User Reviews

This guy has gotten away with so much for so long. I can't wait to see episode 4 when it comes out on Stan next week! It's pretty gripping, I'm enjoying how everything is happening in real time. These women wanting revenge are great.

Good story, but I truly can't deal with this editing and pacing. The animation. Why??? Stretching this out into multiple parts has not helped. I just finished episode two, don't think I can deal with more. Will find the story online, not have to put up with this fantastical show anymore.

I read a similar review from another person expressing what I feel. Stretched out pointlessly. The animations unnecessary. And then in between sometimes the phone calls and you have no idea who is talking to who. Confusing. Could've been like a 80 minute documentary.

I'm sorry for the women but they sit there and talk all together as if being super tough and yet they all got scammed. Who marries someone after three weeks, quits jobs, move to other countries.

Still this guy is crazy and scary. Sick guy.

"Love Fraud" (2020 release; 4 episodes of about 50-55 min. each) is a TV documentary mini-series about a group of women in the Kansas City area who have been swindled by a con-man, and are now out for revenge. As Episode 1 opens, we hear a telephone message from some guy: "I want to be wanted. You just gotta trust me." We are in "The suburbs of Kansas City" and are introduced to Tracy, who tells her too-good-to-be-true story of meeting a guy on-line and hitting it off when they meet up. In fact, she is swept off of her feet, and they get engaged. We then meet Ella, and later Sabrina, who have remarkably similar stories. One day, Tracy's daughter finds a blog where this guy is exposed as a con-man and a fraud. Then yet more women come forward, and slowly but surely they decide that something needs to be done. For starters, they engage a woman bounty hunter to track down this guy...

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary written, produced and directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, veterans in the genre ("12th & Delaware", among many others). Here they bring us the unbelievable but true story of how one guy manages to prey upon and then swindle woman after woman after woman, all in the Kansas City area. It immediately raises so many questions: how exactly did he do this? where were the Kansas City authorities in all this? and, correlating, why hasn't this guy been put behind bars? Your heart goes out to these unsuspecting women (hard to tell how many exactly, but at least a dozen, likely more), all of which fall for this guy, one after another, getting engaged and/or married. It just blows the mind how all of this is possible. It will be interesting to see how all of this will unfold in the remaining episodes. The bounty hunter is one tough cookie who will not be messed with (when she hears what has been happening, she immediately agrees to help these women, pro bono no less.

"Love Fraud" premiered this weekend on Showtime and Episode 1 is now available on Showtime On Demand and other streaming services. New episodes air on Sunday evenings at 9 pm Eastern. If you are interested in a good true crime story and/or matters of the lonely heart's club band, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

*UPDATE* 9/21/20 I watched the 4th and last episode this weekend. This is quite the mini-series. The last episode stands out as it contains an extensive interview with the con-man himself. You can't make this stuff up!

Being from KC I think added something to this because I knew many of the places they went I've been to one of the bars they were doing karaoke and it's basically a meat market so it's not surprising he chose a place like it to pull his con. One of the women featured works with one of my friends and I've been out drinking with them. She seemed cool and level headed so I was shocked when she popped up on here. Which is what brings me to the point of this series. This can happen to people you would never expect that it could. This guy knew what he was doing by how and who to play. People will think these women are stupid, but we never know what a person has been through. People in abusive relationships probably would be enamored with some guy that treats them like they're everything. You'll see his targets all had low self-esteem or was desperate for companionship and he was a white knight that rode in to their life which he ended up exploiting their weakness and taking everything he could. All of this I found interesting. Now where I wasn't feeling this doc? Carla! Oh boy what was this? You know those people that are all talk and you can just tell? I've been in her company before and this one almost made me fall off the couch when she first came on the screen. Her telling these women to get on farmers only made me LOL. You ever been on there? Have some drinks with some friends and scroll through it. You'll thank me. She also talked about how in the Ozarks they don't disrespect women and went on this rant about how he would disappear if he did that to a woman down there. Rural areas are not immune to abuse or any of societies problems. They didn't use the Ozarks for the setting of the show Ozark for no reason. I party down there. I know what goes on from party Cove all the way back in the deepest parts of the woods. This could've been so much more if you just take her out. This show wanted this B.A. to be this hero, but instead they got something that was cartoonish. Anyways these con artists destroy people lives and get caught and they get a slap on the wrist. There needs to be more of these so people see it and know when they're being played, but no more Carlas. She almost made me shut it off. It's a 8 or 9 without her, but with her it's a 2-4. The 4 is the times she was so outrageous that she made me laugh with her BS.

Intriguing story that would've been more captivating if it were two or three episodes instead of four. A lot of thumb-twiddling through useless animation and silence. Seriously. Don't try to stretch it out like the Rose Ceremonies of the Bachelor.

A rare doc series in which the perpetrator is stalked, filmed live .... AND gives an interview! Lots of interviews from interesting women amazingly willing to tell their story. You can hear the producers' voices at times being honest and it's a pretty cool reveal of braving the delicate layers of people's private lives. Starts out slow and has some creative coverage in places where they had to cover audio and didn't have picture etc. Picks up in Ep 2 and definitely by 3. Editing is fantastic giving suspense and with the treatment of interviews showing personality. Graphics beautifully intertwine character from old photos. And best of all a lesson for everyone about con artists!

DVD lacked subtitles for the elderly, disabled, hearing impaired, and ESL viewers. Disrespectful & cheap on the part of the producers especially when audio & enunciation is poor.

Showtime funded & started filming/following/investigting this story in 2017 when they came across the blogs about scam "artist" Richard Scott Smith. Side note, it's remarkable how someone while driving miles over days, weeks, months doesn't notice being tailed & filmed by another vehicle. You see it in fictional crime movies, but to see it in real life! Curiously, in his interview he expressed concern for what Trump endures for his many marriages while also having intimate contact w/mostly very young women. Difference: Trump wasn't after money; he used his to get females.

Negatives:Yes, it's slow at times as the victims, friends talk so after getting the gist I just ff through parts until the final episode which was remarkable (Note: Do a search as this story doesn't end.) Also, the graphics seemed overdone - more ff. Another negative is there was no documentation as to what happened to the scammed money, or if any was recovered.

The story here is a great one and should be told but the way it was told in this series was shameful.

First, the cartoon graphics they use are pointless and extremely irritating. There was no reason for them. Some incompetent trying to be creative. It didn't work.

Next, the pace and cohesiveness were so wrong. They stretched this out like it was a piece of taffy. It could have been 1-2 hours but I guess they wanted to make more episodes.

I was in the middle of the 2nd episode and got so frustrated that I wanted to come here and express my frustration. I recommend reading about the story from news articles instead of trying to sit through this garbage.

This is a great series. Great direction, camerawork and music. I think everyone should watch this. The whole concept is crazy. It's even better that it's real! The lead, Carla, is so cool and a great portrait of what these ladies are like. This guy put these poor women into the worst place of their lives, and now we get to see them get revenge. It's incredible. Ewing and Grady do an amazing job.

Poorly produced, but WHAT A STORY! This guy is a serious sociopath, and has absolutely no morals.

These poor women who just wanted love and he took them and others for everything they own.

Good story on bad guy but takes far too long to tell what is a very short story. Way too much time with useless background and tidbits that we really have no interest in

Please don't watch this. You will thank me later!

So many things wrong with this series, here are a few,...

• This "story" could have been told in an hour, maybe less.
• Most of the interviews have been scripted, or at a minimum, coached with clichés and attempts at "big moments".
• The dialogue between some of the victims/PIs/etc, mostly just filler, a waste of time
• The old lady from the bail bonds company is beyond annoying. Not credible at all. So over the top with idiotic statements. Playing for the camera the entire time. At times it seemed like a commercial for their business. Was there a need to flash their phone number so many times? Who had the idea to have her smoke in every scene? Did that make her some "bad-ass"? I have nothing against smoking, but the filmmakers honestly thought they were creating a great character. So lame.
• The graphics that were peppered all over were useless. Added nothing.

Not worth my time to continue, so I'll quit here.

I can't believe that anyone involved in the making of this series will ever work again in film. This was that bad. Sorry. Sad, but true.

Do better next time, Showtime.

I thought it would be pretty campy, but it's absolutely amazing. I was genuinely sitting on the edge of my seat watching it. The only con is I can't binge all of the episodes right now!

BO-RING Could have been told in one film but they dragged it out. I stopped after episode 2. I'm sorry there are so many desperate fools out there who fell for this guy, but I am not going to be suckered into watching this tedious show.

This show is riveting. But is there going to be more than 4 episodes? Series 1 had 2 episodes. Hope there will be more!

Instead of telling these woman's terrible experience with this conman in a normal documentary style the producer decides to get cute by over editing, slowing it down with long pauses and even throwing in goofy animation style graphics. I lasted 15mins. Terribly put together.

But as almost always nowadays when it comes to documentaries too long. But if your not in a hurry and want to see colorful middle aged women, enjoy. Last 25 min in episode 4 are well worth seeing. But to get the value you must see what's before it.

The set up for this show seemed so juicy. The delivery left a lot of unanswered questions. This wouldn't even qualify for a full "Dateline" show. "48 Hours" wouldn't waste their time. The producers need to go into some other business. They're not good at this. The guy was just not that interesting, once you took a closer look.

Fantastic documentary recommended to me by a friend. Both of us are filmmakers. He loved everything about this series - the shooting style, the editing and especially the collage-style graphics which some people here seem to hate. I just don't get it because I completely agree with my friend - this series is brilliant.

I think most people who say it's too slow are Americans, and are used to extremely fast-paced productions. That isn't always a good thing, and thankfully, the rest of the world hasn't lost the ability to watch other types of content yet. I love slower-paced films where you don't feel like you're being hypnotised by a stream of fast-moving images or bombarded with new information and cheap emotional tricks every minute. In this case, you really get the feeling that the filmmakers respect both the characters and their audience. And when I read about the painstaking process of the making of "Love Fraud", I feel nothing but respect and admiration for the women who created it.

As someone who is very interested in personality disorders and stories of all kinds of fraudsters, this was fascinating to watch. Highly recommended.

I am very interested in the story but cannot bear to watch this excruciatingly slow moving, what is supposed to be I guess a documentary. Poor storytelling, poor filming, poor everything, how did this ever get on Showtime?

Amazing artistically done movie. With good quality storytelling,editing.You see that people was doing it by paying attention in details.I do love all collages.Movie done with respect to victims. I did enjoy it. I'm surprised by rating here.