Woman Scammed by Man Claiming to be Astronaut Needing Money to Escape Space

Woman Scammed by Man Claiming to be Astronaut Needing Money to Escape Space.

Not that this woman deserved to be taken advantage of, but how could anyone fall for this?
According to Vice, A 65-year-old Japanese woman believed she was involved in a long-distance romance with a Russian man. But he was engaging in a widely used fraud.

He claimed that in order to move there and begin a life with her, he would need money.
But here's the catch: He claimed to be a Russian COSMONAUT who was residing in a SPACE STATION and that he was in need of cash to return to EARTH. First of...

Is that REALLY long distance? A spacecraft normally needs between 6 and 3 days to get from Earth to the International Space Station from launch to docking. Okay, so getting aboard a spacecraft does make things a little difficult. But It's not impossible! Love prevails!

Anyway, there's no way that she actually thought this guy was stuck in space. Right?!

Well... She fell for it and transferred 4.4 million yen, or slightly over $30,000, into his account. Why would an astronaut need all that money in space, you ask? The majority of the money, he claimed, was to pay the, quote, "rocket charges."

She didn't realize what was happening until he kept asking for more money. I wonder what other expenses he needed? Alien protection insurance? Phaser gun? Lightsaber? Astronaut ice cream? More Tang? At some point, she started to grow a little suspicious.

Not about the Moon landing, we all know THAT"S fake. However, this guy can't really be lost in space. Eventually, she called the police after finally realizing he might be a con artist.

They have been looking into it, but it doesn't appear that she has received any of the money back. I hope they make a Netflix series out of this...