Love Fraud

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.

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.

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.

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!

"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!