The perpetrators of romance scams usually claim that they are soldiers stationed in Africa, but a cosmonaut who is currently on the ISS and needs money to return to Earth? This is really crazy!
The cosmonaut in love
Once upon a time there was a lone cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS). He contacted a 65-year-old Japanese woman via Instagram on June 28th. The two maintained intensive contact, and the Russian soon confessed his love for the Japanese woman.
Unfortunately, the two were unable to video chat because cell phone reception on the ISS was very poor. But he wants to return to Earth as quickly as possible to marry the Japanese woman!
There was just one problem: the space pilot didn't have enough money to fly back to Earth, and no Uber rocket would take him without money. The Japanese woman also understood this and sent him a total of 4.4 million yen (around 31,000 euros) between August 19th and September 5th.
Of course not a real cosmonaut!
According to her own statements, the Japanese woman was fascinated by the alleged cosmonaut's Instagram page, where he posted images from space and mentioned space agencies such as NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), which made him seem credible to her.
But after the fifth money payment, the woman became suspicious and contacted the police, who informed her that it was a fraudulent method, a so-called romance scam.
There is no cell phone reception on the ISS!
Just in case, if you also have contact with an alleged cosmonaut or astronaut on the ISS:
There is no cell phone reception on the ISS. The crew of the ISS certainly has better things to do than scroll through Instagram.
Instead, the astronauts use the so-called Space Network , a network of communications satellites and ground-based antennas to transmit data to Earth. Space agencies like NASA pay around $50-55 million to bring one of their astronauts to the ISS - and that includes the cost of the return flight!
Conclusion
As “amusing” as the story surrounding the fake cosmonaut is (the Japanese woman certainly found it less funny), one particular factor is also worrying: a romance scammer built up an entire Instagram existence in order to get victims, which shows that their criminal energy is not decreasing.
Article image: Pixabay
Sources:
Yomiuri Shinbun , Gizmodo
Also interesting: A woman filed a police report over the weekend about a marriage scam.
– Tinder: Love scammer steals trust
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )