A Japanese woman has allegedly been scammed by a man claiming to be a ‘Russian astronaut’.
According to reports, the man asked her for money to pay for landing fees to return to earth.
The scam began back in June when the man, claiming to be a Russian astronaut, found the Instagram profile of a sixty-five-year-old Japanese woman.
On his fake Instagram, he claimed to be working at the International Space Station and uploaded several random photos of outer space.
After talking for a short while on the social media site, it didn’t take long for the scammer to confess his ‘feelings’ for the poor victim.
The pair began talking more frequently on a Japanese messaging app, where he took things to another level and revealed he wanted to marry her when he returned to earth.
According to news outlet TV Asahi, some of the messages he wrote said: “I want to start my life in Japan” and “Saying this 1,000 times won’t be enough, but I’ll keep saying it. I love you.”
However, for them to get married, he obviously needed to get back to Earth, and that’s where things get even more shocking…
The man asked his ‘ bride-to-be’ for money to pay landing fees and a rocket to get to Japan once he got to Earth.
Shockingly, according to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, the woman paid him a whopping 4.4 million yen (roughly $30,000) over the course of a few weeks.
However, after he continued to press her for money, she got suspicious and reported him to the police, who are now investigating the incident.
It might come as a surprise, but fraud cases such as romance scams are on the rise in Japan, with reports going from 8,693 in 2012 to 14,498 last year according to Vice.