New Gameshow Idea: Woman Scammed Into Sending Money to Fake Astronaut Who Was Stuck in Space, Under Attack, In Need of Oxygen Money
CBS News – 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.
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 progressed, local media including Hokkaido Broadcasting said, quoting investigative sources.
Oh wow incredible what a big old dummy how could somebody ever be gullible enough to wire money to a man claiming to be an astronaut in space under attack in need of oxygen money. I can't even believe it. What an electric idiot.
Now we've got that out of the way, I think it's high time we make scamming unsuspecting strangers into a gameshow. I've been kicking around this idea in my head for years now. There just so much potential with scams. They can be so incredibly funny. Every time a criminal pulls off a crazy one, the story make all the "national" Weird News of The Day headlines. The really good scams get their own Netflix special. Scams move the needle. It's objectively true.
The only big major glaring problem with scams is that they require a poor, innocent, unfathomably stupid, and most-likely mentally unwell victim. Unfortunately, unless you're pulling one over on some evil billionaire, you can't really get a juicy scam off in a morally appropriate way.
But what if we take scams, and GAMESHOW-IFY them. We give 10 contestants a pre-determined amount of time to run the scam of their choosing on an unsuspecting victim. We document their trails & tribulations along the way. At the end of the competition, the person who pulled off the most creative (or most profitable) scam wins the GRAND PRIZE!
At the end of the show, the victims will of course be given their money back (and then some). If Mr. Beast has taught me anything, it's that humiliating people for entertainment purposes is perfectly ethical, so long as you throw a negligible amount of your unlimited wealth at them afterwards. And as long as we bookend our episodes with a couple "RAISING SCAM AWARENESS" disclaimers, I'm sure we'll be fine.
I understand that this may be a slippery slope towards people willingly falling victim to scams in hopes that the Nigerian Prince they're talking to is actually a part of the popular game show, THE $100,000 DOLLAR SCAM (name still needs some work). But I'd be lying if I said I didn't kinda love the notion of someone being fooled into wiring "USD 10,000$" to a man who claims to have been taken hostage by a deep sea alien race, under the assumption that once he's freed, he'll pay them back tenfold using the priceless underwater space rupees he skimmed from alien's treasure chest while the guards were asleep. Just one time I'd like to see that person come out on top. Just for the absurdity of it.
And I'd prefer it if we didn't let the "victim" know that their payout was part of a gameshow. Ideally, he she would live the rest of her life believing she made $100K by helping free a deep sea alien hostage. Imagine her telling that story on a first date. The guy she's telling it would think she's insane. But then she'd break out the emails to show him the cold hard evidence, all the alien hostage correspondence, along with the massive deposit into her debit account. If her date isn't familiar with hit new gameshow THE $100,000 DOLLAR SCAM™ , his mind is going to be blown to brain aneurysm proportions.
Just something to think about for when football season is over @stoolpresidente.