Originally published at: Woman sent $30,000 to online lover so he could fly home from the International Space Station | Boing Boing
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these poor, lonely, DUMB people. i really do feel sorry for them…up to a point. and bus fare home from the space station is one that nobody should ever fall for.
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Wow, my “space station” days are long gone.
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Even by the sociopathic standards of romance scammers this is truly scummy envelope-pushing.
after she was asked for more cash, she became distrustful and she filed a police report.
These grifters often get stopped because of their pathological greed.
There’s a level of desperation that blinds their marks to common sense. That goes double when it’s an older person who might not be as sharp as they once were.
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Our brains change as we age and we literally become more trusting. There’s a reason so many scams target the elderly. Don’t victim blame, and don’t assume you are immune to scams or would never fall for this or that one. We are all human and we are all vulnerable.
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Man, ticket prices from the ISS have really increased since the last time I searched!
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i know that scammers are very clever and use psychological tricks on their marks, especially the elderly. i would never say that i could not someday fall prey to a scammer, because they always have a new hustle working and some of them are very shrewd. that being said, “needs money to get home from the space station” is so ludicrous that i can’t even believe they tried it, let alone that someone went for it.
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Many scams sound ridiculous until they happen to you. Be careful how high your horse gets, because the fall gets pretty bad.
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There are certain groups of scammers who use techniques that seem stupid and obviously fake but are actually designed to weed out skeptical people in order to avoid wasting too much time on people who are ultimately unlikely to fall for the scam.
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I’m pretty sure space station rockets have to be paid with Apple gift cards.
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As opposed to blue origin, which only accepts Amazon credit.
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That was my first thought upon seeing this.
Poor woman.
We have a large elderly population where I am and occasionally the local paper covers scams/frauds, not quite like this, but similar. The biggest takeaway from the interviews is the shame and embarrassment the victims feel.
I hope to never fall prey to something like this, but if I do, I hope people in my orbit won’t pile on the shame.
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There are ways of going after these scum- Mark Rober puts his talents to work: Glitterbomb Trap Catches Phone Scammer (who gets arrested) - YouTube
Ridiculous. He can walk home. Gravity is free.
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pun intended? or did you space the other meaning? 
agreed though. it’s unlikely that the person’s first request was so wild. it’s usually a step by step thing and tends to involve a progressive undermining of a person’s judgement long before the actual scam takes place
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Previously:
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My parents are just the opposite. They’ve become more distrustful. They even shred sensitive and ‘financial’ mail before trashing it.
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That guy is going to be in a load of trouble when he finally comes back to earth. If I were him I would just stay up there so I wouldn’t have to go to jail.
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