Love Fraud
A manhunt for a serial romance scammer.
Love Fraud is an American true crime documentary television miniseries directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. It premiered on August 30, 2020, on Showtime and focuses on the hunt for a serial romance scammer. The filmmakers wanted to cover a con artist who wasn't a cold case, resolved, or well known. They chose their subject after producer Alex Takats read a blog by a woman accusing her former husband of fraud. An arrest warrant existed, but his whereabouts were unknown. Rather than observe passively, the filmmakers decided to intervene and fund the investigation. Filming began in December 2017.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Documentary
- Director
- Heidi Ewing; Rachel Grady
- Episodes
- 4
- Music
- T. Griffin
- Executive producers
- Heidi Ewing
- Rachel Grady
- Amy Goodman Kass
- Vinnie Malhotra
- Jihan Robinson
- Michael Bloom
- Maria Zuckerman
- Producer
- Alex Takats
- Editor
- JD Marlow
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- The series had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2020.
- It was initially scheduled to premiere on Showtime on May 8, 2020, but was delayed to August 30, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The filmmakers decided not to be a 'fly on the wall' but instead intervened to fund the investigation.
- On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 92% based on 24 reviews.
Subject
The series is a manhunt following private detectives hired by the filmmakers, including bounty hunter Carla Campbell, to find Richard Scott Smith of Lenexa, Kansas. Multiple women, including some he married, accused Smith of romance scams. He is accused of being married at least ten times, sometimes to more than one woman at a time, and using multiple identities. Former partners said he used their identities to make purchases and obtain credit, leaving them severely in debt.
Smith was placed on probation in 2015 in Polk County, Iowa, after being charged with domestic abuse assault. After a former partner went to police in 2017, he pleaded guilty to identity theft and received a 10-month jail sentence, later violating probation. The women each tell their stories of how they met Smith and came to be duped. Smith appears on camera in the final episode in what the Kansas City Star described as 'what can most charitably be described as a dumpster fire of an interview.'
More in Documentary Television Series About Crime in the United States
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