Honeypot Robberies: 9 Real Cases of Simps Getting Robbed by Women They Met Online
By Derek Kane
Part one covered what a simp actually is. Part two covered the real cost of simping, from wasted money to wrecked self-respect. This one covers the far end of that same road: the cases where simping stopped being a bad habit and became the reason a man got physically robbed, sometimes at gunpoint, by someone he met on a dating app. These are not hypothetical warnings. They are real arrests and real charges, pulled from mainstream news coverage going back several years and as recent as this year. This is the expanded edition, now with nine documented cases instead of six, more video and photo coverage of the actual news reports, and a final checklist built specifically to keep you from becoming the tenth. A second roundup, Honeypot Robberies Part 2, covers three more cases with even more video footage of the arrests themselves.
What Is a Honeypot Robbery, Exactly?
The Setup
A honeypot robbery uses attraction as the point of entry instead of a lock pick or a crowbar. Someone builds or uses a profile designed to be immediately appealing, creates just enough rapport to get a man to a specific location, whether that is a hotel room, a parking lot, an apartment, or his own front door, and then either she or waiting accomplices take his money, his property, or both. The dating app is not the crime. It is just the fastest, cheapest way to get a stranger to hand over his location, his schedule, and his trust in the same conversation.
Why Simps Make the Perfect Target
The behaviors covered in part two are exactly what makes someone easy to run this on. A man who initiates every message, agrees to secluded meeting spots without pushing back, and does not tell anyone where he is going has already removed every safeguard that would normally slow a robbery down. People running these schemes are not looking for a challenge. They are looking for exactly that profile.
Case 1: The Playboy Model Accused of Robbing a String of Wealthy Men
Adva Lavie, a Los Angeles model and social media influencer who has appeared in Playboy and Penthouse under the name Mia Ventura, is accused of using dating apps and social media to build relationships with wealthy people, then using that trust to get into their homes and walk out with cash, gold, and designer items. Prosecutors say the scheme ran from 2023 to 2025 across some of the wealthiest zip codes in Los Angeles County, including Malibu, Calabasas, Westlake Village, and Beverly Hills, and investigators believe there may be ten or more victims. Authorities said she had faced similar allegations before and was already out on bond from a separate case when this pattern was uncovered. Lavie was held to answer on six felony charges in March 2026 and faces up to eleven years and eight months in prison if convicted at trial. She has pleaded not guilty. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the case would show she used relationships built online simply as a way to get inside these homes before taking what she wanted.
Case 2: The Tinder Date That Turned Into an Armed Robbery in Alabama
Erika Rose Parr, 19, was arrested alongside James Christopher Toney after a man in Limestone County, Alabama matched with her on Tinder and drove out to a meeting spot in July 2026. According to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was confronted by a man and woman and robbed at gunpoint the moment he arrived. Deputies traced the pair a short distance from the scene and recovered stolen property and a firearm during a search of a nearby home. Both were charged with first-degree robbery. The whole case, from the 911 call to two arrests, closed within hours, which is faster than most men figure out a match has gone cold.
James Christopher Toney and Erika Rose Parr. Source: Limestone County Sheriff’s Office.
Case 3: The Casino Date That Ended at Gunpoint
A Porterville, California man met a woman using the name “Karma,” later identified as Shalena Lopez, on the app Meet Me. Their first date was a 2 a.m. pickup and a trip to a local casino, where she introduced him to a man she said was a relative. According to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, on the drive back, the “relative” produced a gun, and the victim was ordered to drive to an ATM and withdraw cash while a third man, who had also joined them at the casino, looked on. He handed over the money and was eventually let go. Lopez and one accomplice were arrested. A third man remained wanted at the time of the sheriff’s report. The entire evening, casino trip included, was the setup.
Case 4: The Motel Room Cash App Scheme
An Odessa, Texas man told police he matched with a woman using the name “Kayla” on Tinder and agreed to meet her at a Motel 6 in the middle of the night. According to an affidavit reported by Yourbasin, once he was in the room, the woman, later identified as Makiysah Blakey, told him she needed to step out to check on her kids, then had him send $500 through Cash App before his phone turned up discarded in a nearby parking lot. When police found her, she initially gave a fake name and claimed a man she would not identify had forced her into it. She was charged with aggravated robbery, and according to Odessa American court records, she pleaded guilty in March 2023 and was sentenced to eight years of probation and deferred adjudication.
Case 5: The Fake “Sonya” Profile and the High-Speed Chase
A man in Phoenix showed up to an Embassy Suites hotel room expecting to meet a woman whose Tinder profile said her name was “Sonya.” Instead, according to Fox News, he was met by a man who pointed a gun at him and forced him to hand over his phone, his ID, and his bank information, while the woman later identified as Crystal Hulsey was also present. The two suspects fled and were not caught for several days, eventually crashing into another car while driving the wrong way down a street and attempting to carjack a second vehicle before police finally took them into custody. Both were charged with armed robbery.
Case 6: The Teenage Catfishing Ring That Hit at Least 11 Men
This one was not a single date gone wrong. It was a running operation. Police in San Jose, California, say a group used fake Tinder profiles under the names “Becky” and “Victoria” to set up meetings with men, always late at night, always on secluded streets near a park. When the victim showed up expecting a date, masked accomplices would beat, rob, and sometimes carjack him instead. According to ABC News, at least eleven men were targeted over a two week span in March before four adults, including Lesly Portillo and Yadira Villarreal, were arrested and charged with robbery, carjacking, auto theft, and hit-and-run.
Case 7: The “Plenty of Fish” Apartment Trap
A Jonesboro, Georgia woman turned her own apartment into the setup location. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tatyana Pumae Green, 23, is accused of using the apps Plenty of Fish and Tagged to arrange dates with at least two different men, bringing them back to her unit at the Harmony Pines Apartments in Riverdale, and having armed accomplices show up once the men were inside. The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office says both victims were robbed at gunpoint before the men fled. Green was identified from a public tip after the sheriff’s office released her photo and was arrested at 2 a.m. following a search.
Case 8: The Date That Backfired When the Victim Pulled His Own Gun
Not every one of these ends with the victim losing. A man in Tempe, Arizona told police two women he connected with on the MeetMe app invited him to their apartment. According to 12News, once he arrived, two masked men armed with guns appeared and demanded his watch and backpack. The victim had his own handgun in the backpack, pulled it, and fired three rounds before running out of the apartment. Court records identify the four people later indicted as Ashton Halverson, Jamal Tyler, Janessa Huggins, and Breana Brunson, all facing charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault. The case is proof the setup does not always go the way it is planned, but it is also a reminder of how easily an ordinary date can turn into a shootout.
Case 9: The One Still Under Investigation Right Now
Not every case in this list is closed, and that is worth sitting with. According to PIX11 and the NYPD, two still unidentified women used a dating app to lure men in their twenties to apartments at the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn on two separate occasions in July 2025, where armed, masked men were waiting. In one incident, the victim’s Mercedes-Benz was stolen along with cash and his phone. Police released surveillance images of both women and are still asking the public for help identifying them as of this writing.
The Pattern Behind Every One of These Cases
Nine different cities, nine different setups, and almost the same shape underneath. A profile or a persona built to be immediately appealing. A meeting arranged fast, often within hours of matching, always at a time and place the victim did not control. And a moment, sometimes seconds long, where trust flipped into an ambush. None of the men in these cases were targeted because they were unusually gullible. They were targeted because they did exactly what a normal, eager match does: they showed up alone, somewhere unfamiliar, without telling anyone where they were going, because slowing down to do those things felt like an insult to a connection that felt real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are honeypot robberies actually common, or just viral news stories?
They are more common than the viral headlines suggest. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has tracked hundreds of millions of dollars in annual losses tied to romance and confidence scams, and dating app-related robberies specifically have been documented by police departments in states across the country, not just the handful of cases that go viral.
Is it only men who get targeted this way?
No, but the specific setup covered in this article, a fake or manipulated dating profile used to lure a victim into a robbery, is documented far more often with men as the victim and a woman as the lure, which is why it lines up so closely with the risks already covered in the simp series.
What is the single biggest red flag across all nine cases?
Urgency paired with a secluded location. Almost every case above involved a meeting set up fast, at night, somewhere the victim did not choose and could not easily leave.
Does using a mainstream, verified dating platform actually reduce this risk?
It does not eliminate it, but it meaningfully reduces it, because verification, photo matching, and a paper trail of the conversation all make the anonymous version of this scheme harder to run and easier to trace if something does go wrong. A platform that leans on verified profiles and a slower, more mutual match process, like AdultFriendFinder, removes a lot of the anonymity these schemes depend on in the first place.
Before Your Next Match, Run This Checklist
Every case above could have been interrupted at one of these points. Before you meet anyone new, run through this list.
- Meet in public, every time. A coffee shop, a busy restaurant, a bar with other people in it. Never a hotel room, an apartment, or a parking lot for a first meeting.
- Video call before you show up. Confirm the person on the call matches the profile you have been talking to before you agree on a time and place.
- Tell someone where you are going. Send a friend the name, address, and time before you leave, and check in when you arrive and when you leave.
- Control your own transportation. Drive yourself, and never let a date take you somewhere you cannot leave on your own terms.
- Treat urgency as a warning, not a compliment. A push to meet within hours, late at night, or somewhere isolated is exactly the pattern behind almost every case in this article.
- Leave the moment something feels off. Every victim above had a moment where the plan changed or something did not add up. Act on that instinct instead of talking yourself out of it.
None of this requires becoming paranoid or giving up on dating. It requires treating a first meeting with a stranger, no matter how many messages you have exchanged, exactly like what it is: a meeting with a stranger.
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