It is thought that a Japanese woman in her sixties fell for a scam that was carried out by a person pretending to be a Russian ‘cosmonaut’ that was stuck in space.
The cosmonaut claims to be working at the International Space Station (ISS). The two people connected on Instagram early on in this year and carried on a conversation for the entirety of this year.
The Japanese woman fell head over heels in love with the con artist in no time.
The con artist gave the woman sweet words such as “even if I say it 1,000 times and it won’t get across, I will keep saying it. I love you” and “I want to start my life in Japan”.
The cosmonaut stated that he wanted to marry the woman. However, he explained that he is unable to leave the ISS until he got the funds necessary to do so.
Between August 19 and September 5, the so-called ‘cosmonaut’ successfully conned the woman into transferring him 4.4 million yen (RM140,559).
Because she was blinded by love, the woman sent the money without first conducting any kind of background check.
When the con artist asked for additional money, she realized that she had undoubtedly been taken advantage of. Eventually, the woman, who resides in Higashi-Omi, in the prefecture of Shiga, made the decision to file a police report.
Sources: TheThaiger, NextShark