Argentinian-Israeli Nico Astroga turned out to be responsible for one of the biggest lies in the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, having scammed Israelis for hundreds of thousands of shekels after claiming he was a survivor of the Supernova music festival during the October 7 massacre.
Astroga told KAN, in a story that was quickly taken down by the network, that he was a survivor of the music festival in Re’im and witnessed Hamas terrorists murder 29 of his friends at the party.
After the story was broadcast, Astroga's lie was exposed by Daniel Amram, a blogger who advocates for freedom of expression.
Astroga, a 35-year-old Argentinian resident of Beersheba, has a criminal history. Regardless, his mother is a specialist in cognitive therapy, dementia, Alzheimer's, and more.
"We have not been in contact with him for a long time. Nico doesn't live at home anymore, he lives alone," his father told Maariv. "We don't want anything to do with this story and... With all due respect, no comment. Goodbye."
He agreed to answer a limited number of questions from Maariv:
Without revealing sources, how did you come up with the story?
"I confronted him after the photo he showed to the reporter was a random photo from Facebook. It was a photo from 2016, unrelated to him. The people who appeared in it, who are supposedly 'dead,' asked me for help take down the story. This is how we found out about his history of scamming. This led to my discovery that he was not even at the party. Not only that, he hurt many people and received hundreds of thousands of shekels in cash to settle his debts. Someone generous also rented him an apartment near the [where the survivors of the massacre have been staying], because the state didn't recognize him as a survivor and refused to let him live there, and even paid his rent in advance for a year."
One of those who contributed to Astroga is entrepreneur and philanthropist Noam Lanir. Astroga reached out to him through people who wanted to help someone who supposedly lost dozens of his friends at the party. Lanir heard the story and immediately got to work. He transferred NIS 10,000 to Astroga's account; bought him a new cell phone after he showed him a smashed one; and even rented him a car so he could get around and reach the love of his life who, according to him, is in Binyamina. Lanir even went above and beyond, inviting him to his home, opening his cupboards, and giving him anything just to lift his – seemingly – depressed spirit.
A day after Astroga's appearance on KAN and news of this scandal broke, the car rental company informed Lanir that Astroga had an accident and disappeared from the scene. Attempts to locate him were in vain.
Lanir, is there any chance you will track down the scam artist?
"It's a minor issue, and we mustn't come to conclusions from it so that the case doesn't weaken my effectiveness at this time."
Do you intend to sue him?
Lanir only responded by laughing.
Despite repeated requests, Astroga did not respond. At first, before he understood what it was about, he answered requests and even asked how this reporter was doing, but after being asked pointed questions about his behavior, he stopped responding.