A French woman who revealed that she lost her life savings to scammers who were pretending to be Brad Pitt, has been on the receiving end of severe online abuse, which led to her interview being cancelled.
The woman in question, is named Anne, who told the Seven to Eight programme on TF1 French TV channel, that she believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood legend.
This led to Ann and her husband divorcing, and transferring €830,000.
Anne had received several messages from scammers posing as Brad Pitt, pretending that he needed money to pay for kidney treatment. They used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts to send messages and selfies allegedly from Pitt.
They also managed to convince the woman that Pitt's bank accounts had been frozen amid his divorce proceedings with ex wife Angelina Jolie.
Speaking to TF1, Annie said that she was initially contacted by someone pretending to be Brad Pitt's mother, who told her that "that her son needed someone like me". Following this, Annie started to use Instagram for the first time, while on a ski trip with her family in France.
Several days later, Anne received another message from these scammers, who this time pretended to be Brad Pitt himself.
"At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it's ridiculous", Annie said. "But I'm not used to social media and I didn't really understand what was happening to me".
"I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?", she added. "I've never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell".
Anne, who is a 53 year old interior decorator with mental health issues, spent close to 18 months thinking that she was communicating with Pitt. She only realised that she had been scammed, when it was revealed that Pitt was in a real life romantic relationship with girlfriend Ines de Ramon.
The interview was eventually cut by the French broadcaster after Annie became the subject of only abuse and ridicule online. It is said that she has been suffering with severe depression and had received hospital treatment.
The interview saw Anne filmed openly, sharing family photos with reporters, and went viral on Monday.
This incident saw several mocking comments and jokes posted, while TF1 have also been accused of neglecting a vulnerable person, who may not have been aware of the consequences of her interview going public.
Such comments include French football club Toulouse tweeting that: "Brad told us that he would be at the stadium on Wednesday" for their next game. The club subsequently deleted this post, before apologising.
Netflix France also wrote on social media, prompting: "four films to see with Brad Pitt (really) for free".
Following the deluge of online abuse, TF1 confirmed that they had deleted this interview.
"The story broadcast this Sunday has resulted in a wave of harassment against the witness," presenter Harry Roselmack wrote on his X account. "For the protection of victims, we have decided to withdraw it from our platforms".
