Recently, a woman suddenly became the victim of a distressing scam, losing a staggering $30K to an imposter who faked an astronaut in need of financial assistance.
This incident has captured the attention of viewers and has sparked discussions about unusual requests for money online from scammers.
The scammer fakes a Russian astronaut to approach the victim
According to reports, the woman whose identity remains secret suddenly received a message from a strange individual claiming to be a Russian astronaut stranded in space.
Initially, the scammers reached out to a 65-year-old individual residing in Higashi-Omi City, Shiga Prefecture, through Instagram in June 2022.
As reported by The Mainichi newspaper, the scammers then switched their communication to the Japanese chatting app called Line to contact the victim more easily.
During their conversations, the imposter claimed to be an astronaut working on the International Space Station.
The imposter tries to gain the victim's belief by expressing his love for her
He frauded the victim by expressing a desire to establish a new life in Japan and confessing his love for her.
In messages sent to her, he repeatedly stated his intentions of starting a life in Japan and continuously insisted on loving the woman.
The imposter even emphasized that he would marry her as soon as he returned to Earth.
However, the scammer convinced her that he needed funds to cover a "landing fee" and return safely to Earth.
Believing the story, the woman willingly transferred a total of $30,000 to the scammer's account without any doubt.
Despite the huge amount of money that she transferred to the 'fake' astronaut, the person continued to require another fund leading the woman to become suspicious and immediately report to the police.
This is not the first time scams involving astronauts happened.
In 2016, there was an email scam in circulation where an individual posed as the cousin of Nigeria's first astronaut, Abacha Tunde.
According to the fabricated story, Tunde was allegedly abandoned on a Soviet space station following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The email stated that Tunde was in good spirits but wanted to come back home.
The scam email further claimed that Tunde was still receiving payments for his long period of service, totaling more than $15 million.
However, to access these funds and facilitate his return to Earth, a significant amount of money was required.
The scammer offered victims the chance to receive 20 percent of the astronaut's fortune if they paid $3 million.
Naturally, the entire story turned out to be a scam.
The person named Abacha Tunde doesn't actually exist, and Nigeria has never had any astronauts.
