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In a bizarre Instagram scam, a woman got scammed out of $30000 by a scammer who pretended to be an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.
One of the negative byproducts of the digital age is the rise of online scams and now, they are getting as bizarre as possible. Why, mostly because people are too gullible for their own good. And despite authorities conducting crackdowns on scammers and releasing advisories for people, newer and more creative scams keep emerging. But in probably, one of the most bizarre incidents reported, a Japanese woman got duped out of $30000 (4.4 million yen) after she fell for the trap of a scammer who pretended to be an astronaut assigned to the International Space Station (ISS). The scam began on Instagram and then spiraled out of control almost immediately. Read on to know all about this Instagram scam.
Instagram scam: Japanese woman duped by fake astronaut
According to a report by DailyMail, a scammer setup his Instagram profile to make it look like he was a Russian astronaut assigned to the ISS. The victim, a 65-year old Japanese woman living in the Shiga prefecture met him on the Instagram app and was convinced of his fake identity after seeing multiple photos of space on his profile. The two get connected and begin talking to each other. The scammer also claims that he has limited connectivity aboard the ISS and asked her if she would want to move to Japanese conversation app Line.
After a few weeks, the scammer told the woman that he had fallen in love with her. He even proposed to marry her and told her that he wanted to start a new life with her in Japan. In one of the text messages sent to the victim, he said, “Saying this 1,000 times won’t be enough, but I’ll keep saying it. I love you”.
The woman also fell in love with the guy she thought was an ISS astronaut. Once the scammer saw that his trap was set, he made his final move. He told the woman that he required money to come back to Earth. He explained to her that he needed to pay a ‘landing fee’ in order to pay for the ship that will fly him back to Earth. Lovestruck, the victim transferred 4.4 million yen or about $30000 in a short period of time.
However, the scammer kept asking her for more and more money. Growing suspicious, she decided to report the incident to the authorities. At the moment, the case is being reported by the Japanese police. It is being suspected to be a romance scam.
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