Real stories

They swiped right. They never came home.

These are real, publicly reported cases of people killed, drugged, kidnapped, or robbed after meeting someone on a dating app. They share a common pattern: the attacker was not identity-verified. We built Veraz Dating to help raise the bar — through verification, safety tooling, and community reporting.

Each case below is summarized from public reporting. The notes about Veraz are educational — they describe features designed to help reduce risk, not guarantees that any specific outcome would have been prevented. No safety tool can replace personal judgment.

0Fatal encounters
0Druggings & kidnappings
0%Cases with patterns verification is designed to address
🇺🇸

United States

3 documented cases

01
• Fatal2025Las Vegas, NV

Aurora Phelps — dating app serial killer

Aurora Phelps, 43, used Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble to lure at least four older men looking for companionship in Las Vegas. She went on multiple dates to build trust, then drugged them with prescription sedatives — stealing their cars, draining bank accounts, and using credit cards to buy luxury items and gold. One victim was unconscious for five days while she sold $3.3M in Apple stock from his account. In the most extreme case, she sedated a victim and smuggled him across the US-Mexico border in a wheelchair — he was later found dead in a Mexico City hotel. Three men died. The FBI called it 'a romance scam on steroids.' She faces 21 federal charges including kidnapping resulting in death.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like Veraz Dating's government-ID verification are designed to tie a real identity to every profile, making it harder for an offender to operate under aliases or start fresh after a report. A trust score that responds to community reports is designed to warn future matches earlier. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts automatically when a user stops responding, and scam-detection patterns are designed to surface unusual behavior — though no system can guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Behavior Reports
Read the full story →
02
• Survived2024Las Vegas, NV

Travis Boland — dating app drugging suspect

Travis Boland of Las Vegas met two women on Tinder and invited them to his Summerlin home. After providing them with drinks, both women became unresponsive and could not be woken up. A friend who had helped arrange the meeting became concerned when he couldn't reach them, went to the home, and found the women unconscious. Police arrived and administered Narcan to both victims. Officers also discovered a dropper with liquid in the kitchen, a suspected grow lab, and methamphetamine. Boland was charged with poisoning and drug-related offenses in May 2024.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like ID and photo verification are designed to tie a real, traceable identity to every Veraz profile — reducing the ability to operate anonymously. A trust score that reflects prior reports is designed to give other users an earlier signal. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts when a user stops responding, and the SOS button gives users one-tap emergency access during a meetup. These tools are designed to help — they cannot guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Scam Detection
Read the full story →
03
• Survived2026Miami, FL

Sarah Jean Tavano — serial burglar

Sarah Jean Tavano, 36, operated a drugging and robbery scheme in Miami targeting men she met at bars and clubs. She would befriend victims during a night out, slip a sedative into their drinks, and then burglarize their homes while they were incapacitated. Miami-Dade detectives said she had victimized so many men that investigators already knew her name before she was arrested. She was taken into custody in January 2026 and charged with multiple counts of burglary and drugging. Victims had no memory of letting her into their homes.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like ID and photo verification are designed to create a traceable record tied to a real identity from the first interaction, making throwaway accounts harder. A trust score that responds to early reports is designed to lower it across the platform. Scam detection looks for behavioral patterns consistent with predatory meetup schemes, and the SOS button gives users one-tap access to emergency help. No safety tool can guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Scam Detection
Read the full story →
🇨🇴

Colombia

4 documented cases

04
• Fatal2023Medellín, Colombia

Tou Ger Xiong, 50 years old

Tou Ger was a Hmong-American comedian and community leader from Minnesota. In December 2023, he traveled to Medellín and matched with a woman on Tinder. She lured him to a meeting point where accomplices were waiting. He was drugged, robbed, and thrown from a bridge. His body was found the next day. Three suspects were arrested and sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was one of at least 17 U.S. citizens killed in Medellín that year, many through dating app scams.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Veraz Dating requires government-ID and live-photo verification before matching, which is designed to make fake profiles much harder to create. A brand-new, unverified account would carry a low trust score visible on its profile. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts automatically when a user stops responding, and scam-detection looks for patterns commonly seen in tourist-targeting schemes. These features are designed to reduce risk — they cannot guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Scam Detection
Read the full story →
05
• Fatal2022Medellín, Colombia

Paul Nguyen, 27 years old

Paul was a 27-year-old Vietnamese-American tourist visiting Medellín in November 2022. He matched with a woman named Evelyn Henao Herrera on Tinder. After meeting for a date, Paul was drugged with clonazepam, a powerful sedative. He was found dead in his hotel room the following day. Herrera was arrested and charged with his murder. Paul's family said he had traveled to Colombia to explore the culture and practice his Spanish.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like ID verification are designed to tie a real identity to every profile, creating a traceable record. An unverified account would carry a visibly low trust score. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts when a user stops responding, and the SOS button gives users one-tap access to local emergency services during a date. These tools are designed to help reduce risk, not to guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Date Check-In✓ SOS Button
Read the full story →
06
• Survived2023Colombia

Steven Valdez, 31 years old

Steven was a 31-year-old American travel blogger who matched with a woman on Tinder while visiting Colombia. During their date, she slipped scopolamine (known locally as 'burundanga') into his drink. Scopolamine is a tasteless, odorless drug that causes total submission and memory loss. Steven lost consciousness and woke up hours later in an unfamiliar location, stripped of his phone, wallet, watch, and camera. He survived but had no memory of what happened after the drink was spiked.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like Veraz Dating's ID verification are designed to make fake profiles much harder to create. A new, unverified account would carry a visibly low trust score. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts automatically when a user stops responding, and shared location is designed to help contacts locate a user quickly. No safety tool can guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Date Check-In
Read the full story →
07
• Survived2023Colombia

Alok Shah, 36 years old

Alok was a 36-year-old Texas resident visiting Colombia when he matched with a woman on Tinder. After meeting for drinks, his vision 'went sideways': he had been drugged with scopolamine. He regained partial awareness hours later in a different location, unable to control his body. His captors had drained his bank accounts via mobile banking, stolen his passport, phone, and all valuables. He managed to reach a hospital, where doctors confirmed he had been poisoned. He spent three days recovering before he could leave Colombia.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Veraz Dating requires photo and ID verification, which is designed to make it harder for scam profiles to hide behind stolen photos. Scam detection looks for patterns common in accounts that target tourists or foreigners. The SOS button gives users one-tap access to call local emergency services, and Date Check-In is designed to share location with emergency contacts automatically when a user stops responding. These tools are designed to help — they cannot guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Scam Detection✓ SOS Button
Read the full story →
🇧🇷

Brazil

4 documented cases

08
• Fatal2023São Paulo, Brazil

Mário Marchiani, 60 years old

Mário was a 60-year-old man from São Paulo whose body was found in a state of decomposition inside a rented property in 2023. He was identified through a tattoo. Police traced the killing to Renato Teixeira da Silva, a serial killer who confessed to murdering 14 people over 16 years. Teixeira met his victims through dating apps, maintained a relationship for a period, then killed them. He used the alias 'Bruno' and preferred a 15cm blade. He targeted both men and women with 'incredible coldness,' according to investigators.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Veraz Dating's mandatory ID verification is designed to tie every profile back to one real identity, making aliases much harder. A trust score that responds to prior behavior reports is designed to lower visibly across the platform. Patterns of accounts created under different names are the kind of signal scam-detection is designed to flag. ID-linked profiles are designed to make serial offenders more traceable — they are not a guarantee of any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ Behavior Reports
Read the full story →
09
• Fatal2024Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

D'wayne Morris, 43 years old

D'wayne was a 43-year-old Minneapolis entrepreneur and president of Blue Waters Consulting. In August 2024, while visiting Rio de Janeiro, he met a woman at a bar in the Lapa neighborhood. She and an accomplice accompanied him back to his rented apartment in Copacabana. They drugged him with GHB (part of Brazil's 'Goodnight Cinderella' scheme), causing him to convulse, foam at the mouth, and die. The suspect, Letícia Clara Bento da Silva, 23, was arrested and had a criminal record of similar crimes. D'wayne's body was discovered days later.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like Veraz Dating's ID verification are designed to tie a real identity to every profile. Patterns of repeat behavior are the kind of signal a community-driven trust score and scam-detection are designed to surface earlier. Date Check-In is designed to alert emergency contacts when a user stops responding, and shared location is designed to help authorities or contacts locate a user quickly. No safety tool can guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Date Check-In✓ SOS Button
Read the full story →
10
• Survived2023São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo businessman, 43 years old

On January 1, 2023, a 43-year-old São Paulo businessman arranged a Tinder date with a woman he'd been messaging. When he arrived at the meeting point, three armed men appeared and forced him into a vehicle. He was held captive for 17 hours, tortured, and forced to unlock his banking apps. His captors drained R$1.1 million (over $220,000 USD) through PIX instant transfers, took out loans in his name, and stole three phones worth R$17,000, his documents, bank cards, and his car. He was one of hundreds. 90% of São Paulo kidnappings that year originated from dating apps.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Features like Veraz Dating's ID verification are designed to make fake profiles much harder to create or sustain. Scam detection looks for suspicious accounts that push to meet quickly. Date Check-In is designed to share real-time location with emergency contacts, and missed check-ins are designed to trigger automatic alerts so help can arrive sooner. These tools are designed to help — they cannot guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Scam Detection✓ Date Check-In
Read the full story →
11
• Survived2024Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Copacabana victim, 2024

In March 2024, a man in Rio de Janeiro arranged a Tinder date with Laura da Silva Lucas, 23. She arrived with a 14-year-old accomplice. Once inside his Copacabana apartment, they tied him to a chair with his arms behind his back, sealed his mouth with tape, and tortured him while draining his accounts. Laura and the minor were already wanted for similar crimes. In May, they targeted another man in the Cachambi neighborhood, stabbing him when he tried to escape. Laura fled to Paraguay but was tracked and arrested in August 2024.

🛡How Veraz is designed to help

Veraz Dating's ID and photo verification are designed to make fake profiles much harder to create. A new, unverified account would carry a visibly low trust score. Behavior reports from earlier victims are the kind of signal that can trigger account review or suspension, and the SOS button gives users one-tap access to local emergency services. These tools are designed to help reduce risk — they cannot guarantee any specific outcome.

✓ ID Verification✓ Trust Score✓ SOS Button
Read the full story →

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