The “cosmonaut” scam may be the most ridiculous successful scam we’ve heard about

During our long tenure as scam busters, we’ve heard of some pretty audacious cyber crooks out there.

For example, romance scammers often claim to be soldiers stationed abroad trying to escape a country with stolen gold bullion.. There are the crooks that purport to have “compromising” footage of their victims using adult websites to try and extort money. And in the past crooks have pretended to be assassins, political figures and even Michael Jackson to try and fleece money from their targets.

And just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else comes along that raises the bar. And it appears that this time, the crooks are setting their crosshairs beyond the limits of our planet and instead visiting the black abyss of space. Well, figuratively, at least.

In one of the most audacious [successful] scams we’ve seen in a while, a woman from Japan was conned out of around 4.4 million yen (~ $30,000, £26,000) recently by a cyber-crook pretending to be a cosmonaut residing in the International Space Station.

According to the victim, the scammer – while claiming to be a Russian man in space – struck up an online relationship with her over Instagram, where the scammer was posting various photos taken from space. As the relationship blossomed, the scammer would apologise for occasional blips in communication which was down to “poor mobile reception in space”.

And as with most online romance scams, the crook was quickly professing his love for the victim which in turn was followed by the inevitable urgent requests for money.

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Romance scammers often claim they are working away – such as in foreign countries – as an excuse as to why they can’t meet their targets in real life. This, however, is the first time a scammer has claimed to be away from the planet itself.

But if pretending to be an astronaut wasn’t crazy enough, the excuse the scammer used to lure the victim into sending them money is truly out of this world. According to the victim, the our “cosmonaut” claimed they needed money for a return-ticket and rocket to get back to Earth in order to start a new life with the victim. Yes, apparently the starman was quite literally stuck in space, according to the story.

And believe it or not the fanciful tale was a success. The victim allegedly sent the scammer several hefty transactions, eager to get their new love home safely, but soon got suspicious after the requests kept coming before finally reporting him to the police as the penny began to drop.

Needless to say, the story was all a bust. Space agencies tend to take an all-inclusive approach when it comes to sending and returning astronauts to and from space, and while it is true that private citizens can now pay to go visit the International Space Station, those tickets only come as a return.

It may be easy to take these sorts of stories with fanciful humour, but there is a sinister side. It demonstrates that these types of romance scammers prey specifically on vulnerable people who are more willing to believe farfetched stories like the one spun in this example.

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As we’ve previously discussed before, the reason crooks often stick to well-known “obvious” tropes like the “Nigerian lawyer” scheme is because it allows them to quickly spot vulnerable targets while immediately eliminating the more sceptical or conversant would-be targets who would know better than to reply.

And farfetched templates like this cosmonaut example follow a similar idea. That’s to say, if you’re even going to contemplate such a ridiculous notion, then you’ve already shown that you’re potentially susceptible enough for a crook to spend time trying to scam you.

So while you’re confident yourself that you wouldn’t fall for such a scheme, also think about your most vulnerable friends or family and ensure they’re just as well equipped to spot these scams as you are.

For more information on romance scams read our post here.