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© KYODOWoman pays for 'Russian astronaut' to return to Earth in marriage scam
OTSU, Shiga©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Cricky
Really!!!!!, how is she able to tie her shoe laces. On a more serious note I too am stuck in space can anyone financially help me return to earth? My Bank account is 55578960 at Miziho. Thank you .
Yrral
He must of been a smooth operator,this one , will go down as the greatest one
Stephen Chin
How could this woman be so naive ! so childish ! so stupid ! and, so imbecelic ! to give this 'Russian astronaught' such a collosal amount of money?
DudeDeuce
Whether she was scammed?
Hercolobus
Any news depicting Russia as a villain seems to take headlines these days.
Laguna
She must be totally spaced out.
The Avenger
My goodness…
A new level of gullibility.
Kenshin
Strangely, however ludicrous this situation may be, why are all of you blaming the woman? While scams are frequent on various social media and dating sites this certainly is one of the most unusual request from the scammer I have ever read about.... Loneliness can lead to tragic results.
virusrex
One of the strategies these scammers use is to make up situations that would be incredible for most of the people. By doing this they don't lose time trying to scam people that will eventually become suspicious and instead they can immediately focus on the people that are naive enough to believe even these impossible scenarios.
finally rich
They walk among us
Cricky
HercolobusToday 07:23 am JST
Any news depicting Russia as a villain seems to take headlines these days.
Not really there is as far as I know a Nigerian Prince still circling the earth trapped on the International space station, it’s not reported as it’s a secret. But he needs funds and he will return said funds when he returns. Obviously fake, everybody knows the earth is flat.
Gaijinjland
I want to feel sorry for this woman but how stupid do you have to be? That is less believable than the Nigerian prince scams.
tora
No need to open an investigation since I have no doubt that that spaceship has long launched.
Ascissor
Did she first try calling the space cops?
serendipitous1
Guess you can't put a price on cosmic love.
painkiller
Woman pays for 'Russian astronaut' to return to Earth in marriage scam
I wonder if he made it back safely.
That's what this article is about.
Meiyouwenti
“Russia space travellers are called Cosmonauts, not Astronauts.
That should have been the giveaway.”
The woman and the scammer most likely communicated in Japanese, which uses the same word for both astronaut and cosmonaut: uchu-hikoshi.
Padraig Bohannan
Here’s 4 million yen…. Can I fly into space?
virusrex
No, the article is about someone falling for an impossible scam, but it makes no mention that this is done on purpose by the scammers to thin out the people so they avoid losing time trying to convince people that will not fall at the end.
Can you even quote where in the article this is mentioned?
Ricky Kaminski13
Ground control to major con.
painkiller
You should read the article, this time, in its entirety.
wallace
One way ticket would could a lot more than 4 million.
virusrex
None of such explanations were done, so you demonstrate yourself that your criticism is completely invalid, again, can you quote where this is explained or not?
starpunk
Talk about a space oddity! The Russian space program has the rubles to send him to the ISS, it has the rubles to send him back home - to Russia.
Four Wise Men said it in 1964, 'Can't Buy Me Love'. They are John, Paul, George and Richard (AKA 'Ringo').
Sven Asai
Yes, and there are many reasons for this. In my opinion you should consider just only to attack the scammers and criminals, not the promoters of those stereotypes, because they are only the result of the crimes.
starpunk
'Cosmic Love', another insipid reality TV show, this one based on astrology. The human race should've outgrown that astrology rubbish since the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1789. The discoveries of planets Neptune and Pluto should've cemented things once and for all.
noriahojanen
Can't believe that this con script was actually working. Is the suspect still at large (in outer space:)) ?
Hiro
As they say, love is blind.
nandakandamanda
That’s about US $30,000. Dang, not enough, foiled again!
The scammer will surely find someone else to turn on and flush out.
Gaijinjland
How much did that eccentric Japanese billionaire pay to fly up to the ISS? He didn’t even disclose the price but I’m guessing somewhere in the hundreds of millions (dollars). 4M yen?That would maybe pay for 0.01% of the total return cost to earth! It’s not rocket science to do the calculations! Probably a sad lonely lady with no friends or family.
kurisupisu
Was this a binary individual professing love or a single entity?
Lepyon
When asked when he would repay the funds, the Ruskie astronaut said,
"And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to pay the fine
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no
I'm not a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out your cash up here alone
Yohan
I also would like to receive a few million yen but unfortunately I am too stupid to create such tearful stories out of my fantasy and I am also not very talented to find people who are willing to give me money for my fairy tales.
Jonathan Prin
Hey everyone. Stuck on Mars because Elon's prototype rocket to fly me back cannot be duly finished. Surely his little Twitter deal backs him from doing the necessary right now.
Would you be kind to send on my martian account a few billion dollars so I could make the refill of my reservoir? Indeed, here too oxygen has seen its cost in gas station to skyrocket.
Please don't wait more than a week for the transfer, otherwise you won't see all the affection I have to give you before another 26 months !
gokai_wo_maneku
@Eastmann Do you mean Fahrenheit or Centigrade?
Seesaw7
I heard Nigerian men often do this.
Mickelicious
With apologies to Jamiroquoi:
She's just a Shiga girl, got scammed through her Galaxy.
Mocheake
She has a lot more problems than falling for a scam. Line. In space. Astronaut. Needs money. Rocket. Landing fees. It's surprising she actually had money to send the guy.
falseflagsteve
What a terribly queer affair, how could anyone fall for such a ridiculous story? Can only presume she suffers from a severe mental illness or disability.
Abe234
WOW. She was a right space cadet! Sorry she has been swindled out of her money. Sadly we will do anything for love, and money is the first thing they throw out the window.. Seriously! An astronaut! Landing fees!.
You'd think she would have thought how rich this astronaught was since he must have payed to go up in the first place. Makes the Nigerian prince scam seem.....legit. LOL
smithinjapan
Kenshin: "Strangely, however ludicrous this situation may be, why are all of you blaming the woman?"
Who's blaming her? Well, I guess people ARE blaming her for sending the money, since she did send the money. That was her choice. No one is denying she was tricked into it, and I'm sure if asked everyone would say bad on the people who tricked her for doing so, but that doesn't change the fact that she is a complete and utter fool.
Mark
Only in Japan.
JTC
Seriously ? This must be the dumbest thing I've read today.
There's this guy who tracks down these Internet scammers - most based in India... where I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the one in this news story comes from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLJZyih3Ac&feature=youtu.be
Be careful people ! Some of the scam's are getting quite convincing these days.
englisc aspyrgend
One born every minute.
I will do anything for love…..but I won’t do that!
Yrral
When you live in loveless, society,any affection, whether real or fake is warranted,I do not care how old an Japanese woman is,she need to be loved and cherish,and lots of Japanese women open themselves to be loved,it will happen
wallace
People across the planet are scammed every day of the week, many of them highly intelligent people.
JTC
For anyone married to a Woman... if you've been in a situation in which they're adamant that they're sending money to a good cause, you're left wondering whether Divorce is really, your only way out.
TokyoLiving
Nigerian scamers again??..
purple_depressed_bacon
This is about as believable as a prancing unicorn in a park. Seriously, how daft can one get to fall for this??!
Spitfire
Japan's education system is all about absorbing what the teacher says.......there is no lateral thinking allowed.
That results in things like this and the blind leading the blind.
Ken Holcomb
"Ground Control to MajorTom-skaya."
And
No. You only have to look at the US and realize millions of people are falling for this kind of scam every day.
Search "Trump's donation scam", and you'll see millions of dollars pouring into a his fake campaign coffers. Covfefe!
BritishGaijin
https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/
There are two Russian men in space right now. Both in their thirties, and both have been on the ISS for over a year straight. Does she really think one of them would be messaging her, a 65 year old woman, via LINE (an app only popular in western Asia)... without a cell phone? I just... I just can't wrap my head around this. This is truly brilliant. The only explanation I can think of is she is not mentally well. Shame no one in her family had control over her finances...
zettaiEngineer
Somewhere in Shiga Prefecture, there is a small volume containing the vacuum of space.
sir_bentley28
Wait..................................WHAT?
Either these Nigerian scammers are getting smarter or people are just getting less and less smarter!
starpunk
Cupid screwed up.
It's Major Con.
4,3,2,1.
Stealing mney, ripping off....
Floating weightless, coming ho-ooooooohhhhh,,,,,, ho-ooooooohhhhh,,,,,,
With a bag o' ducats and no wedding engagement ring.
With all due respect to David Bowie and Peter Schilling.wallace
Like buying an expensive empty bottle of vodka.