{"id":5357,"date":"2026-01-27T04:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2026-01-27T04:56:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:56:40","slug":"we-trusted-she-stole-we-paid-the-victims-vs-aurora-phelps-in-americas-most-deceitful-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/scam\/we-trusted-she-stole-we-paid-the-victims-vs-aurora-phelps-in-americas-most-deceitful-state\/","title":{"rendered":"WE TRUSTED, SHE STOLE, WE PAID: THE VICTIMS VS. AURORA PHELPS IN AMERICA\u2019S MOST DECEITFUL STATE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They joke that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas \u2014 but for us, the victims<\/strong>, the damage didn\u2019t stay quiet. It followed us home, drained our accounts, wrecked our trust, and in some cases, cost lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We watched Nevada get branded America\u2019s most deceitful state<\/strong>, and honestly, we weren\u2019t surprised. Fraud, romance scams, identity theft, fake doctor\u2019s notes, fake IDs \u2014 it\u2019s all part of the mess we were trapped in. Even searches for cheating sites like Ashley Madison were counted while we were left picking up the pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly one in five Nevada residents openly admits to lying<\/strong>, but for us victims<\/strong>, the lies weren\u2019t harmless. They were calculated, predatory, and devastating. Nevada also ranked second in the nation for romance scams \u2014 and we know exactly why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, federal agents finally stepped in and arrested Aurora Phelps<\/strong>, a serial scammer who turned dating apps into hunting grounds. She didn\u2019t just flirt \u2014 she seduced, drugged, robbed, and erased identities<\/strong>. We were men in our 60s and 70s, targeted because we trusted, because we were alone, because we didn\u2019t expect cruelty dressed up as affection.
The FBI called it a \u201cromance scam on steroids.\u201d<\/em>
For us, it was a nightmare \u2014 one that authorities say stretched over three years<\/strong> and was linked to three deaths<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Nevada wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down in Florida, we became statistics<\/strong>, topping the nation for fraud and identity theft. One of us \u2014 a Florida mother<\/strong>, trying to protect her family \u2014 lost $15,000 in retirement savings<\/strong> after criminals used artificial intelligence<\/strong> to clone her daughter\u2019s voice. She heard her child crying on the phone. She panicked. She paid. That fear was manufactured \u2014 and it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arizona, we lost $53.7 million<\/strong> to romance scams in a single year. That\u2019s not bad luck. That\u2019s organized exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York didn\u2019t escape either. We were hit by imposter scams<\/strong>, with nearly 37,000 reports in 2024 alone<\/strong>, followed by online shopping and fake review fraud. The state ranked 26th overall, but the pain felt just as real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren\u2019t numbers.
We aren\u2019t trends.
We\u2019re victims<\/strong> \u2014 and every lie, every cloned voice, every fake romance came at our expense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They joke that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas \u2014 but for us, the victims, the damage didn\u2019t stay quiet. It followed us home, drained our accounts, wrecked our trust, and in some cases, cost lives. We watched Nevada get branded America\u2019s most deceitful state, and honestly, we weren\u2019t surprised. Fraud, romance scams, identity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,113,248,205,122,15,115,204],"tags":[118,159,109,47],"class_list":["post-5357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-scams","category-fraud","category-identity-theft","category-impersonation-scam","category-romance-scams","category-scam","category-scammer","category-voice-cloning-scam","tag-female-romance-scammmer","tag-romance-scammer","tag-scam","tag-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5360,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions\/5360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}