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

The hapless woman in Japan’s northern Hokkaido island met the fraudster in July on social media who claimed to be a male astronaut, a local police officer told AFP, describing the case as a “romance scam”.

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.

The woman lives alone and started developing feelings for him as their online communication progr

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