A middle-aged woman in Granada was convinced that she was going to marry Brad Pitt, which would have been news to Brad, of course.

Online fraudsters using a doctored photo, amongst other things, had convinced her that she was conversing with Brad Pitt, who was expressing his undying love and plans for them to marry.

Finally, disabused of this optimistic romance and firmly separated from 170,000 of her erstwhile euros, she is now going to sue those behind the ruse…

Her own lawyer, Antonio Estella Aroza, admitted that when she came to him with the case – he thought that somebody was trying to pull his leg.

The lawyer explained that she had that sort of money, not because she was rolling in it, but because she had recently come into an inheritance.

“She was convinced that she and Mr Pitt were going out together,” explained the lawyer, adding that she had even scolded ‘Brad’ for being at a party with another woman; something she had seen on TV.

It wasn’t a case of, “Ello Darlin! How about handing over 170,000 euros to yours truly,” because she did it in smaller amounts over four or five months during 2022.

Now, I am going to have to stop here and express the opinion that the victim must be a sandwich short of a picnic, not firing on all cylinders or incredibly naive. There, I’ve said it… Back to the plot!

It all started with an email that she received, inviting her to join a Brad Pitt Fan Club. She did, after all, quite like him. The fan club had a forum where fans would chat; or it was supposed to because it was fictitious and the only people on the forum were the ones who wanted her dosh.

The victim lives with her elderly mother. She is not married, has no children and is not in a relationship… other than with doting Brad Pitt, that is. Yes, it is quite sad.

Well, it wasn’t long before she was asked if she would like to write to Brad via email – she was ecstatic. Soon she and love-struck Brad were exchanging emails. He said that he was going to shoot a film in Spain. Not only that but because of her Andalusian looks there was a perfect roll for her in the film!

However, before long ‘Brad’ was asking for money, starting off with small amounts like five or six grand, working his way up to 36,000 euros.

I’m going to have to stop you there again… WTF? Seriously? Sorry, off we go again.

Yes, she was head over heels in love with Brad, who spoke perfect Spanish by the way, and he was madly besotted with her. *Sigh!*

Next came the surprising revelation from Romeo Brad saying that he was going to visit her with the intentions of asking for her hand in marriage. *Gasp!*

Incredibly, Brad never made it, and like her 170,000 euros, he had disappeared. She knew then that she had been duped (really? Only then?). But the crooks weren’t finished with her.

They decided to present themselves as detectives specialised in online fraud and that they had contacts with the FBI and the UN and assured her that they were looking into the affair and there was no need to contact the police.

However, at this point she found herself a lawyer, Antonio Estella Aroza, who has already warned her that Justice moves slowly in Spain, and even slower at the moment with the strikes going on.

Mr Aroza considers that the bank had been negligent because they should have raised the alarm of a possible money laundering operation going on, but they didn’t, so perhaps being aware that getting her money back from the tricksters was almost impossible, getting it from the bank could be a possiblility.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)