Before we proceed, please be advised that we cannot confirm how legit the story is. Our rationale is, if it is reported in major Japanese news outlets, it should be genuine (and mostly cos’ we find it hilarious). We may continue now that we have cleared the air (hopefully!).
This scam case was pretty out-of-this-world. It literally was out-of-this-world, or at the least premise was. The story went that a 65-year-old Japanese woman was conned of 4.4 million yen (about US$30,200-ish) by a man whom she never met. The man claimed that he was a ‘Russian astronaut’ working on the International Space Station.
It is not clear how long the two got acquainted online but the man professed his love for her and said he would want to come back to Earth, meet her in Japan, and asked if she would marry her if he did that. There was, of course, a catch. There is always a catch.
The problem was, according to the man, he did not have the money for the rocket fare back to Earth. I know right. I bet you didn’t know that space agencies expect astronauts to buy their own tickets and also do not sell two-way tickets.
Anyhoo, on the pretense of purchasing a ticket back to Earth from ISS, the man asked for money. A total of 4.4 million was transferred to a designated bank account. But then the woman smell fish when he asked for more, and decided to go to the police.
To be honest, I am skeptical that this actually happened. I mean who on Earth would buy that story? Sorry for the pun but it was an opportunity too good to pass. Anywho, if you read Japanese, here’s the report [JP]. If you don’t, you can read a detailed article by Passant Rabie on Gizmodo.
Featured photo by Pixabay.
via boing boing.
