Criminals impersonated star Brad Pitt and communicated online until victims believed they were chatting, falling in love and living with the Hollywood star himself.

Hollywood star Brad Pitt impersonated to defraud in Europe

AFP on September 24 quoted Spanish police as saying that five people have been arrested for allegedly defrauding two women of a total of 325,000 euros (8.9 billion VND) by impersonating Hollywood star Brad Pitt online and via the WhatsApp messaging app.

Accordingly, the suspects contacted the women on a fan website for the Oscar-winning actor and made them believe that “they had a romantic relationship with him”.

Impersonating Brad Pitt, the group members asked the victims to invest in many “phantom” projects.

A woman in the Andalusia region was defrauded of 175,000 euros, while another in the Basque region was defrauded of 150,000 USD.

“To trick the victims, the criminals studied social media and created psychological profiles, discovering that the two women were vulnerable, emotionally unavailable and depressed,” police said.

“They also used messaging platforms to communicate and email the two women until they believed they were chatting via WhatsApp with Brad Pitt himself, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together,” police said.

Following the leads, police arrested five people in Andalusia, including the suspected ringleader of the gang.

Police searched five homes, confiscating several mobile phones, bank cards, two computers and diaries “with phrases used by the scammers to deceive the victims.”

Authorities recovered 85,000 euros in the case of the impersonation of the star Brad Pitt.