Netflix’s new documentary series, Love Con Revenge, offers an interesting and fresh discussion on romance frauds, as it follows a group of women trying to seek justice after being cheated by the respective men and women they had once believed to have been genuine lovers. At the helm of the series are Cecilie Fjellhoy, a motivational speaker and activist who had been defrauded by the Tinder Swindler, Simon Leviev, himself, and Brianne Joseph, a professional private investigator. Over the six episodes, Love Con Revenge essentially has four women and one man approach Cecilie and Brianne for help regarding the financial frauds they had faced in the past.
Spoiler Alert
What is a romance scam?
‘Romance scam’ is a relatively new term for a kind of trickery and cheating that has existed for some time now, and has become more commonplace since the growth of the internet. People feigning love over the internet only to ask for financial aid became such an everyday affair that the ‘Nigerian prince’ became a meme by itself. Essentially, a scamster would target elderly women on the internet and claim to be the prince of some African kingdom and profess their love for said women, only to ask for money from them. Very recently, bizarre news of an elderly woman in China falling prey to a man claiming to be an astronaut and in love with her has been making the rounds on social media, although it seems genuinely too outrageous to be true. Yet, real-life romance scams, in which tricksters dupe people by pretending to love them and wipe out their bank accounts in the process, are quite outrageous most of the time.
While the matter can seem a bit unserious on the surface, and especially because of social media memes, the real shock, grief, and embarrassment felt by the helpless victims in these cases are all too real and devastating. Netflix’s “The Tinder Swindler” had earlier presented the horrific story of perhaps the most outlandish romance scam of the modern era, and the new documentary series on the platform, Love Con Revenge, further explores the heartbreaking and cruel world of romance scams, this time through a group of victims trying to help themselves out. Following the popularity that she had received, Cecilie Fjellhoy, one of the many victims of the Tinder Swindler, started her own investigative group to help men and women in similar situations as her, and we follow 5 such individuals and their cases in Love Con Revenge.
Could Jill bring Todd to justice?
The first case in Love Con Revenge is that of Jill Schardein, a single mother living in Nashville, Tennessee, who contacted Cecilie after a man she had grown close to, Todd Dean, had completely vanished from her life. Having focused on building her professional career for most of her life and having raised her daughter by herself for 10 long years after her divorce, Jill had finally decided to give online dating a try when her daughter was 17 and fairly independent. She came across Todd’s profile on Facebook Dating, and there was an instant connection between them as soon as they started talking. Despite being in his 50s, Todd was very much into various physical activities, much like Jill, and they soon started going out on dates, and it did not take very long for them to get into a relationship. Jill was particularly impressed at Todd’s professional goals of running a mental wellness center that he had started, called Sanjara Wellness, and he was dedicated to helping others. Jill herself had had troubles with mental wellness, and she too felt very passionate about the subject, and so she connected with Todd on an even deeper level.
Todd would often take Jill to Sanjara and show her around, but trouble began when he started to ask for money from her, claiming that he still needed funds to commence operations at the place. While he paid her back on the first few occasions, soon the facade was starting to come loose, as Todd kept asking Jill for more and more money, and he stopped paying her back as well. In a matter of months, she had not only given him all the money that she had, but had also transferred a large amount from her retirement fund in the hope that she was doing something honorable for people who would be helped by the state-of-the-art wellness facility.
There had once come a point in the relationship when Todd had ended it completely, but by this time, he had successfully roped Jill in to the extent that she desperately wanted to get back with him. He then took advantage of this changed power dynamic to take even money from her before Jill eventually realized her mistake and decided to break up. But then Todd also disappeared from her life at this time, with no mention of all the money that he had taken from her as personal loans. As Cecilie and her PI friend, Brianne Joseph, begin looking into the matter, they uncover a series of horrific truths about Todd Dean, beginning with the fact that he had been taking money from numerous such women at the same time as personal loans to start his mental wellness facility, Sanjara Wellness.
In fact, it was this money, which he was claiming to be short-term loans, that was being shown in the investment records of Sanjara Wellness, while he was actually using all these funds for his own private merriment. Another of his victims, Karen Alpert, a woman living in Sun Valley, Idaho, had also started her own investigation to find Todd and bring him to justice, after she too had been defrauded by him. Not only had Todd cheated numerous women by faking his love for them, but he had also been using his business, Sanjara Wellness, as a front to commit financial fraud. Despite official complaints filed by the women, the police had never taken the matter seriously, claiming that it was all just a social dispute and not a criminal one.
However, the case turns around when Cecilie and Brianne are able to track down a former loan officer assistant named Terra, who had managed to sneakily record a conversation with Todd in the past, after she had found his claims to be suspicious. In the recording, Todd had openly talked about how numerous women, whom he referred to as ‘friends,’ constantly kept loaning him money for his wellness center. They also dig up enough financial records to show that Todd had been using all this money for personal use, and the police finally open an investigation into the matter. Ultimately, Todd Dean is dragged to court and openly exposed to have been a fraudster. He also ends up having to sell off Sanjara Wellness to pay off his debts after having to declare bankruptcy, although he continues to deny all the allegations brought by the women against him. Jill, Karen, and the other 6 women are yet to receive the money they had given to Todd, but they are pleased to have brought an end to the man’s horrible web of lies.
How was Bridget and many other women scammed by Ricky?
The next case concerns a woman from Providence, Rhode Island, named Bridget Phillips, who contacted Cecilie for the first time after her boyfriend of two years, Ricky Morrissey, stole all her money and ran off. Just like all the other women in the series, Bridget had tried seeking help from the police but got none in return, as the police claimed the matter to be a social and domestic issue, which could not be helped by the law. As a divorced woman in her early 30s, Bridget had met Ricky on a dating site and had instantly felt a connection after a few dates with him. Ricky was a dog lover and absolutely adored his pet, Zeus, which was a massive green flag for Bridget. Furthermore, he had also served in the military for 10 years, and he claimed that Zeus was a military-service dog who had served alongside him on multiple overseas tours.
One of the most difficult parts of the relationship, which had begun soon after they first met, was Ricky’s extreme struggles with PTSD, which naturally affected Bridget as well. According to Ricky, his childhood best friend, Clarence Williams III, had sacrificed his own life in order to save Ricky by intentionally jumping into the line of fire. This traumatic event left Ricky so shocked and emotionally stunted for life that he struggled to return to normal life and find a job. Therefore, he moved in with Bridget, with the latter paying all the bills by herself, while he just could not find any employment because of his PTSD. Ricky also sent a significant amount of money each month for Clarence’s widow and his young children, and now that he had none of his own, he asked Bridget to pay the amount for him. Bridget did not initially suspect anything, as she was already in love with Ricky and was also convinced by the tattoo on his arm, dedicated to Clarence, and ultimately ended up losing more than 10,000 dollars.
However, Bridget did eventually suspect something was wrong, and she soon realized that Ricky had even been stealing money from her bank account on a regular basis. As soon as she confronted him and broke off their abusive relationship, Ricky completely disappeared. Through Cecilie and Brianne’s investigation, it is revealed that Ricky had just spun a web of absolute lies, for he had not served in the army for more than 2 years and had actually been discharged because of drug abuse. He was never friends with Clarence Williams III, who had actually been killed by an IED explosion, and was not married and had no children. Ultimately, Ricky was arrested by the police and charged with three counts of felony and larceny against Bridget, for which he stood trial and has been found guilty on all three counts. Ricky is still awaiting sentencing, while Bridget is happy to have brought the criminal to justice.
What happened to Shareza and Dorian?
The next case stands out from the rest because of the massive debt that the victim, Shareza Jackson, had accrued because of her toxic relationship, and also because of the fact that the perpetrator in this case, Dorian Wilkerson, had actually married her as well. Shareza and Dorian used to attend the same high school, although they weren’t close friends at the time and had even lost touch for a few years. Once Shareza had succeeded in building a strong career in business consultation and had also successfully raised her two daughters by herself, she was messaged by Dorian on Facebook one day, and the two eventually met up. Dorian had become a doctor while also having attained a PhD, because of which he was more popularly called ‘Double Doc.’
Over the next few months, Dorian and Shareza started a romantic relationship, with the former eventually moving in with her and her two daughters, Nykki and Jnyah, at their house in Florida. Nykki and Jnyah quickly grew a strong bond with Dorian too, as they had always missed a father figure in their lives. Although Dorian played a very active role in the girls’ lives, he had very different plans, as became evident much later on. He wanted to open his own clinic, called Best U Now, in order to provide cosmetic surgery services to the many willing clients in the city, but he asked Shareza to take the loan required for the business, since his credit score was extremely bad due to the loans he’d had to take for his mother’s medical treatment in the past. When Shareza initially denied his request, Dorian proposed to her in just 2 weeks’ time and got married to her, just to prove himself most trustworthy to her. Very soon, he started taking out large loans in Shareza’s name, with her consent, of course, as she too now wanted to be a part of the family business plans, but she could never imagine that all that Dorian had told her were lies.
After a few months of initial success, the Best U Now clinic started to struggle, both because of botched surgeries and unsatisfied clients and also because one customer had literally passed away from complications during a surgery. Although the entire blame for the incident had been pinned on the doctor who had performed the surgery, Dorian should have also been held responsible for having hired him. In fact, Dorian had successfully spun a web of lies, starting with the fact that he was a successful doctor, while in reality, he had been barred by the law from practicing because he never had the licenses to do so. He had carefully stayed away from actually working as a doctor, but he always carried the looks of a practicing doctor and even claimed to be so to his family.
Ultimately, when the Best U Now clinic had completely run out of business, and Shareza refused to take any more loans in her name, having already accrued a debt of 2 million dollars, Dorian disappeared from her life and took no responsibility for her massive loans. As Cecilie and Brianne are called in for action, they soon uncover that Dorian now works at the department of mathematics at Georgia State University, making use of the genuine PhD that he had. It had earlier been revealed that the man had even issued credit cards in the names of Nykki and Jnyah to take out loans in their names and had ruined their credit scores in the process. Ultimately, the team manages to let the two daughters confront Dorian at his workplace and call him out in the docuseries.
However, no criminal charges have been filed against the man because of the complications of the case. Dorian’s check fraud case against Shareza has been dismissed by the law, probably because they were a married couple at the time. Dorian then filed a claim against Shareza for having filed a false police complaint case against him. Both the individuals have dropped their civil lawsuits against one another, but there has been no resolution with regard to the debt accrued in Shareza’s name.
Has Aaron been acknowledged as a victim of Sabrina Taylor?
Aaron Ward is the only male victim in Love Con Revenge, not because men don’t become victims in such cases, but because they mostly shy away from or decide not to make these complaints. In the case of Aaron, though, he had been emotionally manipulated, harassed, and financially defrauded by Sabrina Taylor, who had been his girlfriend for 6 years. But some time after they had broken up, Aaron had received a call from the FBI, who were investigating the young woman on suspicion of her being a swindler. At present, Sabrina Taylor has become a well-known romance con artist, who has even been sentenced to prison in Seattle for having cheated and defrauded numerous friends and strangers. Unfortunately, Aaron happened to be one of her very first targets, and over a period of 6 years, she had siphoned more than 100,000 dollars from him.
Sabrina had initially started taking money by claiming that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system, and she then used all sorts of tactics, including emotional manipulation and blackmail, threatening to kill herself, to take money from her boyfriend. Eventually, it was revealed that she had started using the same tactics to steal money from numerous other people, which ultimately led the FBI to investigate her. In this short segment in Love Con Revenge, Aaron seeks help from the experts to understand why he was never officially acknowledged as a victim of Sabrina Taylor by the FBI, and why charges against her had not been filed based on his complaints.
Ultimately, an FBI officer clearly states that while they do see Aaron as a victim of the swindler’s crimes, it is not possible to file charges based on his accounts because 6 years have already passed since the crimes against him had taken place. According to the law, charges can only be filed within 5 years of the crime in cases of romance scams, which unfortunately means that Aaron cannot do anything about his situation anymore. But being able to share his story with the world through the documentary definitely puts him at ease.
What Happened To Lindsay, Lauren, And Christopher?
The last case in Love Con Revenge has at its center a colorful and extravagant liar named Christopher Lloyd, who is first brought to the attention of Cecilie and Brianne by a woman named Lindsay Kresmery, who had been defrauded of over 140,000 dollars by him. After moving to San Diego and trying her luck in the dating scene, Lindsay came across Christopher on Tinder and started talking to him. She was impressed after learning that Christopher used to be a baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB but had retired early to become a finance manager and set up his own business empire. But in reality, Christopher had played about two months of semi-professional baseball, that too in Canada, and had never had any shot at playing in the MLB. His business empire was also a fraudulent practice, in which he had created a number of fake companies to show business transactions but which served no real purpose at all.
After a few months of dating, Christopher insisted Lindsay invest her money, and especially her mother’s savings that she had received after the woman’s unfortunate death, into his business, called Planet 13, which he basically described as an angel investment firm. After convincing her, Christopher had then prepared a fake document to describe the investment and had taken more than 140,000 dollars from her, following which he finally stopped pretending like he had genuine feelings for her. When Lindsay understood that the romance had fizzled out and wanted to break up, the man simply vanished with all her money, leaving her with no choice but to contact Cecilie Fjellhoy, since the police did not take her seriously either.
The investigation in Love Con Revenge reveals that Christopher was not just a fraudster but also a dangerous man with a court restraining order against him. About a year earlier, Christopher had befriended a woman named Lauren Plaxco on Instagram before professing his love for her in a relatively short time. He started asking for small amounts of money by lying about his account being frozen due to some fraud that had been committed against him, while secretly transferring funds from Lauren’s account into his own. Eventually, when Lauren found out about the whole situation and confronted him, the man turned aggressive and violent, which led to Lauren filing for a restraining order against him.
The investigation carried out by Cecilie and Brianne ultimately yields great success, as one of the DAs in California, Erin West, decided to fight the case, and Christopher Lloyd was arrested on a 14-count federal indictment for having committed romance scams accounting for more than 2 million dollars. Since Love Con Revenge concluded shooting before the arrest, the final result of the court trial is not mentioned in the docuseries. If convicted, Christopher can face up to 20 years in prison for the wire frauds he had committed and 10 years on other charges. Lindsay and Lauren are meanwhile seen celebrating their small but significant win with Cecilie and Brianne, who have been instrumental in helping the victims of romance scams get some sort of justice.
