this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025

184 points (99.5% liked)

Not The Onion

17897 readers

1455 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

Links to news stories from...
...credible sources, with...
...their original headlines, that...
...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

kescusay@lemmy.world

184

Woman loses thousands of dollars to romance scammer posing as astronaut in distress (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 1 day ago by miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/50941199

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/qQpPM

top 23 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

I gave up on dating/relationships because I realized 95% of it is just the fantasy someone has in their head of the other person. It has very little to do with reality of day to day life. Hence why so many people fall for these romance scams. It's fan fiction of themselves. No doubt this lady was really congratulating herself on scoring an 'astronaut'. Probably works in an office with plenty of viable real people, but they are too 'boring' for her to ever consider... no she 'deserves' an astronaut.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 10 points 12 hours ago

"I am a Nigerian prince lost in orbit. Please tell me your bank info so I can send you THREE MILLION DOLLARS"

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago

"Grandma, please, it's Michael. I'm in low-Earth orbit, and if I don't give the Tijuana Police $10,000 USD they're going to cut off my air." /s

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 36 points 22 hours ago

"If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of scam"

I think this highly downplays the situation

[–] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It's always those damn dirty astronauts. The Upright Citizens Brigade tried to warn us.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

Gosh dern astronauts took 'er jobs

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Weren't there astronauts trapped in space a little while back. I get it. They weren't being paid much either, so it's believable on some levels.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

... What was money going to do for them while they were still in space, though?

Also astronauts are salary. They were getting paid while stuck in space, they also get hazard pay. I would imagine being stuck in space counts as a hazard. Most of them are making 6 figures.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago

yes, and thankfully their modest payment was enough for them to be able to afford to go out the spaceship, round the corner to the oxygen store and pick up just what they needed to breathe that week.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The US astronaut begging the communist countries "help we're not unionized. We have to drink our pee and our air is reaching unsafe levels of co2. Please can you wire us funds?"

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

We have to drink our pee

Technically true. In fact, if you feel like it, you can track the current level of unrecycled piss on the ISS live on https://bsky.app/profile/iss-piss-tracker.bsky.social

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Technically we all drink our own pee and the pee of our ancestors since water goes through a "lifecycle."

[+] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world -15 points 1 day ago (6 children)

So we're making fun of the victims of con artists now?

That doesn't feel particularly cool.

[–] slothrop@lemmy.ca 64 points 1 day ago

Indeed, "I'm an astronaut in space and I'm running out of oxygen, and the Klingons are attacking me.
Please send money", should be taken seriously.

Certainly not humourous.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 52 points 1 day ago (4 children)

No, we're making fun of stupid people.

After some exchanges, the scammer one day told her he was "in space on a spaceship right now" but was "under attack and in need of oxygen," the official said.

The scammer then urged her to pay him online to help him buy oxygen, and successfully hoodwinked around 1 million yen ($6,700) out of her.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

No, we're making fun of stupid people.

Yeah, but honestly, it's sad. People who fall for romance scam do so out of desperation.

[–] eyelevel@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

There's a lot of information that we don't know about this, but I bet that there are a couple of pieces of information that you are overlooking here.

My guess is that someone who believes that another person is a trapped astronaut is probably not just "stupid," as in it's not just that they didn't go to enough schooling or they weren't paying attention to their surroundings, but they are more likely to be someone with an intellectual or cognitive impairment.

Cognitive decline and dementia are common parts of aging, and frequently affect people in their 80's, as this woman is reported to be.

Scams also frequently target people who are vulnerable, with one theory being that misspellings and grammar mistakes in written correspondence may be deliberate ways of screening out more savvy individuals.

Vulnerable people are often targeted, not just through romance scams which prey on our desires for connection and understanding, but also towards people with intellectual disabilities and impairments, or more pronounced mental health conditions.

Adding to this, many of these vulnerable people also have extremely limited financial resources; as individuals with cognitive decline, intellectual disabilities, and mental health conditions often live in poverty or are reliant on meager social service programs.

I can only imagine what portion of this woman's savings $6700 was, and what she may have been sacrificing to try to help someone who she believed was in danger.

As magnetosphere mentions above, it is possible to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, while still holding empathy and compassion for the real person who was hurt here.

[–] underline960@sh.itjust.works 15 points 23 hours ago

A Japanese octogenarian was swindled out of thousands of dollars after falling in love online with a self-described astronaut who sought her help to avert a spaceship crisis, police said Tuesday.

As someone who fell for the emotional support kangaroo, I do feel bad for a lonely 80 year old Japanese woman.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

The best part about stupid people is, if you live long enough you get to join them.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 15 points 22 hours ago

It’s possible to feel empathy for the victim while still laughing at the absurdity of the overall situation. To her, I’m sure it felt very real, in a way most of us will never understand. Reading about it, though, it defies common sense.

[–] kennedy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 day ago

okay but objectively this is low key funny

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Your English is pretty good for a Japanese octogenarian.

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 0 points 23 hours ago

Who is making fun ? literally who is ?