Love Fraud is a true crime mystery set in real time. Follow Richard Scott Smith’s ex-wives, girlfriends, and abandoned girlfriends on an exciting quest for the kind who let them down and tens of millions of dollars over more than 20 years.
Ellen, Tracy, Sabrina, Karla, Jean, these women have something that is not unusual: they were all scammed through Richard Scott Smith.
Over the past 20 years, the serial online dating scammer has scammed more than a million dollars from a conga line he temporarily courted into marriage, to steal their meager savings and make some disappear. days after.
There are others too. Lisa, Angela, Jennifer, Holly, Michele, Rebecca, Crystal, and Sandi; all have been married or engaged (sometimes simultaneously) to the same man who used other pseudonyms to evade the law.
With ten other Social Security numbers, 43 phone numbers, and 58 registered addresses, Smith shattered the Midwest leaving a wake of pain, debt and at least one case of attack.
His exploits were so prolific that a despised ex posted a warning blog in 2014 that exposed his lies and warned other women of his ploy. The most sensible website says, “Did this guy attack you?” It has become a position where his cheated wives can just hook up.
Now, their rejected spouses have come together to seek justice and revenge in a new four-part criminal mystery titled ‘Love Fraud’, which airs tonight on Showtime at nine p.m. Est. Impregnated with secret surveillance missions that take position in real time, the cameras adhere to the organization of the former ”Mrs. Smiths’ for the guy who stole it all.
“The most productive way to get over a boy is revenge. Sorry, it’s true, ”said Sabrina, who threw 95k. “Rick, you’re lying, shit, you’re fucking with me.” I am f*****. Friend, I’m coming for you.
Ellen, Sandi, Tracy, Sabrina (left to right) are just a few of Richard Scott Smith’s exes who have been scammed out of their savings in a whirlwind romance with Smith. He preyed on vulnerable women, convinced them to open joint bank accounts, and disappeared a few days after his marriage before moving on to the next victim. They teamed up with local Kansas City bounty hunter Carla Campbell (far right) and filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing to track down Smith for justice and revenge, the documentary series is told on time and the audience is there for the ride as park. Batch locations in America
“We hit all the levels,” said Ellen, who immediately seduced Smith after logging in online. During a quick court, Smith convinced Ellen to purchase a fully furnished space in Florida on his behalf. He also told her that he expected a giant medical malpractice payment of $ 7.8 million.
Richard Scott Smith, 48, preyed on middle-aged suburban single mothers with other aliases (Scott, Rick, Mickey). He charmed them with flattering and beloved gifts and “talked about the future” before leading them to financial ruin. His ability to do so depended on his good fortune to fit in “whatever someone needs him to be,” director Rachel Grady told USA Today. “It is a chameleon. According to the woman, Richard was posing as a down-to-earth used car salesman, other times he was a good lucky lawyer, a professional water skier, a genuine real estate company owner, a wealthy doctor, a pianist expert, a black. – Karate belt, pilot, chef, financier and wine connoisseur. In fact, he is one of the main dropouts from the school without a college degree.
At first glance, Richard Scott Smith (aka Scott, aka Rick, aka Mickey) makes an unlikely lottery. Bald, with a serious smile and a nervous stutter, is not your typical playboy. But his good luck as a thief lies in his ability to find the right victim. He took advantage of the vulnerable, the unfortunate, the middle-aged and the love-discouraged after a series of bad dates and romantic romances.
“Going out at 40 sucks,” said Tracy, a single mother of two who works as a genuine realtor in Kansas City, Missouri. “ Turns out your only option is to go online to meet someone, but it’s hard. You know? You look at someone’s picture and you think, “Wow, they have sweet eyes” or “Look like it’s fun” and you get there and they have no teeth!
Tracy thought she hit the jackpot when she met Richard Scott Smith online in 2016. He ticked all the boxes: He worked in real estate, owned his own business, and was deeply religious. “So yeah, of course I’m interested,” he said.
Sabrina, 49, felt the same way. After a failed marriage, she said, ‘I’m in love with him, he made me feel like number one and I’ve never had a man do anything for me before. Honestly, it’s like a gold ticket to me. Less than a month after the convention, Richard got Sabrina’s call tattooed on his back.
Its modus operandi is the same for all victims. He charmed women through a rocket-speed romance of sweet lyrics, darling gifts, and visions of a long and luxurious career together. Under the false pretense of love and marriage, he convinced them to open checking accounts and credit cards, that he would buy luxury cars and houses at his request. Then, suddenly, Smith took the bait and swayed; he would empty his bank accounts, he would drink his important savings and disappear. The women had to assume the debt that had accumulated under their calling.
The exploits of Richard Scott Smith were so prolific that a collective of despised ex-girlfriends started a public blog to warn other women on their internet of lies. The most sensible website says, “Did this guy attack you?” and presented the symbol above. He’s in a position for his cheated wives to change stories and stick to the elusive con artist’s whereabouts.
Richard Scott Smith, left, of Lenexa, Kansas, left a trail of fraud, forgery, deception, bigamy and at least one case of assault – he is pictured with one of his wives, Jean Hansen Array, he told the Kansas City Star in 2017.: ‘When I first met him he was very charming, very loving, appreciative, a really cool guy. Very charismatic. A few months after their brief nine-month marriage, Jean said Smith had started to change, later learning that he had proposed to another woman just days before their marriage in 2015.
Jean Hansen (right) thinks she may have been woman number 8 or 9. With tears in her eyes, she tells the documentary how she swindled out of more than $ 700,000 when Smith convinced her to invest in one of his fraudulent ventures. She remained so helpless that she had to borrow cash to file for bankruptcy. Sabrina Dunlap, a 49-year-old divorced hairstylist, courted through the consumer who paid her $ 50 bills. She said, ‘I’m in love with him, he made me feel number one and I’ve never had a man do anything for me before. ‘. Honestly, it’s like a gold ticket to me. After a month of dating, Richard got Sabrina’s call tattooed on his back and disappeared shortly after, leaving Sabrina in debt of $ 95,000.
Similarly, after a brief courtship, Smith introduced Tracy: “ One minute we were dating and the next minute he was staying home, then the next minute his things had moved. He bought her a Porsche (with an invalid check) and promised to pay for his son’s college.
Tracy granted him access to her cash. They bought a space and talked about making an investment in a retirement condo on the Florida beach. Richard said he expected a multi-million dollar payment from a medical malpractice lawsuit. “Everything we did revolved around November 7 because that was when his money was expected to come in. He was telling me we’re going to be millionaires in a few days.”
Her card space was pushed aside when Tracy’s daughter Kayla realized she was suspicious and was looking for her car. He discovered bottles of tablets and papers with other names: “My first idea was that he was a drug addict,” he said. “But all the concepts that crossed my mind at the time were nothing compared to the truth.
By then it had passed to the next victim. “One minute I was his global and he couldn’t live without me, and in a few hours he left and never spoke to me again.
“The first night we spoke, we spoke for about 3 hours,” Ellen said. “We hit all the cylinders. After a dizzying romance, Richard took her to Zales Jewelry to choose a 2-carat ring. He explained that he expected a giant settlement for the song of $ 12.7 million, “but after the lawyers pay,” he would end up with $ 7.8 million.
The couple closed on a fully furnished home in Florida (paid for by Ellen) and set their eyes on a $1.3 million beach-front property in Belize. He bought two Sea-doos, six life jackets and a ‘4-wheeler thing because he said that’s how they travel down there.’
Thanks to the efforts of ‘Vengeance Squad’ and filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Richard Scott Smith was arrested in 2017 on an exceptional warrant for theft and identity forgery. He was sentenced to ten months in prison and was released on probation in April 2019. As of today, the prolific scammer is now on the loose to do whatever he needs to do and it already looks like he’s at the height of old stuff. Grady told the NY Post that a woman saw the trailer and approached: “He said his sister lives with him [and] possibly he wouldn’t let her watch TV or communicate with those who enjoyed it. She added: ‘I think the floodgates are about to open’
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing spent hours keeping an eye on Richard Scott Smith with a team of personal investigators they hired to help locate him. Grady told Vanity Fair: “ Obviously putting a camera in any setting already adjusts the outcome. Hiring of IP it will actually replace the result. But we agreed with that because we weren’t going to sit down and watch these women fight for justice if we can help them. “
Surveillance taken from checkpoints in a Richard Smith parking lot as he enters a hotel room with a new woman
“There were times when he liked him, the best partner,” Ellen said; and there were times when “he may just look at you, but as if he didn’t see you, his eyes weren’t looking right.”
Married for less than a year, Jean Hansen believes she is woman number eight or nine. She looted $ 700,000 in debt when Richard convinced her to invest in one of his bogus businesses and forced her to borrow cash only to file for bankruptcy. Jean discovered that Richard was also engaged to another woman named Sandi just days before their own wedding in July 2015.
Jean learned of Sandi’s lifestyle months later, when Richard was arrested in a hotel room for domestic violence. Sandi told police that she thought Richard was going to kill her after throwing her on the ground and breaking her iPad. He tried to tell Jean that he had been “skipped” and falsely accused, which did not match his rate of domestic violence. She said: ‘And I’m sure it was probably not because I’m his wife and he didn’t hit me. ”
Richard’s good fortune with women depended on his ability to “whatever someone needs him to be,” director Rachel Grady told USA Today. “It is a chameleon.
According to the victim, Richard was posing as a down-to-earth used car salesman, other times he was a successful lawyer, a professional water skier, a genuine real estate company owner, a wealthy doctor, a pianist expert, a black. – karate belt, pilot, cook, financier and wine connoisseur. In fact, he is one of the leading school dropouts without a college degree.
Very little is known about the history of Richard Scott Smith’s family circle. Her aunt tells the documentary that she had a chaotic childhood. He was raised through his grandparents until the age of nine, when his alcoholic and verbally abusive mother picked him up and he disappeared without a trace. It would be 27 years before he was reunited with his circle of relatives. Smith’s mother died when he was 32, leaving him in the care of his 12-year-old orphaned sister named Toni. Now an adult living in Texas tells the documentary, “ Scott would jump from woman to woman and tell them that I was his daughter. She claimed that Smith was violent and verbally abusive: ‘He used me as a tool to play with all his heart’
Richard Scott Smith’s Aunt Tells Filmmakers How She Cheated On Her Nephew, Too
Eventually these women, bound by grief and rage, formed a fraternity of abandoned lovers with the singular purpose of bringing him down and preventing him from letting others down. They signed up for a blog called ‘Scott The Crook Smith’ that he featured through Lisa Lenton in 2016 (Lenton married Richard in 2012 and asked for a cancellation).
The siege has become a gathering place for its victims who exchanged stories and followed the whereabouts of the elusive con man. An access posted through “Another Victim” asks, “He also hurt you.” – “Yes, ” replied the anonymous, “I am another victim. Are you a recent victim? What did he do to you?”
When Richard did not appear in court on his attack charge, “Ex Girlfriend TN” alerted the community: “Hello everyone, I was just looking to update them. Array… today it was intended to be the judicial hearing for the attack case. Array” . Rick called the courts and said he couldn’t do it because his stepsister Meghan was in a serious car accident and had to go to California to be with her. Well, I called Meghans to paint today and guess what? You got it, she’s in paintings and she hasn’t had a car spin from fate !!!!
A blog post, a screenshot sent through Smith that reads: ‘This is all defamatory and misleading information. Please remove ‘
They tried to warn the new victims, but for many it was too late. In August 2016, Concerned wrote: ” Sabrina from Kansas City / Lenexa / Olathe, if you can get this message, please know that the car you just rented with your call from Rick / Scott or whatever your call is in those days, It is the first step in getting into money trouble. Be careful with your credit cars, opening new accounts on your call with them telling you that they will pay the balance and everything similar to a business you own or manage. By the time Sabrina got sensitive to Richard, he had already defrauded her out of $ 95,000 and skipped town.
Karla Campbell left her children and her husband 39 years old by Richard after meeting at karaoke. From the beginning, she was aware of the fees that were opposed to her, but the teacher assured her that it was “just a witch hunt.” After all, he wondered, “If you had anything on him, wouldn’t you go to jail?”
It wasn’t long before Richard persuaded Karla to empty her husband’s pension fund and open a place to eat in Wichita, Kansas. The blog does not beat around the bush: “Hey Karla, the ONLY explanation why he’s with you is because of your green ticket because you don’t have ANYTHING ELSE he needs. He does not love you.
And just like he had done so many times before, Richard emptied Krab Kingz’s business account and disappeared, leaving Karla in front of salespeople and workers when her paychecks were recovered. “She is living people’s dreams and fulfilling their fantasies,” Karla said.
Despite his long history, Richard Scott Smith has been unchecked for years. And even though there was an arrest warrant for his arrest, the police have been apathetic to the cause.
“ It was almost like, ‘You’ve known better darling’ or ‘I hope you learned your lesson darling,’ which was literally said to several of the women through the forces. order, ” director Heidi Ewing told Vanity Juste.
Through the blog, award-winning duo of directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing learned about the story a few years ago. Stunned by the injustice, they felt compelled to help the “revenge squad” locate the guy who had stolen their money and dignity. Ewing told Vanity Fair: ‘So we thought, you know what, if anyone can do it, it’s us. ”
They sold the concept to Showtime and began filming in 2017. The days passed without clues and the filmmakers rented personal investigators in various villages where Richard was suspected of hiding. It is at this point that the documentary series becomes a police mystery that is positioned in genuine time and that the viewer is there for the journey.
Several months and parking services later, the efforts of the “revenge brigade” nevertheless paid off and Richard Scott Smith was arrested in 2017 for identity theft and forgery. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and released on parole in April 2019.
The prolific scammer is now free to do whatever he needs to do and already seems to live up to the old stuff. Grady told the New York Post that a woman saw the trailer and approached: “He said that his sister lives with him [and] possibly he would not let her watch television or communicate with those who enjoy. “She added, ‘I think the floodgates are about to open.’
Stupid! Looks like they gave him herpes!
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