‘Sinister’ romance scammer allegedly used dating apps to target victims she drugged and robbed, authorities say

(CNN) — An elderly Nevada man looking for love was allegedly drugged and pushed across the US border into Mexico in a wheelchair by a “sinister” scammer before being found dead in a Mexico City hotel room – one of nearly a dozen victims who fell prey to her deceit, the FBI said Friday.

Aurora Phelps, 43, a Las Vegas woman with dual citizenship in the US and Mexico, has been charged in a 21-count indictment for her alleged romance scheme, where investigators say she used online dating apps to lure and drug mainly older men to gain access to their banks, cars, social security and retirement accounts. She even sold more than $3 million in Apple stock belonging to one victim, according to the FBI’s Las Vegas field office.

Phelps, who is in custody in Mexico, has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, three counts of identity theft, one count of kidnapping and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, according to the federal indictment. The charges can carry a sentence of up to life in prison. US prosecutors say they are working on extraditing her back to the US to face these charges.

“This is technically a romance scam, but this is a romance scam on steroids,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division, said in a news conference Friday. “We have not seen one like this in recent history that’s as nefarious, as sinister.”

Three of the four victims identified in the indictment are dead, the FBI said, though the charges implicate Phelps in only one of the deaths.

One elderly Nevada man allegedly fell victim to Phelps in early November 2022 when he met her on an online dating service. When they met up at a restaurant in Las Vegas, she slipped the man medication “and other substances,” and he became lethargic and confused, the indictment alleges.

Phelps allegedly made purchases with the man’s American Express credit card without his consent while he was in a drugged state, according to the indictment. When the purchases were declined, she prompted him to authorize them by talking to American Express.

Prosecutors say Phelps then allegedly coaxed the drugged man to travel with her, pushed him across the US-Mexico border in a wheelchair and transported him to a hotel room in Mexico City, with her daughter tagging along, according to the FBI and the indictment. Authorities did not immediately explain how the group traveled hundreds of miles between the US border and Mexico City. The man was found dead in the hotel room a few hours later, Evans said.

Two of Phelps’ other alleged victims were also found dead shortly after their encounters with her, including one man who went on a date with her in the Guadalajara region of Mexico in May 2022. When his daughter tried calling him and didn’t get a response the day after the date, Mexican police were sent to his house, where they found him dead on his bathroom floor, the indictment says.

Days later, Phelps attempted to use the man’s financial accounts to make purchases, including buying a gold coin and having it mailed to her home, according to the indictment.

“Several victim family members were concerned when they could not contact their loved one,” Evans said Friday. “They didn’t know what had happened to them. They made phone calls to authorities; they’re trying to figure out where they were.”

The one living victim mentioned in the indictment survived and emerged from a five-day coma after Phelps allegedly administered large amounts of prescription sedatives to him over the course of a week, Evans said. During that time, Phelps allegedly stole his iPhone, iPads, driver’s license and bank cards, gaining access to his financial accounts, the indictment said.

Phelps also sold his Apple stock and unsuccessfully attempted to remove the money from the victim’s online brokerage account, according to the indictment.

“There may be other individuals … who fell victim to her scams and whose trust in her may have cost them their life,” Evans warned. “The FBI has become aware of multiple additional potential victims, male and female, both in the United States and Mexico, that we believe Phelps preyed upon over a period of more than three years.”

The FBI is seeking help in identifying other potential victims, who may have interacted with or been taken advantage of by Phelps, who, it says, used a long list of aliases over the years. Anyone with information about Aurora Phelps is encouraged to contact the FBI and to visit this website.

Phelps does not have a US-based attorney who could speak on her behalf, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice told the Associated Press.

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