"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
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
188 points (99.5% liked)
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Woman loses thousands of dollars to romance scammer posing as astronaut in distress
(www.cbsnews.com)
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.
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.
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?"
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
Technically we all drink our own pee and the pee of our ancestors since water goes through a "lifecycle."
... 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.
"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
"I am a Nigerian prince lost in orbit. Please tell me your bank info so I can send you THREE MILLION DOLLARS"
It's always those damn dirty astronauts. The Upright Citizens Brigade tried to warn us.
Gosh dern astronauts took 'er jobs
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.