Woman Accused of ‘Romance Scam on Steroids’ After Allegedly Drugging Older Men in Deadly Dating App Scheme

A Las Vegas woman used dating apps to lure, sedate and steal from older men in a “romance scam on steroids” that allegedly resulted in at least three deaths, according to authorities.

Aurora Phelps is in custody in Mexico and has been charged in a 21-count superseding indictment for the deadly scam, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said in a press release on Friday, Feb. 21.

Phelps’ charges include several counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and identity theft, as well as one count of kidnapping and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, Sue Fahami, the acting U.S. attorney for the district, said at a press conference the same day, per the Associated Press. 

It wasn’t immediately clear if Phelps, 43, has an attorney for the case.

Phelps’ indictment follows a two-year investigation into her alleged crimes, which span from July 2021 to December 2022, by the FBI Las Vegas Division. At the Feb. 21 news conference, Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the division, said, “This is a romance scam on steroids.”

The FBI believes that Phelps — who went by several names and has residences in Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico — used dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble and “deliberately and methodically targeted older men to drug them and steal from them,” including accessing bank, social security and retirement accounts, according to NBC News and the AP.

Her victims, Evans said, were “folks that are out looking for love that ran into something far more sinister,” per the AP.

Though the alleged scammer “primarily targeted elderly men,” she was known to target “all age groups as well as women,” the FBI said in the bulletin. Officials said there are 11 known victims of Phelps, four of whom are included in the federal indictment, per NBC News.

Three of Phelps’ victims died as a result of her scheme, officials said. One man, who was a wheelchair user, was heavily sedated and taken across the U.S.-Mexico border, and was later found dead in a hotel in Mexico City, per NBC News and the AP.

Another was found dead on the bathroom floor of his Guadalajara home, the AP reported. Police discovered him after his daughter was unable to contact him following a date with Phelps, who later used one of his accounts to purchase a gold coin, among other items, per the outlet.

The fourth victim included in Phelps’ indictment, meanwhile, ended up in a coma as a result of her sedation, but later awoke, according to NBC News and the AP.

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Phelps’ scheme, Evans said, is valued at the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a sum she then allegedly used to purchase luxury goods and other items, per NBC News and the AP. She also sold about $3.3 million of one of her victims’ Apple stock, but was unable to withdraw the money, the AP reported.

The total value of Phelps’ scheme could be more, and the FBI posted a bulletin urging any additional victims to come forward.

If convicted on all 21 counts, Phelps faces life in prison.