Trouble in spaceship? Fake astronaut swindles $6,700 out of elderly Japanese woman

A Japanese octogenarian was scammed out of thousands of dollars by a fake astronaut after she fell in love with him. The two met online when the self-described astronaut sought her help to avert a spaceship crisis, the police said on Tuesday (Sep 2). The victim from the country’s northern Hokkaido island met with the fraudster in July on social media and claimed to be a male astronaut.

‘Romance scam’

A local police officer described the case as a “romance scam”. After some exchanges following their meeting on social media, the scammer told her that he was “in space on a spaceship right now” but was “under attack and in need of oxygen”. He further urged the woman to pay him online to help him buy oxygen. He managed to swindle around 1 million yen ($6,700) out of her.

The woman, who lives alone, started developing feelings for him as they talked online, local media reported, citing investigative sources.

The official urged people to remain cautious of online scams, saying, “If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of scam, and report to police.”

According to the World Bank, Japan is home to the second-oldest population in the world after Monaco. Older people are more prone to falling prey to different forms of organised fraud. These scams include the “it’s me” scam, in which the scammers pretend to be family members in trouble and ask money from victims to “help” them out of their situation. The police further warned elderly people of being scammed into using ATMs by fraudsters to get non-existent “refunds” of their insurance premiums or pensions.