Fake ‘Brad Pitt’ scams two women in Spain of €325,000


One woman, from the southern region of Andalusia, was defrauded of €175,000 (RM809,612) while the other, from the northern Basque Country, lost €150,000 (RM693,938). — Image by freepik

MADRID: Spanish police said Sept 23 that they had arrested five people accused of scamming two women of €325,000 (RM1.50mil) by posing as the Hollywood star Brad Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages.

The suspects made contact with the women on an Internet page for fans of the Oscar-winning actor and led them to believe “they had a sentimental relationship with him”, Spain's Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.

Posing as Pitt, the members of the gang then allegedly proposed that the women invest in various projects that did not exist.

One woman, from the southern region of Andalusia, was defrauded of €175,000 (RM809,612) while the other, from the northern Basque Country, lost €150,000 (RM693,938).

"The cybercriminals, to capture the victims, had studied their social networks and made a psychological profile of them, thus discovering that both women were two vulnerable people, lacking in affection and in a state of depression," police said.

"They also used instant messaging platforms to exchange messages and emails with the two women until they reached a point where they believed they were chatting via WhatsApp with Brad Pitt himself, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together."

Police arrested five people in the southern region of Andalusia, including the suspected leaders of the group.

They raided five homes as part of their operations, seizing several mobile phones, bank cards, two computers and a diary "in which the phrases used by the fraudsters to deceive their victims were written down".

Officers were able to recover €85,000 (RM393,247) of the money that was defrauded from the two women. – AFP

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Scam

   

Next In Tech News

Musk now says it's 'pointless' to build a $25,000 Tesla for human drivers
Google defeats lawsuit over gift card fraud
Russian court fines Apple for not deleting two podcasts, RIA reports
GlobalFoundries forecasts upbeat Q4 results on strong demand from smartphone makers
Emerson sharpens automation focus with offer for rest of AspenTech in $15 billion deal
Palantir shares surge to record as AI boom powers forecast raise
Tax fraud investigators search Netflix offices in Paris and Amsterdam, says source
Singapore's Keppel to buy Japanese AI-ready data centre
Tesla increases wages for staff at German gigafactory by 4%
Apple explores push into smart glasses with ‘Atlas’ user study

Others Also Read