A retired woman from Brittany thought she was having a private conversation with her favorite TV host, fell in love, and then saved him from a serious illness. However, behind the screen, it was not actually Frédéric Lopez, but a seasoned scammer, known as a “brouteur.” This story was revealed in a report by TF1, showing the mix of emotions, loneliness, and digital cunning that led to trapping this elderly woman.
In “Abuse of Weakness: The Price of Trust,” viewers learned about the journey of 82-year-old Marie-Paule, who lived in isolation on a farm near Morlaix. Very active on social media, she lost a total of 65,000 euros, first to a fake American doctor, and then to someone pretending to be the host of “Un dimanche à la campagne.” The host eventually decided to speak to her directly.
Before being contacted by the fake profile of the TV host, Marie-Paule had been communicating for years with someone named “Michael” or “Mickael Williams,” a purported widowed surgeon in Boston. Over time, she had sent him around 60,000 euros. After a second person claiming to be the real Frédéric Lopez appeared, she felt finally loved and recognized.
The fake TV host told her he had lung cancer and needed money. Touched by this revelation, Marie-Paule explained, “When he told me he had lung cancer… My brother died of lung cancer.” She then sent him 5,000 euros. Convinced she was in two parallel romances, she declared, “Both Michael and Frédéric want to marry me.”
To help her realize the deception, the team behind the report contacted the real host. In a specially recorded video, he first reassured her about his health and then clarified that he never asked for money and never would. Upon seeing the message, Marie-Paule understood that she had been manipulated for years by several individuals. Despite the loss, she chose not to file a complaint and now lives under guardianship, seeking help from a psychologist to work on her relationship with solitude, social media, and the virtual interactions that had become central in her daily life.
The case of Marie-Paule is not isolated. Another woman, Marie Josée, in her nineties, was also seduced by a scammer pretending to be the host before traveling to meet him in Ivory Coast, causing distress to her family who denounced a “romance scam.” In this case, identity theft led to nearly 100,000 euros in losses. In light of these repeated incidents, Frédéric Lopez had already warned that he would “NEVER ask for money for anything.” Overseas, a woman in her fifties named Anne was also deceived by a fake Brad Pitt, as reported on “Sept à Huit.” Scammers now exploit artificial intelligence to create increasingly realistic fake profiles.
These methods are part of a broader wave of online scams: fraud has affected over 400,000 people in France in 2023, with an annual increase of 7.3% since 2016, according to the Ministry of the Interior. To reduce the risks of “romance scams,” certain warning signs should be noted:
– A celebrity or stranger who professes love quickly and talks about marriage. – Requests for money for a serious illness, accident, or complicated trip. – A profile that refuses video calls and never suggests a real meeting. – An unverified account that does not link to the official channels of the public figure.
