- A Japanese woman lost Rs 6 lakh after an online scammer posed as an astronaut
- The 80-year-old was convinced to send money to buy oxygen for a spaceship crisis
- Japan reported 3,326 romance scams in 2024, more than double the previous year
A Japanese woman has lost approximately Rs 6 lakh (5,000 pounds) after an online fraudster convinced her he was an astronaut who needed help to avert a spaceship crisis. The 80-year-old victim from Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, met the scammer on social media in July, who claimed to be an astronaut.
After some exchanges, the pretend-astronaut told the woman he was "in space on a spaceship right now" but was "under attack and in need of oxygen", according to a report in CBS News. He urged her to transfer money to help him buy oxygen.
The woman, who lives alone, had developed feelings for the man through the online exchanges and ended up sending the money. However, the man pocketed the money and severed all connections.
"If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of a scam, and report to police," a local police officer warned.
Japan has the world's second-oldest population, leading to increased frequency of such scams. According to the National Police Agency of Japan, 3,326 romance scams were reported in the first 11 months of 2024, more than double that in the same period in 2023.
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Romance scams
This is not the first time that such romance scams have targeted older women. In February this year, it was revealed that an Australian woman was forced to live homeless after losing over Rs 4.3 crore ($780,000) in life savings to scammers while searching for love online. The stranger she met on a dating app told her that he needed Rs 2,75,000 ($5,000) as his wallet had been stolen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The requests for money continued and by the time the victim suspected she had been scammed, she was out of Rs 1.6 crore ($300,000), having drained her self-managed super fund. She was again scammed to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore ($280,000) when another fraudster told her to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM.
