A woman duped into handing over £700,000 to a scammer who used AI to pose as Brad Pitt is now suffering ‘severe depression‘, is homeless, penniless and living with a friend as she desperately tries to recover her money, it can be revealed.

The victim, known only as Anne, blames her ordeal for her troubles, her lawyer has exclusively revealed to the Daily Mail. 

Paris-based lawyer Laurène Hanna told how her client has been branded ‘dumb’, ‘naïve’ and ‘stupid’ – and been harassed so mercilessly online that she’s deleted all her social media pages.

Read the full shocking and tragic details of Anne’s predicament and the mental toll it has taken on her in the exclusive Mail+ interview here.  

Divorceee Anne tried to kill herself three times, Ms Hanna says – yet continues to face online mockery.

The victim became the target of trolls after revealing she had parted with the money to help fund what she believed was cancer treatment for the film star. 

Two months ago, Anne admitted herself to a mental health clinic where she remains today. 

Speaking this week, Ms Hanna described her case as ‘terrible’ and said she was ‘astonished’ by the reaction on social media. 

‘It’s like people are discovering only now that people get scammed,’ she said. 

‘Love scams on the internet are not new. Anne is really not the only one.

‘What my client needs is to be given some sensible advice and to be treated with dignity.’

Ms Hanna told how she is helping Anne pursue a civil case against her French bank for allowing her to make such huge money transfers to overseas accounts unchecked.

Anne, an interior designer, said the ordeal started when she received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother after sharing photos of her lavish ski trip to Tignes on Instagram.

A day later, she received a second message from an account posing as Brad Pitt, saying his mother had spoken a lot about her already.

The victim, who said she was going through a difficult period with her millionaire husband, told how she struck up an unlikely friendship with the account from February 2023, receiving poems and kind affirmations.

‘There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done,’ she said, as reported by BFMTV.

She revealed she did have her suspicions and thought the account was fake at first, but after messaging every day and receiving AI generated photos and videos of the star, she became more at ease.

Soon the blossoming relationship took a turn as the fake Brad Pitt proposed to her and overwhelmed her with the promise of fancy gifts.

The only catch was that she would need to pay customs fees to receive them. This soon added up to 9,000 euros (£7,566).

With the victim already having shown willing to part with money, the scammer went on to make more and more absurd requests.

When the victim told her ‘friend’ she was expecting a hefty divorce settlement from her husband, the scammer upped the stakes.

The Brad Pitt account appealed for help in funding urgent kidney cancer treatment, lamenting that they could not access funds due to their ongoing divorce from Angelina Jolie.

The scammer reportedly began sending AI-generated photos of Brad Pitt apparently from the confines of a hospital bed.

The two communicated by text and with photos, but the victim said he was never free for a call – a trope of online scam artists.

In sum, she parted with nearly one million euros over the course of the relationship until her suspicions were roused by seeing the actor with his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, in the press.

The victim went to the authorities with the story, who launched an investigation.

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