Fake Cosmonaut Takes $30,000 From a Japanese Woman, Saying He Needs To Buy a Ticket To Ride Back to Earth

A fake astronaut scammed, earlier this year, a woman into sending him an ample amount of money in a phishing swindle that left the victim heartbroken and, perhaps, broke.

As Yomiuri Shimbum, a Japanese newspaper reported last week that the scammer who claimed to be a Russian cosmonaut ended up taking more than four million yen or the equivalent of approximately $30,000 from a 65-year-old Japanese woman after he claimed that he was on board the International Space Station and needed the money so he could ride back to Earth.

The gift-giver went as far as to claim he was in love with the woman and that he wanted to start a life with her in Japan, of course, provided that she shoulder the expenses for his ride back home.

It was a heartbreaking story that left the people who learned about it, wondering how someone could possibly fall for such a scheme.

Fake Cosmonaut

According to a Futurism report, the fake cosmonaut whose name stays unknown convinced the woman by name-dropping space agencies, such as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA, Japan's space agency, and the United States-based space agency, NASA.

The scammer also said to the woman that when he was out of contact for days at a time that the cellular service on board the ISS was intermittent. Although, as specified in a Gizmodo report, there is no cell service in space, and astronauts only depend on an IP phone that's connected to the internet.

Needless to say, astronauts do not need to raise funds, as well, to return to Earth as it is typically included already, in the ticket price, which can reach tens of millions of dollars easily.

Ultimately, after sending five payments in all, the woman was wise enough to report the scammer to the authorities although it is unclear if the imposter was arrested or if the victim's money was recovered and returned.

Self-Proclaimed Astronaut

The victim was convinced by the photos of space and self-proclaimed cosmonaut that uploaded on his Instagram page, not to mention the fact that he could namedrop agencies such as NASA and JAXA.

However, everything else about this story was not accurate, beginning with the fact that ISS doesn't have cell service, as mentioned earlier.

Instead, astronauts are using Space Network, ground-based antennas, and a network of communications satellites to transfer data back to Earth.

Not the First Time

This is not the first time that such scamming happened. In 2016, Boing Boing reported that a man claiming to be the first astronaut in Nigeria said that he got stuck on board a Soviet craft and needed $3 million to be able to go back to Earth.

The lesson appears rather obvious if a person says he is an astronaut and that he needs money; no one should believe him. There is no way anyone on board the space station is hurting for money that badly.

Report about the fake astronaut is shown on CyberNews's YouTube video below:

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