A Las Vegas The woman is accused of using online Dating applications Attit at least four older men to meet her in person, then drug them with sedatives and the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “sinister” romance schemeAccording to FBI officials in Las Vegas.
Three of the men died and Aurora Phelps43, was charged in one of their deaths, the authorities confirmed.
Phelps, who is in detention in Mexico, faces 21 charges, in particular wire fraud, mail fraud, banking fraud, identity theft, kidnapping and kidnapping leading the Death, Sue Fahami, the acting United States prosecutor for the Nevada district, said at a press conference on Friday.
These accusations can bear a life sentence and the FBI is working with the Ministry of Justice and the Mexican authorities to ensure its extradition.
“It is technically a romantic scam, but it is a romantic scam on steroids,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas division of the FBI.
“We have not seen one like that in recent history which is as harmful, as sinister,” said Evans. “These are people who seek love that has encountered something much more sinister.
“We believe that Arora Phelps has deliberately and methodically targeted elderly men to drug them and steal them.”
A screenshot of the Tinder Aurora Phelps profile.
FBI
In one of the cases, an older man would have been the victim of Phelps when he met him on an online dating application in November 2022. They met in a restaurant in Las Vegas and she slipped the medication of man “and other substances”, according to the indictment. The man became lethargic and confused, and Phelps made purchases with his American Express credit card without his consent when he was in a drug addict, the indictment alleged.
When Phelps purchases began to decline on the card, she prompted it to allow purchases by talking to American Express.
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Phelps, who has a double citizenship in the United States and Mexico, would then have kidnapped a victim by seducing him strongly and by making him cross the American-Mexican border in a wheelchair, with his present daughter, then in a hotel room From Mexico where he was found dead, according to the FBI.
Evans said that after Phelps impatient her victims, she stole their car, withdrew money into their bank accounts, used her credit cards to buy luxury and gold items and tried to access social security and retirement accounts.
According to the indictment, Phelps met a man in July 2021 and went to lunch dates with him. In November 2021, she would have ordered lunch at home and would have slipped a prescription medication.
While he was “mainly unconscious” for about five days, Phelps was able to access his accounts and stole his iPhone, iPads, driving license and bank cards, according to the indictment. She would also have reached her online account and would have sold an Apple actions worth around $ 3.3 million, but she could not withdraw this money.
Phelps has been on FBI radar for a few years, according to Evans.
Several relatives of the victims called the authorities when they could not contact their relatives, added Evans.
A woman could not reach her father the day after her appointment with Phelps in Guadalajara, Mexico, in May 2022, according to the judicial archives. The next day, Mexican police found him dead on the bathroom of his house. Phelps then used an account belonging to the victim to buy a gold coin and send it to his home, as well as other transactions, according to the indictment.
“Several members of the victims’ family were concerned when they could not contact their beloved,” Evans said on Friday. “They didn’t know what had happened to them. They made telephone calls to the authorities; They try to understand where they were.
The FBI always seeks to identify other potential victims of Phelps, which is also associated with alias Aurora Flores, Aurora Velasco and Aurora Alvarez. It is believed that about 2019 at 2022, Phelps met online individuals or exploited those she knew to steal their personal information, According to the FBI.
“Mrs. Phelps has mainly targeted elderly men; however, she was known to target all age groups as well as women,” added the FBI.
“There may be other people … who have been victims of her scams and whose self-confidence may have cost them their lives,” said Evans. “The FBI has become aware of several additional potential victims, men and women, in the United States and Mexico, that we believe that Phelps was attacked over a period of more than three years.”
If he is found guilty of all the accusations, including seven wire fraud chiefs, three chiefs of fraud per mail, six banking fraud chiefs, three identity flight chiefs and a kidnapping chief, Phelps risks a penalty maximum life imprisonment.
Anyone with information on Phelps is encouraged to contact the FBI and to fill out a form on its website.
–With files from the Associated Press
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