A Las Vegas woman with dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship ran a “romance scam on steroids” that caused the deaths of three people, FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans said during a news conference where, with the Nevada U.S. attorney’s office, he announced the unsealing of a 21-count superseding indictment against her.
Today, we are here to enlist the public’s help to identify potential victims of what we believe to be a sinister and far-reaching romance scam that ensnared multiple victims across the United States and Mexico and which resulted in the deaths of at least three U.S. citizens,” Evans said during the conference.
The Las Vegas FBI and the Nevada U.S. attorney’s offices said that federal charges — seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, three counts of identity theft and two counts of kidnapping — were brought against Aurora Phelps, 43, after she allegedly preyed upon elderly men and women, most in their 60s and 70s, for more than three years.
“We believe Phelps connected with each of them through an online dating application, so she could lure them into her confidence under false pretenses and then drug them with dangerous doses of prescription sedatives or other controlled substances,” Evans said. “Once she incapacitated her victims, Phelps stole their cars, accessed their bank and brokerage accounts to withdraw cash and used their credit cards to make a variety of purchases — including luxury retail goods and gold.” More here
Phelps owned residences in Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico, and went by several aliases, including “Aurora Flores,” “Aurora Flores-Velasco” and “Aurora-Alverez,” according to the indictment.
Phelps is currently incarcerated in Mexico, and multiple law enforcement agencies are working with Mexican authorities to have her extradited, Evans said during the news briefing.