A French woman who was defrauded of €830,000 (£700,000; $850,000) by a scammer impersonating actor Brad Pitt has been subjected to huge ridicule, leading French broadcaster TF1 to withdraw a program about her.

The prime-time show, which aired on Sunday, brought national attention to Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer who believes she has been in a relationship with Pete for a year and a half.

She has since told a popular French YouTube show that she is not “mad or an idiot”: “I was just played, I admit it, and that’s why I came forward, because I’m not the only one.”

A rep for Pitt told Entertainment Weekly, “It’s horrifying that scammers are taking advantage of fans’ close ties to celebrities,” and that people should not respond to unsolicited online promotions, “especially from people who don’t have social media connections. Actors in media presence”.

Hundreds of social media users mocked Anne, who the show said had lost her life savings and had attempted suicide three times since the scam was revealed.

Netflix France published a post on Tell us he will be at the stadium on Wednesday.. What about you?”

The club has apologized for the post.

On Tuesday, TF1 said the show had been taken down after Anne’s testimony sparked a “wave of harassment” – although it can still be found online.

Anne said in the report that her ordeal began when she downloaded Instagram in February 2023, while she was still married to a wealthy entrepreneur.

She was immediately contacted by someone claiming to be Pete’s mother, Jane Etta, who told Anne that her son “needs a woman like her.”

The next day, a man claiming to be Pete contacted Anne, which sounded the alarm for Anne. “But as someone who’s not very used to social media, I really didn’t know what was happening to me,” she said.

At one point, “Brad Pitt” said he tried to send her a luxury gift, but he couldn’t pay the customs duties because his bank account was frozen Due to his divorce proceedings with actress Angelina Jolieprompting Anne to transfer 9,000 euros to the scammer.

“Like a fool, I gave in… Every time I doubted him, he managed to reassure me,” she said.

The demands for money increased when Fake Pitt told Anne he needed cash to pay for kidney cancer treatment and sent her multiple AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt in a hospital bed. “I looked for these pictures on the internet and couldn’t find them, so I thought that meant he just took these selfies of me,” she said.

Meanwhile, Anne and her husband divorced and she received €775,000 – all of which went to the scammer.

“I told myself I might be saving someone’s life,” said Anne, who is in remission from her own cancer.

Anne’s daughter, now 22, told TF1 she had been trying to “make sense” of her mother for more than a year, but her mother was too excited. “It breaks my heart to see her so naive,” she said.

When pictures of the real Brad Pitt and his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon appeared in a gossip magazine arousing Anne’s suspicions, the scammers sent her a fake news report with an AI-generated The anchor spoke of Pitt’s “exclusive relationship with a special individual.” ..Her name is Annie. “

The video temporarily comforted Anne, but when the real Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon made their relationship official in June 2024, Anne decided to end the relationship.

Anne contacted the police after a scammer tried to get more money out of her under the guise of “FBI Agent John Smith.” The investigation is currently ongoing.

The TF1 program said the events left Anne mentally shattered and she tried to take her own life three times.

“Why should I be hurt like this?” Annie said with tears streaming down her face. “These people deserve to go to hell. We need to find those crooks, I’m begging you – please help me find them.”

But in a YouTube interview on Tuesday, Anne hit back at TF1, saying the site left out details that made her repeatedly question whether she was talking to the real Brad Pitt, adding that if anyone was told, they would May fall for a scam. These are words you have never heard from your own husband. “

Anne, who now lives with a friend, said: “My whole life is a little room with some boxes in it. That’s all I have left.”

While many internet users overwhelmingly mocked Anne, there were some who stood by her.

One popular post on Couldn’t find that out.”

A column in Libération called Anne a “whistleblower”: “Today’s life is full of online traps… Advances in artificial intelligence will only make this situation worse.”