Toulouse FC have apologised on their social media after they mocked a woman scammed out of her life savings by a fake Brad Pitt.
The French woman, referred to in local media as ‘Anne’, was duped by a fraudster pretending to be the Hollywood star for 18 months. During this time she was communicating online with someone that she thought was Pitt and later went onto national television to explain how she lost her life savings £681,000 to the scammer. The criminal used AI images, WhatsApp messages, and other fake social media accounts.
Anne only realised that she was being conned when she heard about the American actor’s engagement to girlfriend Ines de Ramon. The woman has been subjected to widespread ridicule and online harassment since her interview aired on Sunday. The harassment was so severe that original broadcaster TF1 removed the interview from all their platforms.
The Ligue 1 side boast the likes of form Manchester United striker Joshua King and ex Leeds United defender Charlie Richard Cresswell on their books. The club joined in on the jokes at the woman’s expense to sell tickets for their Coupe de France fixture against Stade Lavallois. The club wrote on X: “Hello Anne, Brad told us he would be at the stadium on Wednesday for Toulouse-Laval. And you?”
Toulouse came under immense criticism for the joke and later apologised on their X page. It read: “We understand that our tweet may have been misinterpreted, and we deeply apologise. We deeply regret if our words may have conveyed a negative message. Thank you for your feedback regarding this error. We are committed to exercising even greater care and discernment in the future.”