Federal agents say a Brookline woman masterminded a scheme to defraud hundreds of wedding-industry exhibitors into signing up for a bogus Boston bridal show that never took place, spending their money instead on herself.

In a home she rented on Fernhill Avenue, Karen Tucker and an accomplice who was not charged cheated vendors out of thousands of dollars by advertising the phony bridal show and collecting fees, a scam FBI agents say she pulled in at least five other cities.

Ms. Tucker, 47, was charged Tuesday with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and appeared briefly in federal court.

In Ms. Tucker's most striking ruse, she and her unnamed co-conspirator used aliases and posed as a representative of a fake events promotion business, The Boston 411, then convinced the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority they would hold a major bridal expo at Boston's Hynes Convention Center over three days in March.

In elaborate advertisements and posts on Facebook and Twitter, The Boston 411 billed the event as "the Northeast's biggest home & bridal show" and said there were thousands of pre-registered guests and brides-to-be, more than 200 exhibitors and "very few vendor booths left," FBI Special Agent Scott A. Durivage wrote in a 26-page criminal complaint against Ms. Tucker.

Attendees were lured by the advertisement of special donation tickets where money would be sent to help victims of the Haiti earthquake, agents said, another false claim.

Ms. Tucker would collect fees from advertisers beforehand and promise them an ad in a print magazine or to display their services at the event. In reality, agents said, she used the money on her own personal expenses, including rent and trips to Walmart in West Mifflin and Carnegie.

"The main losses were borne by the exhibitors, who paid money to rent space for display booths at a convention that was never held and never was going to be held," Agent Durivage wrote.

Ms. Tucker orchestrated similar lucrative stunts in Miami, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Dallas and Columbus, Ohio, the complaint says.

Investigators traced Ms. Tucker's online transactions to a computer in her Brookline home.

"They focus on an event or magazine in a geographic area and reap their profits," the complaint says. "When they are discovered, they move on."

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