Five people were arrested by the Spanish Civil Guard on suspicion of having defrauded two women of 325,000 euros by impersonating American actor Brad Pitt through social media and WhatsApp messages.
According to Spanish media, the two women from Granada and Vizcaya were tricked into believing they were in a relationship with the actor in a sophisticated scam, and the case highlighted the dangers of online deception and emotional manipulation in the digital age.
The case was called “Operation Bralina” by the Civil Guard and involved an international criminal network specialising in romance fraud. The scammers presented themselves to their victims as Brad Pitt, using internet platforms and social networks to establish contact with them with the aim of convincing the victims that they were entering into a real romantic relationship with the Hollywood star.
Before approaching their victims, cybercriminals studied their social media profiles, assessed their emotional vulnerabilities and designed a personalized plan for each one. Most of the victims, in this specific case, were women over 60 years old, with complex emotional situations, which facilitated psychological manipulation.
For weeks and even months, the scammers maintained constant contact with the occasional victims through instant messaging platforms and emails, using carefully crafted phrases to gain the women’s trust, making them believe that the famous actor was in love with them. Among the most repeated phrases, which were found in one of the diaries seized during the police searches, were promises such as: “My love for you is true” or “I am deeply in love with you.”
Once they had convinced the victims of the authenticity of the relationship, they began the next phase of the plan: asking them for money for supposed investment projects.
This fake Brad Pitt asked them to make bank transfers to finance businesses and opportunities that did not exist and the victims, blinded by the promise of a future with the star, did not hesitate to transfer considerable sums. In total, the woman from Granada was scammed for 175,000 euros, while the victim from Vizcaya lost 150,000 euros.
Following the complaints from both women, the Civil Guard began an investigation that culminated in the arrest of five people, including the leaders of the organisation. The arrests took place in Malaga and Torremolinos, although the operation included other provinces such as Almeria, Madrid, Huelva and Seville.
During searches of the properties of the detainees, mobile phones, bank cards and other devices that had been used to coordinate the scam were seized.
The fraudsters did not act alone, but rather had an organised structure, as to receive the money they used “mules”, that is, people who agreed to receive the fraudulent transfers into their bank accounts in exchange for a commission. In addition, the criminals used falsified documents to open accounts in the name of people from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Of the 325,000 euros stolen from the victims, the Civil Guard managed to recover 85,000 euros, although most of the money had already been laundered or transferred to accounts abroad.
During the investigation, an additional detail was discovered, as the son of one of the victims took advantage of the situation to make three fraudulent charges with his mother’s card, stealing a total of 17,000 euros and, although this individual was not linked to the dismantled criminal organization, he was also arrested.
Source: Ambito
