam, they'll appear sharply dressed; if it's a building scam, they may look like a workman with a high-viz vest, hard-hat etc.) . As I said, anyone can get scammed, if the scammer can spot their weak points.

If anyone has been scammed, I would advise you to report it to someone... either the Police or the Citizens Advice Bureau. They won't be judgemental and they may not be able to recover your money... but will give you a far better idea of your rights, and how you can further protect yourself moving forward.