The ‘astronaut’ claimed he needed the money to pay for landing fees on Earth
A woman was conned out of more than £27,000 by a man claiming to be a Russian astronaut who needed money to return to Earth.
The man found the 65-year-old Japanese woman on Instagram in June, and started uploading photos of space to his profile.
He told the woman that he worked at the International Space Station, and their relationship escalated from there.
He started talking to her on the Japanese messaging app, LINE, and told his victim that he loved her and wanted to marry her, VICE reports.
According to Japanese media, he sent her messages like “I want to start my life in Japan” and “Saying this 1,000 times won’t be enough, but I’ll keep saying it. I love you.”
But he convinced the woman that in order for him to return to Earth he needed money. He told her that this was to cover landing fees in Japan and the cost of a rocket to fly to the country from the space station.
So, believing this man would be her future husband, the woman paid him about 4.4 million yen (roughly £27,350) in five installments, from August 19 to September 5, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
However, when he kept demanding money she grew suspicious and eventually reported him to the police.
They are now investigating the case as a romance scam. This is when a criminal creates a fake online identity to gain a victim’s trust in order to get them to send them money.
These types of crimes have been on the rise in Japan. Last year, there were 14,498 of these crimes in the country, up almost 67 percent on ten years earlier when there were 8,693.
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