A Man Tries To Stay A Step Ahead Of The Many Women He Married In 'Love Fraud'

Less than five minutes into the four-episode Showtime documentary series Love Fraud, a woman named Tracy says, "There's no excuse not to have teeth these days." She's talking about online dating and literal teeth, about arriving for a date with a man she found online and realizing he didn't have teeth. But could you take this as a little bit of a mission statement for the series? You could.

The story, as told by a number of women who knew Richard Scott Smith over many years, goes like this: He found women online, began dating them, very quickly got very serious about them,of them, sometimes simultaneously. He got access to their money in a variety of ways, got them to assume debts with him for houses or cars or businesses, and then he simply scooted, and they couldn't find him. Take note: He denies that he was ever dishonest or ever defrauded anyone, even though he admits to some of the details of his pursuits and marriages. And the directors of the series, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (who made the Oscar-nominated , among other things) have to be somewhat imprecise about the number of women who were affected, because no one is exactly sure.