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.

"If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of scam, and report to police," the official said.

Japan has the world's second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank, and older people frequently fall prey to various forms of organized fraud.

These include the classic "it's me" scam, where perpetrators impersonate family members in trouble to extract money from the victim.

Elderly people can also be cajoled into using ATMs to get non-existent "refunds" of their insurance premiums or pensions, police have warned.

Romance scammers drain billions of dollars from people seeking love, and their tactics have evolved in sinister ways in the online age. More than 64,000 Americans were taken for over $1 billion in romance scams in 2023 — double the $500 million just four years earlier, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

About half of people who are using dating sites say they've come across somebody who's tried to scam them, according to Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat who says tech platforms need to do a better job of protecting their users.

"No matter how advanced you think your ability to understand what's out there, they're gonna deceive so many people and we really have to get in front of this," Republican Rep. David Valadao of California told CBS News last year.

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