Woman is duped out of £27,000 by ‘Russian astronaut’ who convinced her he’d marry her if she could pay his ‘rocket landing fees’ needed to leave the International Space Station
- Unnamed 65-year-old woman sent money so he could ‘fly’ down to marry her
- Pair started chatting on Instagram before she sent the money just 8 weeks later
- He told her he loved her and that he wanted to start a new life with her in Japan
A 65-year-old woman in Japan has been scammed out of £27,350 by a man claiming to be a Russian astronaut in space who needed the money to fly back to Earth to marry her.
The pair began chatting on Instagram in June, where the man’s profile was filled with photos of space and said he was based on the International Space Station, according to TV Asahi.
The man shortly after began telling the unnamed woman that he was in love with and wanted to marry her, and that he wanted to move to Japan so they could start their new life together.
The man said he needed money for a rocket to fly to Japan to marry the unnamed woman
Between August 19 and September 5, the woman sent 4.4 million yen (£27,350) to her apparent husband-to-be after he said he needed the money to cover the cost of a rocket and landing fees to return to Earth so the pair could tie the knot.
The woman reported the space cowboy to police after she eventually grew suspicious, and that the case is currently being investigated as a romance scam.
Japanese police are investigating the incident as a romance scam
Romance scams were put in the spotlight recently following the release of The Tinder Swindler on Netflix, a documentary about scam artist Simon Leviev, who tricked women out of millions of pounds.
Between 2017 and 2019, Mr Levieve allegedly swindled several women across Europe out of over $9 million, with many taking out bank loans or credit cards to ‘loan’ him money that they would never get back.
Similar crimes are also on the rise in the UK, according to Action Fraud, which says as much as £92 million is lost to romance fraud in the UK each year. The organisation says that Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day periods the most common times to fall victim to this type of crime.
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