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MADRID, Spain — Spanish police said Monday they had arrested five people accused of scamming two women of 325,000 euros by posing as Hollywood star Brad Pitt via online and WhatsApp messages.
The suspects made contact with the women on an internet page for fans of the Oscar-winning actor and led them to believe “they had a sentimental relationship with him,” Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.
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Posing as Pitt, the members of the gang then allegedly proposed that the women invest in various projects that did not exist.
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One woman, from the southern region of Andalusia, was defrauded of 175,000 euros ($195,000) while the other, from the northern Basque country, lost 150,000 euros.
But police, following a series of raids, were eventually able to recover 85,000 euros of the money defrauded from the two women.
‘State of depression’
“The cybercriminals, to capture the victims, had studied their social networks and made a psychological profile of them, thus discovering that both women were vulnerable people, lacking in affection and in a state of depression,” police in Andalusia said.
“They used instant messaging platforms to exchange messages and emails with the two women until they reached a point where they believed they were chatting via WhatsApp with Brad Pitt himself, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together.”
Police raided the homes of five suspects and arrested them, including their alleged leaders.
They also seized 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.” —Agence France-Presse