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 the case is currently being investigated 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 Leviev 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.
The international conman would wow his targets with his seemingly glamourous lifestyle of private jets, fancy clothes and luxury hotels — before tricking them into handing him over huge sums of money.
In a twisted Ponzi scheme, he would use the cash he stole from his victims to draw in his next target, lavishing them with trips abroad and tables in VIP clubs.
Japanese police are investigating the incident as a romance scam
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 added that the Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day periods are the most common times to fall victim to this type of crime.