{"id":23550,"date":"2025-11-05T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=23550"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:17:14","slug":"love-lies-and-luxury-the-wild-saga-of-aurora-phelps-romance-scammer-extraordinaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/love-lies-and-luxury-the-wild-saga-of-aurora-phelps-romance-scammer-extraordinaire\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, Lies, and Luxury: The Wild Saga of Aurora Phelps, Romance Scammer Extraordinaire."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">LAS VEGAS \u2014 If Tinder, the world\u2019s most popular online dating app, had a \u201cmost wanted\u201d list, Aurora Phelps would be its queen. The 43-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico allegedly turned online dating into a high-stakes heist operation, complete with sedatives, stolen Apple stock, and a getaway wheelchair. Yes, a wheelchair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Dubbed a \u201cromance scam on steroids\u201d by the FBI \u2014 which sounds like a Netflix pitch waiting to happen \u2014 Phelps allegedly wooed elderly singles across borders, then robbed them blind while they were too drugged to notice. Her aliases included \u201cAurora Flores,\u201d \u201cAurora Velasco,\u201d and \u201cAurora-Alverez,\u201d which sounds less like a criminal and more like a telenovela villain with a dramatic backstory and a signature perfume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">According to investigators, Phelps didn\u2019t just ghost her victims \u2014 she allegedly ghosted them permanently. Three people died after their encounters with her, and one man was wheeled across the Mexico border like a discount Bond villain\u2019s hostage. The FBI says she used prescription sedatives to knock out her dates, then went shopping with their credit cards. Love hurts, but apparently it also buys gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"360\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 640 \/ 360;\" width=\"640\" controls src=\"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/WhatsApp-Video-2025-11-05-at-5.39.56-AM.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">One survivor from Henderson, Nevada, spent five days in a coma after what was supposed to be a romantic evening. Instead of roses and wine, he woke up to find his 3.3 million Dollars in Apple stock had vanished faster than a bad first date. Phelps allegedly tried to funnel the money into her own account, proving she had more hustle than Wall Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The FBI held a press conference that felt part crime briefing, part dating PSA. \u201cWe\u2019re asking the public to help identify more victims,\u201d said Special Agent Spencer Evans, who looked like he\u2019d just binge-watched a season of \u201cScammer Island.\u201d \u201cThis was a sinister and far-reaching scam,\u201d he added, probably wondering how someone could turn romance into a felony buffet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Sue Fahami, acting U.S. attorney for Nevada, confirmed that Phelps faces a 21-count indictment and could spend the rest of her life behind bars. That\u2019s a lot of time to reflect on her dating strategy, which apparently involved sedatives, identity theft, and luxury shopping. Cupid\u2019s arrow? More like a credit card swipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Phelps is currently in a Mexican jail, which is probably the only place she\u2019s not swiping right. Authorities are working on extradition, though she might need a new alias \u2014 perhaps \u201cAurora de la Cellblock.\u201d Meanwhile, the FBI is still piecing together her trail of heartbreak and fraud, which spans two countries and several luxury boutiques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">When asked if she had help, Evans said the investigation is ongoing. Translation: they\u2019re still trying to figure out if she had a partner-in-crime or just really good Wi-Fi. Either way, the FBI wants anyone who\u2019s been ghosted, drugged, or robbed by someone named Aurora to come forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So, if your online date offered you gold, a trip to Guadalajara, and a suspiciously strong cocktail \u2014 you might\u2019ve matched with the wrong Aurora. And if you\u2019re still single, maybe stick to dog parks and book clubs. At least there, the only thing you\u2019ll lose is your dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAS VEGAS \u2014 If Tinder, the world\u2019s most popular online dating app, had a \u201cmost wanted\u201d list, Aurora Phelps would be its queen. The 43-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico allegedly turned online dating into a high-stakes heist operation, complete with sedatives, stolen Apple stock, and a getaway wheelchair. Yes, a wheelchair. Dubbed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[448,447,449],"class_list":["post-23550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","tag-aurora-phelps","tag-fbi","tag-special-agent-spencer-evans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_5-11-2025_6957_www.bing_.com_.jpeg?fit=893%2C499&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23559,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23550\/revisions\/23559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}