A UK-based businessman claims he was drugged and robbed after being tricked to lick a woman’s drug-laced breasts in a ‘Goodnight Cinderella’ scam.
The 27-year-old from Swindon says he met a glamorous woman and spent the evening drinking and chatting, but soon found himself a victim of a bizarre drugging scam known as ‘Goodnight Cinderella’, a term used in Brazil and other countries for a form of drink or contact spiking.
Victims are given powerful sedatives, often mixed into drinks, that quickly render them helpless.
In some cases, criminals allegedly apply drugs to their own skin so they are absorbed by the victim through intimate contact.
Common substances such as Rohypnol and GHB are colourless, tasteless and odourless, and can cause extreme drowsiness, confusion and memory loss within minutes.
In a chat with Daily Mail, he said: ‘We began flirting at the club and she complimented my watch. She told me she would like to come home with me, and we went back to my hotel.’
The high-earner, who was staying in a swanky hotel, says she seemed impressed with how luxurious the hotel was, but he did not pay it any mind.
He added: ‘We began engaging in sexual activity, and she brought me close to her chest to lick her breasts. I was into her, so I did, but after a few moments, I began feeling quite dizzy and disoriented.
‘The room began spinning, and I remember she was just staring at me. I must have fainted shortly after that. I was knocked out for several hours.’
When he came to, he says he felt sick and weak. ‘I couldn’t get myself to stand up properly,’ he said.
‘My legs were all wobbly. I also had a massive headache that felt more like a migraine. I also felt nauseous, but I just could not throw up. I couldn’t piece together what had happened and why I was feeling this way.’
But after sleeping off the feeling, he woke up again, and that’s when he realised what had really happened.
‘My phone was gone. And that’s when I remembered there was someone in the room with me. She was also gone.
‘I realised she had taken my watch, my phone, and some money. I had over $5,000 lying around, and it was gone. Luckily, the majority of the cash I had was in a hotel safe.’
He said he initially decided to report the incident to the police, but decided against it as he did not want the situation to be public.
Eventually, after getting a temporary replacement phone, he discussed the issue with a friend who advised him to speak to the cops.
He explained: ‘I reported everything and they began laughing at me. They clearly did not take the issue seriously and found it funny. I was disappointed and annoyed.
After a while, they asked him to go over his report again and asked him questions about his tryst with the mysterious woman.
He recalled: ‘When I repeated that she made me lick her breasts, it felt like a light bulb had gone off in their minds. That’s when they told me it was a new tactic that some women were using to rob unsuspecting men.
They told me I was not the only one who it had happened to. They said they would look into the matter and asked me to describe the woman, which I did.
‘I also told her where I met her and everything else. From the looks of things, I knew they wouldn’t bother. I even told them they could check the hotel’s CCTV.’
‘I had just one more day in the country, so I decided to forget about it.’
He said he was unable to tell his friends and family what had happened to him as he felt embarrassed by the circumstances.
He added: ‘Even to this day, not many people know about what happened. It’s just a couple of close friends.’
Although it took him several days to fully recover, he explained that the emotional impact was just as bad as the physical toll.
‘It made me weary of strangers,’ he admitted. ‘Yes, I should not have taken a stranger back to my hotel, but this should not be happening.
‘I realised I could have even died in the whole process. It was a frightening experience.’
The Goodnight Cinderella scam has been linked to robberies, sexual assaults and even deaths.
In Brazil, where the name originated, tourists have been found unconscious in hotel rooms or on the street after meeting strangers in bars and clubs.
Police in several countries have linked the scam to thefts, sexual assaults and even deaths.
This week, a British tourist recalled being robbed by three women after he took a sip of a drink they offered him in Brazil.
In a video, the engineering graduate is seen stumbling onto a beach before collapsing on the sand.
He said: ‘I took two sips [of the cocktail] and I don’t remember anything else. I tried to fight the drug.
‘By the time I got to the beach I was completely out of it.’ The women reportedly stole two mobile phones and the man later realised that £16,000 was missing from his account.
Three women -Amanda Couto Deloca, 23, Mayara Ketelyn Americo da Silva, 26, and Raiane Campos de Oliveira, 27 – have now been arrested. Oliveira is said to have been arrested 20 times for similar crimes.
He and his friend met the women at a samba dance in Rio and carried on the evening at a local bar, where he took a cocktail.
Last month, a 23-year-old escort, known as the Queen of Goodnight Cinderella, was arrested in Rio.
Francini Demétrio Sitas was accused of drugging, then robbing a French tourist. She allegedly also beat her victim.
It has been claimed that she robbed him of more than £6,680. The man recalled how she approached him with two other women. They went drinking, but he lost consciousness at some point.
He woke up in a hospital only to discover that he had multiple injuries. Police later said that this was not her first arrest.
Police chief Patrícia Alemany said: ‘She carefully picks her foreign victims. In this case, she drugged the French tourist and stole his phone and bank card. She made withdrawals totalling over 50,000 reais, and he was ultimately assaulted.
‘Francini has countless cases of this type of crime and is known in the criminal underworld as the “Queen of Goodnight, Cinderella.”‘
In June last year, two sex workers were jailed in Brazil after they drugged two tourists and then shoved them off a cliff.
Tuane Silva da Costa and Davina Cristina de Moraes Melo honed in on their victims, Chilean holidaymakers Ronald Rafael Tejeda Sobarzo and Andrés Ignacio Orellana Ruiz, in May 2023.
The women cunningly slipped date rape drugs into the men’s beers. They all then went into a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro in a taxi.
The criminal pair then stole the men’s mobile phones before pushing them off a 10ft cliff.
The Goodnight Cinderella scam is a form of spiking in which victims are secretly given powerful sedatives that leave them unconscious, disoriented or unable to resist.
They are colourless, odourless and tasteless, and can take effect within minutes.
Experts say the best way to avoid falling victim is to keep your drink in sight at all times, accept drinks only directly from bar staff and remain cautious when meeting strangers alone, particularly late at night.
Being aware of sudden dizziness, confusion or loss of coordination can also be vital, as these may be signs that a drug has been ingested.
If these symptoms appear, it is important to get to a safe place and seek medical attention immediately.
Victims are advised to inform the police as quickly as possible and request a toxicology test, as the drugs used often leave the body within hours.
Preserving potential evidence, such as glasses or clothing, and seeking CCTV footage from hotels or nearby businesses, can also be crucial in helping to catch the perpetrators.
They survived and were found the next morning on May 14, 2023. Although they were rushed to the hospital, Tejeda tragically died after three days.
He succumbed to his head injuries. Andrés was also badly hurt – he had a broken collarbone, shattered ribs and punctures to his lungs and had to be operated on.
The killer pair were arrested a year later. Although they claimed to be innocent, they were found guilty and were each ordered to serve 30 years and four months in prison.
A taxi driver was also sentenced to 25 years and three months behind bars for aiding and abetting a crime.
In November 2022, American Paul Nguyen was found dead in Medellin, Colombia, after going on a date with a woman he met on Tinder.
Upon meeting the woman, he had a place in mind for them to go, but she is said to have convinced him to go with her to another location.
He was last seen walking out of a bar with the woman at 2am. He was found dead at 5am.
His sister said authorities believe he was drugged and robbed. In recent years, Colombia has seen a surge in reports of tourists getting drugged and robbed.
Six months later, in April, it was announced that his Tinder date, Evelyn Henao, 23, Herrera and two others, César Augusto Mendoza López, 29, and Bryan Taborda Herrera, 27, had been arrested in connection with his death.
Spiking cases while on holiday have been on the rise in recent times.
There are several ways to tell if you have been drugged, including feeling more drunk than you should.
Other tell-tale signs include headaches, according to Travel Aware, struggling to see, sudden dizziness, hallucinations, paranoia, drowsiness, and memory blackouts.