Brad Pitt has urged fans to be vigilant about catfishing after a scammer allegedly duped a woman out of $1.4 million pretending to be him.

The actor has responded after a 53-year-old French woman identified only as Anne claimed she was tricked into believing she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, and ended up giving most of her life savings to the poser.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence,” Pitt’s spokesperson said in a statement to E! News.

Pitt, 61, has no verified accounts on major social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram and X.

Anne, an interior designer, has been mocked online after details of her story emerged. She told French news show Sept a huit that she had lost her life’s savings and tried to take her own life three times since the scam came to light.

“I’m not used to social media. And I didn’t really understand what was happening to me,” she said, adding she wasn’t “crazy or a moron”.

“I just got played, I admit it, and that’s why I came forward, because I am not the only one,” she said.

She claimed that the person pretending to be Pitt got in touch and they starting exchanging messages. He even sent her love poems.

“There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done,” Anne said.

“We’re talking about Brad Pitt here, and I was stunned. At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”

Anne said she initially insisted the “relationship” was real even when her daughter warned her she was being scammed. According to some reports, she even left her husband.

She first handed over money to pay customs bills for luxury handbags the fake Pitt had promised her.

Later he allegedly said he needed money for cancer treatments. Anne was sent numerous AI-generated images showing Pitt in a hospital bed as “proof”.

She said the impostor told her he’d been locked out of his bank accounts due to his divorce from fellow actor Angelina Jolie.

Anne noticed she had been tricked after seeing photos of the real Pitt in public with Swiss jewellery professional Ines de Ramon. She and Pitt have been a couple for two years.

By that point she had given him about $US850,000 ($A1.4 million).

“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this? I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell,” she said.

-with AAP