An AI-generated Brad Pitt conned a woman out of $850K. What makes people fall for celebrity dating scams?

It sounds like something out of a Lifetime movie: A famous movie star reaches out to you on the internet, and you strike up a whirlwind romance. Unfortunately for one unnamed French woman, that rom-com scenario was nothing more than a long con that cost her her life savings. According to news reports, the woman was in a yearlong online relationship with a scammer posing as actor Brad Pitt with the help of AI technology. It was only after she’d sent the scammer $850,000 — which “Pitt” purportedly needed for a kidney treatment — that the woman realized she’d been fooled.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,” a representative for the real Pitt said in a statement obtained by Variety in January. “This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”

But this woman is hardly alone in getting scammed by people posing as celebrities online. Two more women were reportedly conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a different faux-Pitt. Meanwhile, reports abound of people being duped — and losing money to — scammers impersonating stars like Keanu Reeves, Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery and Sandra Bullock, who recently spoke out about her “deep concern” surrounding these social media frauds. And with AI constantly advancing, it’s easier than ever to pretend to be someone you’re not — even a celebrity.

But even with AI, it may still seem strange to believe that a celebrity you have never met is in love with you — not to mention asking you for money. Experts, however, say a perfect storm of factors allows these con artists to operate successfully. Here’s what to know.

Why some people fall for AI dating scams

Scammers who use AI to pose as celebrities are often at an advantage over their targets because not everyone knows how far this technology goes. Research from 2021 found that people cannot reliably identify “deepfakes” — a fake video or image made using AI to convincingly misrepresent someone’s face or voice.

“AI’s pace of development is leaving AI-detection methods in the dust, and the human eye is already not enough,” Yaron Litwin, digital safety expert at Canopy, an AI-powered digital protection app, tells Yahoo Life. “Many internet users are still unaware of the advances made in AI video generation and may not recognize it when they see it.”

Plus, thanks to advancements in AI, you may not be able to use the same tried-and-true methods typically used to identify online liars — like, say, doing a reverse image search to see if it’s a match for someone else, as they did time and time again on the dating scammer show Catfish. “Scammers use AI-generated pictures and videos, which makes it harder for users to verify their identities,” Litwin says.

AI chatbots also make it possible for these scammers to communicate with several potential victims at a time, more easily homing in on a person who is vulnerable to their operation, Litwin says. When the scammer believes they have established an intimate enough connection through their conversation, they may ask for financial assistance — and they will “never agree to meet in person,” he notes.

Where celebrities come into play

Research from 2018 suggests that victims of romance scams have some traits in common: They tend to be trusting, cooperative and susceptible to persuasion, as well as more easily influenced by flattery, authority or high rewards like wealth or status.

It’s not surprising that you are more likely to be conned by a romance scammer posing as a celebrity if you have these traits — what’s more flattering than an A-list celebrity wanting to date you? But there’s another key factor too: loneliness, which drives many people to seek out connections with other people on the internet in the first place.

And for some people, making a connection with a celebrity specifically is so important to them that it transcends reason. Marisa Cohen, a marriage and family therapist and relationship expert for the dating app Hily, tells Yahoo Life that posing as a star can work in these scammers’ favor. Because people often form parasocial relationships with celebrities or public figures — meaning they develop an attachment to someone they don’t know in real life — they are likely to have a “soft spot” in terms of wanting to connect more deeply with that person.

In fact, many scammers who pose as celebrities find victims from fan pages, as was the case with two of the women conned by a fake Brad Pitt.

“As individuals become more immersed in their parasocial relationships, they may start to believe they know the celebrity personally, placing significant emotional value on the connection,” Maureen Coyle, an assistant professor of psychology at Widener University, tells Yahoo Life. “This attachment can lead them to overlook signs that someone is impersonating the celebrity.”

Coyle says this is particularly true for individuals with “lower digital literacy, who may struggle to distinguish between authentic and fake online content, making them more vulnerable to deception.”

How can we stay safe from romance fraud?

Most of us like to think that we wouldn’t be fooled by an online romance scam. But whether the person you’re chatting with claims to be actor Glen Powell or just a good-looking single on a dating site, it’s always possible to be fooled under the right circumstances.

Unfortunately, the pain of these frauds doesn’t just come from losing money, Tom Holt, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice, said in a press statement. At some point, when the victim becomes aware they’ve been scammed — or runs out of money to give the person scamming them — ”the fraudster pulls away completely from the victim, leaving the victim heartbroken and economically depleted.”

If you haven’t met your new love interest offline, here are some things you can do to be on the alert for dating scams:

• Be skeptical of a fast-moving relationship. If the person you’re chatting with is saying “I love you” right off the bat, that’s a red flag.

• Notice any avoidance of using video chat or FaceTime, which can be harder (though not impossible) to fake than text-based communication.

• Pick up on any attempts to access personal information from you ( like, say, your mother’s maiden name), which could be used to break through passwords.

• Never send money. (Brad Pitt, for example, has plenty of money.)

• Talk to your family and friends about your relationship. They can give you a gut check if things feel off.

• If you decide to meet your online partner in person, choose a public place, and make sure there are people who know your specific plans.

• For more advice, consider Meta’s guidance on avoiding romance scams.