'Romance scam on steroids': FBI charges Las Vegas woman with drugging and robbing older men

UPDATED: Feb 22, 2025 23:34 IST

A woman accused of luring older men through dating apps and drugging them to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars is now facing federal charges, according to the FBI’s Las Vegas division.

According to FBI officials in Las Vegas, 43-year-old Aurora Phelps used online dating apps to target and exploit older men. She used sedatives to incapacitate at least four men, three of whom later died. She is currently in custody in Mexico and has been indicted on 21 counts, including wire fraud, identity theft, and kidnapping resulting in death, said Sue Fahami, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada. The FBI revealed that three of the men she targeted did not survive, while one narrowly escaped death after being drugged for a week.

“This is a romance scam on steroids,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division. One of the four victims, who were targeted in 2021 and 2022, awoke from a coma after Phelps gave him prescription sedatives over the course of a week, Evans added.

How the scheme worked

Authorities say Phelps meticulously gained her victims’ trust before sedating them and accessing their assets. According to the indictment:

She met one victim in July 2021 and began dating him. By November, she sent lunch to his home and allegedly laced it with a prescription sedative. The man remained “mostly unconscious” for about five days, during which Phelps stole his iPhone, iPads, driver’s license, and bank cards. She accessed his E-Trade account, attempting to sell $3.3 million worth of Apple stock, though she couldn’t withdraw the funds.

In another instance, Phelps kidnapped a victim by heavily sedating him and taking him across the US-Mexico border in a wheelchair and then to a Mexico City hotel room, where he was later found dead.

After incapacitating her victims, Phelps stole their cars, withdrew money from their bank accounts, used their credit cards to purchase luxury items and gold and even tried to access social security and retirement accounts.

Authorities believe Phelps used popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble to find her targets. The men were lonely and looking for companionship. She went on multiple dates with them before secretly drugging them. “It’s people looking for love who encountered something far more dangerous,” said Evans.

Phelps, a dual citizen of Mexico and the US, had been on the FBI’s radar for a couple of years. Phelps does not have a US-based attorney who could speak on her behalf, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said.

Several of the victims’ relatives called authorities when they were unable to contact their loved ones, Evans said. One woman was unable to reach her father the day after he went on a date with Phelps in Guadalajara, Mexico, in May 2022, according to court records. The next day Mexican police found him dead on the bathroom floor of his home. Phelps then used an account belonging to the victim to purchase a gold coin, along with other transactions, the indictment alleges.

The FBI is aware of more alleged victims in the US and Mexico, Evans said, and is making information about the case public, including suspected aliases, in hopes of identifying others who “fell victim to her scams and whose trust in her may have cost them their life.”

The FBI is also working with the Department of Justice and Mexican authorities to secure her extradition.

If convicted on all counts, Phelps could face life in prison. Her charges include:

Authorities are urging anyone who may have been targeted to come forward.

(Source: Associated Press)