“Bring me back from space so we can get married” .. A con man deceives a Japanese lover with a strange trick
Japanese media reported that a 65-year-old woman had fallen victim to a "romantic" fraud by someone who convinced her that he was a Russian cosmonaut who had fallen in love with her, and that returning from space to bond with her would require paying the costs of the return trip of $30,000.
Reports said the man got to know his 65-year-old victim on Instagram in June, where I started chatting with them.
The man uploaded to his personal account random photos of space and astronauts, claiming to work on the International Space Station, where astronauts have limited access to cellular service.
Within a short time, the relationship of the two parties developed, this time using the "Line" communication program, a Japanese messaging application, where the fraudster repeatedly said that he "loved her" in order to propose to her in marriage.
The so-called groom sent messages such as "I want to start my life in Japan" and "Saying (I love you) 1,000 times won't be enough, but I will keep saying it."
According to the news channel Asahi, he repeatedly sent her confessions of her love, stressing that he intended to marry her, and that what prevented him was returning to the land, because he did not have the money to do so.
The fake astronaut convinced the woman that there was a one-time landing fee to be paid in Japan and also the cost of the flying rocket he would bring back home.
The Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that the woman believed the man would be her future fiancé, and paid him about 4.4 million yen (about $30,000) in five payments, from August 19 to September 5.
But when his demands persisted, the woman questioned his intention and reported it to police, who are investigating the case as a "romantic scam," local media reported.
Japanese media sources say that although Japanese police do not collect data on romance scams, the number of fraud cases - which includes romance scams - rose from 8,693 in 2012 to 14,498 last year, nearly a 67 percent increase over the previous year. over 10 years.
The number of reports peaked in 2017 with 18,212 cases and appears to have declined thereafter, although police have reported a slight increase since 2020.
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