Woman loses £5,000 to online scammer pretending to be astronaut ‘stuck in space and needing oxygen’

Summary

An 80-year-old Japanese woman lost around 1 million yen (£5,000) to an online scammer who pretended to be an astronaut stranded in space and in need of oxygen. The scam occurred in July and took place through social media, where the fraudster developed a romantic relationship with the victim. The scammer convinced her to send money to help buy oxygen for his supposed spacecraft. Police in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, have identified this as a romance scam, a type of fraud that is increasing globally. In Japan, romance scams rose significantly in 2024, with 3,326 reported cases in the first 11 months of the year. The total financial losses from romance scams in Japan during that period reached ¥34.6 billion (£173.8 million).