A spokesperson for Brad Pitt has addressed the viral story about a French woman who believed she was in a long-term relationship with the actor and was scammed out of €830,000 ($854,940, £700,000) by someone posing as him.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,” the spokesperson said in a statement obtained by E! News. “But this is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”

The story first emerged on Sunday on the French news program Seven to Eight on the TF1 channel.

The woman, a 53-year-old interior designer who identified herself as Anne, appeared on the show, and shared that she had believed that she was in an online relationship with Pitt for more than a year, and even expressed that she thought they were in love.

The relationship reportedly began in February 2023 when Anne, who was married to a wealthy entrepreneur, received a message from someone posing as Pitt’s mother, which later led to another account contacting Anne, this time claiming to be the actor himself.

They communicated for over a year and a half, Anne said.

The impersonator used fake social media profiles, WhatsApp accounts, and used AI-generated images to produce pictures that looked like selfies of Pitt and even an apparent copy of Pitt’s passport.

At one point, Anne said the person told her that he needed financial assistance for cancer treatment because his accounts had been frozen due to his divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie.

She said she received AI-generated pictures of the actor appearing in a hospital.

Anne transferred hundreds of thousands of euros to the person for medical expenses, only to realize she was scammed when she saw a photograph this summer of Pitt with his partner, Inés de Ramón.

The program said that Anne filed a police complaint over the scam.

After the show aired over the weekend, it quickly went viral online, sparking a wave of online jokes about gullibility.

As a result, on Tuesday, the channel decided to remove the episode from its replay services on its websites.

At the time of the broadcast, TF1 reported that Anne had been experiencing mental health issues, including severe depression, and had been hospitalized for treatment.