ELDERLY WOMAN FALLS FOR ASTRONAUT ROMANCE SCAM: Sends $6,700 to “Buy Oxygen” for Space Emergency
Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories
Darren Marlar
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An 80-year-old Japanese woman wired thousands of dollars to a fake astronaut who claimed he was under attack in space and desperately needed money to purchase oxygen.
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#ElderlyRomanceScam #AstronautScam #JapanFraud #SeniorCitizenScam #OnlineDatingFraud #ElderlyExploitation #RomanceScamAlert #JapaneseSeniorFraud #ElderAbuse #ScamAwareness
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, weirdos. Just wanted to let you know that on the Weird Darkness YouTube channel recently, we've been having fun doing a live chat each weeknight at 10.30 p.m. Central Time. I set up the YouTube channel to premiere a video at that time, usually the podcast episode for the day, and then during the premiere, we all hang out in the YouTube live chat. Even if you've already heard that day's episode here in the podcast, you're |
| 0:21.2 | still welcome to join us for the YouTube chat. It's every weeknight at 10.30 p.m. Central |
| 0:26.0 | time. And sometimes I do it over the weekends, too, because I have no social life whatsoever. |
| 0:31.6 | You can find my channel at weirddarkness.com slash YouTube. That's weirddarkness.com |
| 0:36.3 | slash YouTube. That's weirddarkness.com slash YouTube. |
| 0:43.4 | I'm Darren Marler, and this is a Weird Darkness bonus bite. |
| 0:47.8 | The internet connects billions of people across the globe, creating opportunities for friendship, |
| 0:53.8 | romance, and, unfortunately, |
| 0:56.3 | sophisticated deception that targets the most vulnerable among us. |
| 1:00.9 | In July 2024, an 80-year-old woman living alone on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido |
| 1:06.1 | started chatting with someone on social media. The person claimed to be a male astronaut |
| 1:11.5 | currently on a mission in outer space. Their conversations continued for weeks, growing |
| 1:16.7 | more personal as the woman developed genuine feelings for this distant spacefarer. Then came |
| 1:23.1 | the crisis. The supposed astronaut sent an urgent message, claiming his spaceship was under attack. |
| 1:29.2 | He needed oxygen immediately, and somehow the only way to obtain it was through a bank |
| 1:33.9 | transfer from Earth. |
| 1:36.3 | The absurdity of the request, that an astronaut in distress would need civilian money |
| 1:41.7 | wired to purchase life support, didn't register with the woman |
| 1:45.4 | who had grown emotionally attached to her online companion. Between July and August, she |
| 1:51.6 | deposited approximately 1 million yen, about 6,700 U.S. dollars, using prepaid payment systems |
| 1:59.0 | at five different stores. |
| 2:01.4 | The scammer had instructed her to split the payments this way, a common tactic to avoid |
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