Brad Pitt Impersonators Arrested After Scamming Women
Brad Pitt didn’t do it! While meeting one of your favorite celebrities can often be a dream come true to some, getting a chance to work with your idol could be considered an opportunity that is just too good to pass up on for others, even if that means possibly forking over your hard-earned money.
That’s just what happened in Spain after police arrested five people accused of participating in a plot that scammed two women out of 325,000, equivalent to $362,000, after pretending to be Academy Award-winning actor Brad Pitt.
Group Of Scammers Weren’t Brad Pitt
On September 23, Spain’s Guardia Civil police force released a statement announcing the arrest of a small group of scammers who targeted two separate “vulnerable” women while impersonating Brad Pitt.
According to the Guardia Civil, the scammers contacted the women on a fan page dedicated to the Fight Club actor. They then identified themselves as Brad Pitt in an attempt to lead the women to believe that “they had a sentimental relationship with him,” the statement reads.
Once the group of scammers believed that they had developed a substantial amount of trust between them and the women, they then asked the victims if they would be interested in becoming producers for upcoming Brad Pitt film projects.
Exploiting Women While Pretending To Be Brad Pitt
According to the Guardia Civil, “the cybercriminals, [in order] 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,” the statement said.
Posing as Brad Pitt, the scammers aimed to exploit the vulnerability of the women who each had hopes of forming not only a professional relationship with the world famous actor, but a romantic relationship as well.
The scammers coerced the women into making a financial investment through text messages on apps such as WhatsApp.
Making Bank Transfers
The Guardia Civil alleges that the group of scammers convinced the women to make several bank transfers to a bank account that they had believed to belong to Brad Pitt. Following numerous bank transfers with little to show for their efforts, each victim eventually contacted their local police to report the actions of the scammers.
Investigators discovered that the Brad Pitt scammer group created a sprawling network of fake bank accounts using fake legal documents in a perceived attempt to avoid detection of a potential police investigation.
Police have also revealed that the group utilized a series of mules to act as a buffer between them and the fake bank accounts. Once the victims deposited their money into the accounts that they believed belonged to Brad Pitt, the mules would then launder the money into their own accounts before withdrawing.
Raided Five Homes
After obtaining enough information over the course of the investigation, police in Spain then conducted a raid of five separate homes as part of their operation, seizing several phones, bank cards, two computers, and a journal filled with “phrases used by the fraudsters to deceive their victims were written down.”
Police arrested the five people involved in the scheme, all in the southern region of Andalusia, including the people who are suspected as being the leaders of the scammer group.
Brad Pitt Scammers Stole Quite A Bit
One woman from Andalusia, in the southern region of Spain, lost 175,000 euros, or $195,000, to the scammers. The other woman, who lives in the northern Spanish Country of Basque, lost 150,000 euros, or $167,000. In the wake of the police raid, 85,000 euros, or $95,000, were recovered.
Source: The Guardian
