A women residing in Shiga Prefecture swindled out of over 900,000 Yen as of late February by a man she met on Instagram, claiming to be the astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. As of todays exchange rate, this is roughly 6100 USD and that surely is a lot.
The woman apparently in her 50s living in Higashiomi City, located Shiga Prefecture Japan, received a message from the fake astronaut, saying, “Hello from the International Space Station.”
She then received a series of messages from the scammer, saying things such as, “The contract for the Internet I use on Earth has expired,” and “I discovered an asteroid containing important elements, and I need your help in transporting it.”
The woman sadly believed the scammer and sent a total of over 900,000 Yen or 6100 USD when she was asked to transfer cash for ‘planetary shipping fees,’ however, she became suspicious the day after she made the transfer and called the police, only to learn the news that the actual Satoshi Furukawa had already returned to Earth.
Japan is still a country with mostly honest people and while there are surely scams as in other parts of the world, they are much more uncommon in Japan, making people there an easier target sadly.
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