- Love Fraud is the true story of Richard Scott Smith, a con man who seduced and married women to take their money, and the ex-wives who hunted him down.
- According to filmmakers, Smith was last spotted in Kansas's Johnson County in August 2020.
- Here's where the search for Smith stands, according to Carla Campbell, the bounty hunter determined to track him down.
Like the popular Bravo series Dirty John, Showtime's Love Fraud documentary series is the story of how con artist Richard Scott Smith married at least 10 women and defrauded them, often draining their bank accounts in the process. Sabrina Dunlap, a 49-year-old featured in Love Fraud, estimates her debt from Smith totaled $100,000. Jean Hansen, another victim, had to file for bankruptcy after marrying Smith in Vegas, and going into business with him.
A master of evading the law, Smith has racked up 10 Social Security numbers and 43 phone numbers, and innumerable victims over the years. "This is a dangerous guy. I think he's Satan's son," Carla Campbell, the bounty hunter featured in Love Fraud, tells OprahMag.com.
The main, most chilling, difference between Love Fraud and Dirty John? Unlike "Dirty" John Meehan, who is no longer alive, Richard Scott Smith of Love Fraud is, according to those involved with the documentary, continuing his scheme.
"He's not done. He's still out there. I've talked to his first wife and I've talked to his last victim and he's doing the same thing," Campbell says.
Smith left a trail of women victims around the United States, but especially in the Kansas City region. He married at least 10 women, and preyed on dozens more. Love Fraud follows what happens when these women band together to track Smith down, with the help of Campbell and documentarians Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing.
After hearing about Smith's crimes, Campbell agreed to take on the women's case pro-bono. "These girls, they just struck a chord with me. I've been through an abusive relationship. I've lost money. I've already been there and did all of that stuff," she says. "It was just like, They need my help because they've got nobody else."
In 2017, Smith was arrested in Knoxville, TN, thanks to efforts depicted in Love Fraud. Smith was sentenced to prison for identity theft and forgery, and was released in 2019, per the documentary. According to the filmmakers, Smith was last seen in Kansas in August 2020. "That's the last we heard of him," Ewing says.
But the women are keeping track. For years, Smith's victims found the truth—and found one another—through the "Scott the Crook Smith" website that Lisa Lenton used to document her experience with Smith, her then-husband. According to recent comments on the website, Smith has been sighted at RV dealerships in the Kansas area, and was furloughed due to COVID-19.
The site has become a meeting ground for Smith's victims, who swap stories and track the elusive con man's whereabouts. "The women were such good support to me. They had been through it, and they made me feel better. Other people who hadn't been conned asked, 'How could you be so naive?'" Tracy, who is featured in the documentary, says.
Together, the women pieced together Scott's pattern of behavior, consistent across his relationships—which he often juggled at the same time. "In the beginning, he was very loving. He would bring me roses all the time. All that old-fashioned courtship type stuff. But there comes a point in a relationship where he changes, and it was the same for all of us. He becomes controlling, mean, and aggressive," Tracy says.
Sandi, another one of the women featured in the documentary, reportedly had a particularly harrowing experience with Smith after the "change" that Tracy described. After they became engaged, Sandi said that he physically abused her. She feared for her life. "I think God helped me through. I truly do," Sandi tells OprahMag.com, through tears .
For the women featured in Love Fraud, participating in the documentary served their broader goals: Retribution, and saving others. "I wanted to save anybody else from ever having to experience what me and the other women had already experienced," Tracy says. Sandi adds, "We have a crusade. We're not going to stop until we see him behind bars again—that is our end goal."
So far, it's working. After the trailer for Love Fraud came out, a woman whose sister was living with Smith reached out to the filmmakers. "Oh God, we gotta get her out of there," Ewing recalls saying. The relationship ended.
As his victims hoped, Love Fraud is functioning as an even more exaggerated version of the blog, which had so bothered Smith—Sandi recalls how, when they were dating, he didn't allow her to Google him. Looking back, she realizes he was afraid of her finding the website.
Certainly, widespread notoriety from Love Fraud will make it more difficult for Smith to continue his con. "I definitely think dating might get harder," Ewing says. The billboards of Smith's face currently up in New York and L.A., and soon to be up in Kansas City, won't hurt either.
Campbell expects to meet Smith again, one day. After the documentary wrapped, Campbell was diagnosed with lung cancer, and has had to retire from bounty hunting. Now, she's consumed with tracking down Smith, and bringing new charges against him.
"Before all of this new stuff [with Smith] started coming up, I was just sitting here going, well, I hope this is what the end of life is not like, because I will enjoy my deck, but really I need something to do. Rick gave me purpose," Campbell says. [Ed note: Campbell has a GoFundMe set up to pay for medical bills from chemotherapy].
She predicts the hunt for Smith will only grow more complicated as his fame grows. "Criminals tend to dive in deeper when there's something going on. If they think there's somebody watching them, they'll go further underground. I think that's what this show is going to do. It's going to move him further underground. Nobody's going to know where he's at until he's got another victim that comes forward," Campbell says.
This much is for sure: She'll be watching. "There is more to come. He's not done," Campbell says.
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