'Bread Pitt' Impersonators Arrested for $363,000 Scam
Two women have become victims of a fraudulent Hollywood actor who claimed he could offer them a romantic relationship. Read Full Article at RT.com
TroibNews 
Two women have fallen victim to a scammer impersonating Hollywood star Brad Pitt, who promised them a romantic relationship.
Spanish authorities have apprehended five individuals for defrauding the women out of €325,000 by posing as the Oscar-winning actor through emails and WhatsApp messages.
The suspects contacted the victims via a fan page dedicated to Pitt, convincing them that “they had a sentimental relationship with him,” according to a statement from the Guardia Civil released on Monday.
Pretending to be Pitt, the scammers allegedly urged the women to invest in non-existent projects.
One victim, from Andalusia in the south, lost €175,000, while another from the Basque Country in the north was defrauded of €150,000. Law enforcement has managed to recover €85,000 of the total amount swindled.
“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,” the statement indicated.
According to authorities, gang members engaged with the two women through instant messaging platforms, leading them to believe they were communicating directly with Pitt, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together.
The women reportedly made numerous bank transfers to the person they believed to be Pitt before realizing they had been scammed and subsequently reported the incidents to the police.
Investigators are also looking into ten additional individuals as part of their operation, named Operation Bralina, which encompasses eight different Spanish provinces.
Authorities discovered that the fraud scheme involved the establishment of a network of bank accounts created using fake identity documents.
They executed raids at five residences, confiscating 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.”
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
Spanish authorities have apprehended five individuals for defrauding the women out of €325,000 by posing as the Oscar-winning actor through emails and WhatsApp messages.
The suspects contacted the victims via a fan page dedicated to Pitt, convincing them that “they had a sentimental relationship with him,” according to a statement from the Guardia Civil released on Monday.
Pretending to be Pitt, the scammers allegedly urged the women to invest in non-existent projects.
One victim, from Andalusia in the south, lost €175,000, while another from the Basque Country in the north was defrauded of €150,000. Law enforcement has managed to recover €85,000 of the total amount swindled.
“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,” the statement indicated.
According to authorities, gang members engaged with the two women through instant messaging platforms, leading them to believe they were communicating directly with Pitt, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together.
The women reportedly made numerous bank transfers to the person they believed to be Pitt before realizing they had been scammed and subsequently reported the incidents to the police.
Investigators are also looking into ten additional individuals as part of their operation, named Operation Bralina, which encompasses eight different Spanish provinces.
Authorities discovered that the fraud scheme involved the establishment of a network of bank accounts created using fake identity documents.
They executed raids at five residences, confiscating 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.”
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
