September 23, 2024 – 11:02 PM
Spanish police have arrested five cybercriminals who scammed two women out of €325,000 (128 million Hungarian forints) using a simple but effective method: they made them believe they were dating Brad Pitt – The Guardian writes.
The scammers contacted the victims on a Pitt fan site and lulled them into believing they were romantically involved with the Hollywood star. To do this, they studied their social activity and assessed their psychological vulnerabilities, such as lack of love and depression.
The income from all this came because Brad Pitt, who gained the trust of the women, at the same time convinced them to invest larger sums in non-existent projects. One of the Andalusian women was overpaid by a total of 175 thousand euros, and her Basque colleague by 150 thousand euros.
Police raided the gang in Andalusia, searching the five's homes and seizing mobile phones, bank cards and computers, as well as notes in which the fraudsters wrote down the phrases they used to lead their victims. In the end, they were able to recover just over a quarter of the stolen money, or 85,000 euros.
