The network of scammers posing as Brad Pitt has had a second victim. In total, between Grenada and another woman from Biscay, they have reached get 325,000 euros. In the case of the grenadine, her son also stole 17,000 euros from her. They thought the actor was madly in love, but it was a network of criminals. The Civil Guard has arrested five people and in addition, he investigated ten others. The operation was carried out in the provinces of Almeria, Malaga, Vizcaya, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Huelva and Seville.
During the investigation, it was possible to locate, block and recover 85,000 euros of the total money swindled from the two victims. Likewise, five home searches were carried out during which numerous mobile phones, bank cards, prepaid phone cards, two personal computers and documents were seized, including: an agenda in which the sentences had been noted that the scammers used to deceive their victims.
The operation began in August 2023, when a woman reported being scammed out of 175,000 euros. Following the investigation, agents discovered that there was a second victim in the province of Vizcaya who had also been scammed using the same method. They both believed that Brad Pitt had fallen madly in love with herbut in reality he was a criminal hiding behind a fake profile.
By continuing the investigation, the agents were able to verify how the criminals had contacted the two victims through an alleged Internet platform for fans of actor Brad PittThe prisoners managed to make these women believe that they had managed to establish an intimate relationship with the famous American actor, to the point that they thought they were having a romantic relationship with him.
This fake Brad Pitt offered them to invest with him in several projects, scamming 175,000 euros from the victim in Granada and 150,000 euros from the victim in Biscay. The cybercriminals, in order to capture their victims, had previously studied their social networks and asked them a psychological profilethus discovering that the two women were two vulnerable people, with emotional deficits and in a depressive state.
They used instant messaging platforms to exchange messages and emails with the two women, until they reached the point where they believed they were talk on whatsapp with Brad Pitt himself, who promised them a romantic relationship and a future together.
When the level of trust was at its highest between the scammers and the victims, the fake actor offered them They invested with him in various business projectsBoth of them made numerous money transfers until they discovered they had been scammed and reported the incident.
organized network
The Civil Guard discovered that cybercriminals had created a network of bank accounts registered with falsified documents of people of African nationality such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone in which the swindled money was received. They also used “mules” who, in exchange for a small amount of money, received the swindled money and then transferred it to other accounts to launder it.
After the investigation, the exploitation phase of this operation began in November 2023 where two people were arrested in San Isidro de Níjar (Almería) and one third individual in Malaga for receiving part of the swindled money into their bank accounts.
Between January and February 2024, the Civil Guard investigated three other individuals in Amorebieta (Vizcaya), one in Huelva, three in Seville, one in Madrid, another in Barcelona and another in Granada. Finally, they were detained in Torremolinos (Málaga) and Málaga, respectively, leaders of the dismantled criminal organization.
During the investigation, officers also discovered that the victim’s son from Granada had made three fraudulent withdrawals using his mother’s bank card and he had stolen 17,000 eurosfor which he was also arrested. Investigators rule out that the son has anything to do with the dismantled criminal organization. The organization is accused of alleged crimes of aggravated fraud, money laundering, falsification of documents and membership in a criminal gang.
