Brad Pitt reminds fans he won’t ask them for money in bizarre statement after scammers target his admirers

A spokesperson for Brad Pitt has spoken out about an online scam that has seen five people arrested after scamming two women out of more than $350,000 by convincing them they were in a relationship with the actor.

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior announced in a press release proposition that five people have been arrested who had ties to a ‘criminal organization’ and who had set up fake Brads to trick women into handing over large amounts of money.

Matthew Hiltzik, a representative for the 60-year-old actor, told People that it is “appalling that scammers are taking advantage of the strong bond fans have with celebrities” and reminded supporters “not to respond to unsolicited online communications.”

“Especially from actors who are not active on social media,” they told the magazine on Wednesday.

The five individuals led the two Spanish women, whose identities have not been released, to believe that “they had become so close to the famous American actor that they thought they were in a romantic relationship with him,” the statement said.

During the investigation, police seized “numerous mobile phones, bank cards, prepaid telephone cards, two personal computers and documents, including a diary containing the phrases used by the fraudsters to deceive their victims.”

They exchanged chat messages and emails with the scammers before asking for large sums of money.

One message read, according to the Times of London: ‘My love for you is true. Feelings from my heart and forever, please forgive me and accept me… it’s because I love you and I’m deeply in love with you.’

One of the women, who lived in Biscay in the north of the country, sent more than $168,000 to the scammers on several occasions, while the other woman, from Granada, sent around $195,000.

To make matters worse, police discovered that the victim’s son from Granada had also stolen $19,000 from his mother and made three fraudulent purchases on her bank card. He was arrested, but was found to have no connection to the organized crime group.

According to the ministry, about $95,000 of the women’s money has been recovered.

Police began investigating the scammers after the Granada woman reported being scammed out of thousands of dollars in August 2023. They eventually discovered a second victim.

They discovered that the scammers contacted the women through an online fan page and convinced them to send money to invest in various “commercial projects,” the ministry said.

Investigators also discovered that the scammers had researched the women and discovered that they were “vulnerable people with emotional deficiencies and depressive states,” making them ideal targets.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement that five people linked to a “criminal organization” had been arrested who had set up fake Brads to trick women into handing over large amounts of money.

“They also used instant messaging platforms to exchange messages and emails with the two women, until it got to the point where they thought they were WhatsApping with Brad Pitt himself, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together,” the department said.

The Guardia Civil discovered that the cybercriminals had set up a “network of bank account registers with forged documents for people of African nationality, such as in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone, where they received the defrauded money.”

They also used ‘couriers’, who would accept the money for a small fee and later transfer it to other accounts for laundering.

During the investigation, ‘numerous mobile phones, bank cards, prepaid telephone cards, two personal computers and documents were seized, including a diary in which the phrases used by the fraudsters to deceive their victims were recorded’.

Two of the fraudsters were arrested in November in San Isidro de Níjar and a third in Málaga.

According to the ministry, the two leaders of the dismantled criminal organization were later arrested in Malaga.

The criminal organization is accused of fraud, money laundering, forgery of documents and gang membership.

Cybercrime is on the rise in the European Union. Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock calls it an ‘epidemic’.

According to a report, the Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment, millions of Europeans will have fallen victim to online crime by 2023.

Thanks to nearly 5,000 investigations, Europol has helped prevent the loss of almost $36 million in 2023, the report said.

Pitt isn’t the only Hollywood star who had to remind fans not to charge money. Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Hanks have done so too.

Florence Pugh, who recently admitted she is in a relationship, had to “remind” her fans via her Instagram story in August that “I don’t have any other account other than this one” and that the only official communication would come through that page.

“I am aware that some people have been asked for money/photos/communications via pages posing as me,” the 28-year-old wrote.