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A 65-year-old Japanese woman was scammed into sending thousands of dollars to a fraudster who claimed to be a Russian astronaut working at the International Space Station (ISS).
The con artist, who is yet to be identified by the Japanese police, told the elderly woman that he would marry her after returning to Earth but could not leave the space station due to lack of money, Kyodo News reported.
The unidentified woman, who hails from the city of Higashi-Omi in Shiga prefecture to the east of Kyoto, was tricked into sending approximately $30,238, or 4.4 million yen, between Aug. 19 and Sept. 5, according to Yahoo News.
The woman first started talking to the fraudster on a social networking site in June, after which they moved their communication to Line messaging app. The fraudster sent several messages to the woman during the period, telling her that he loved her and wanted to start a new life with her in Japan.
The con artist claimed he had poor mobile service in the space station and said it was responsible for his lack of communication several times.
“Even if I say it 1,000 times and it won’t get across, I will keep saying it. I love you,” the “astronaut” told the woman, as quoted by the outlet.
The suspect even had several pictures of space posted on his social media profile in order to trick the woman into believing he worked on the orbiting space station, NDTV said, citing TV Asahi.
The woman, who fell for his lies, sent him the money in five installments.
However, the suspect continued to ask for more money for rocket expenses and “landing fees” to Japan from space, prompting the woman to grow suspicious. She later decided to consult the police and filed a complaint.
The cops launched an investigation into the matter as an international romance scam.
In another unrelated incident, a man who posed as a surgeon in the U.S. duped more than 30 women to the tune of a total of $1.3 million through his online romance scheme between October 2016 and March 2021 in multiple states, including Florida and Georgia. The accused, Brian Wedgeworth was sentenced to nine years in prison in September for 25 counts of fraud-related charges. Court documents revealed Wedgeworth convinced the victims to send him money and buy him jewelry and watches.
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