Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Reality TV Star Is In BIG Trouble - The Jen Shah Story

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

Jen Shah, a cast member of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, built her persona around glamour and wealth, but behind the scenes, she was running a nationwide telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people. Alongside her assistant, Stuart Smith, Shah operated lead lists and sales floors that tricked victims into paying for bogus “business services” they didn’t need. The scheme raked in millions, fueling her lavish lifestyle and reality TV image.

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and Jen, all she really wants to do is be wealthy so that she can flex and have, you know, nice fancy things. She's just that kind of person. And she's willing to do whatever it takes to be rich, even if it means breaking the law. And one day, around 2012, she gets an idea that's going to change her life forever. She starts a company that works with telemarketing firms, and they come up with this plan to target elderly people and scam them out of their money. So she and her company get to work, and I guess there are other telemarketing companies working with her, hitting up vulnerable elderly people, promising them things like,

We know how to make you rich, and all you gotta do is buy our online courses. And they basically try and sell them fake online businesses and stuff. You know that whole scam. And of course, these are you. elderly people don't know any better. Some of them are in their 90s. Some of them are mentally unwell, so they buy these courses and they get scammed out of all their money. Oh, but it gets worse. Jen's company's job specifically is to seek out and find not just elderly people, but the most vulnerable, gullible types of elderly people. And they put these people's name on a list. It's like a

list of easy targets. And then they give that list of names to telemarketers. And then those telemarketers, and those telemarketers scam them and they scam them over and over again and then Jen's company gets a cut of the sales. And this goes really well for her. I mean, the telemarketers are conning all kinds of people selling a ton. In fact, this scheme is going so well that Jen starts selling the contact info for the people she already scammed to other companies who scam. So that these victims can get scammed even more by separate companies that do the same thing. And this whole thing goes on for years. She's pulling in pretty good income for herself, which is great for her. However, scams like these have real-world consequences.

Some of this stuff is really hurting people. Like, the telemarketers sell these bullshit courses to one elderly woman, promising that these courses will make her super rich or whatever. But the courses have no real value. They've never made anyone rich. However, the telemarketers keep scamming this poor woman over and over again until she's bought $44,000 worth on her, credit cards. And she does this until she can't pay her rent or any of her bills, and eventually

she goes completely bankrupt. Another time, they scam a 92-year-old man out of more than $100,000, promising to make him rich and selling nonsense courses or whatever. And when this guy realizes the whole thing is a con, I guess it's just too much for him, and he goes an unalives himself. they literally drove a 92-year-old World War II veteran to unalive himself. These people are the absolute worst. And I don't know if Jen knows or she just doesn't think about the consequences or she just doesn't care, but she keeps going. Because she's making good money from all this. I mean, at this point, she and her crew have scammed millions of dollars, mostly from elderly people.

And, you know, she's a flashy person, so, you know, she's got to like take all this newly made. money and show the world how rich she is now and she's like all flexing on the gram. And so things clearly seem to be going well for her. And no one in her social life suspects anything shady is going on. But one day in 2019, shit gets real weird. Because there's a reality TV show franchise called Real Housewives. And the producers of that show decide to create another spinoff called The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City is where Jen lives. And there, Jen is well known for having a big personality and throwing these like lavish parties for her friends and just kind of being a rich diva. So she is actually perfect for this show.

And so Jen goes and she films this reality show. And to her credit, she's very entertaining on it. So go hang out with weird ass very posies that murder is a grandpa. And that's better. And she's always wanting to make sure that she's seen as the wealthiest of the real housewives. and she goes out and she buys like a bunch of fake designer jewelry and bags. And I guess she doesn't want to blow all her money on that stuff, but she still wants people to believe that she has tons of name brand like Chanel and Fendi and Louis Vuitton.

She also constantly rolls around with a four assistant entourage that she calls the Shah Squad, because her name is Jen Shah. And when she's not showing off her wealth, she's doing the other stuff that plays really well on reality TV, being a train wreck. And so in 2020, crazy. Shut the fuck. I'm going to feel married. Shut up. And so in 2020, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs its first season, and it's a success, and Jen is suddenly semi-famous now. Here's the thing, though.

Even though she's getting all this attention, she's still running her company selling leads to telemarketers who then scam these elderly people. Because not only is Jen a flashy diva type person in real life, but she really needs to keep up this image for the TV show. Like, she needs to keep playing it up. And so she needs as much money as possible in order to keep this image going. I love emeralds because not only are they beautiful, but they're good luck and green. I mean, green reminds me of money. Now, you would think with all this new attention on her, people would start to wonder,

where is Jen getting all this money to live like she does? And they do wonder that. And people ask her, and she just kind of gives these like vague explanations. People are wondering, how'd you get so rich? My background is in direct response marketing for about 20 years. So our company does advertising. We have a platform that helps people acquire customers. And so she keeps her scams going.

And Real Housewives of Salt Lake City gets renewed for another season and she jumps right back into filming and no one suspects she's part of this big operation that just defrauds people. Until. Over the past, 10 years, Jen and her telemarketing co-conspirators have apparently scammed people out of somewhere around $6.5 million, maybe more. And because they've scammed so many people, eventually the Department of Homeland Security and the New York Police Department catch on. Like, they've been investigating this scamming network, and they start taking people down and getting some of them to flip. And the feds end up following this trail of scammers all the way back to Jen. And so in 2021, Jen and the whole cast and TV crew, they're filming the second season of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,

and the Housewives, they're on a shuttle bus. And I guess they're about to head to Colorado to like film something. And Jen suddenly gets a phone call, telling her that the feds are looking for her. So she knows she's about to get arrested. And she doesn't want it to happen during filming because that's definitely some drama that will make it into the show. And so she immediately flees the scene.

Someone drives her away. A few minutes later, the Department of Homeland Security shows up looking for her. Homeland Security. We're looking for Jen Shaw. She just left. Well, she's not there, but eventually the feds do find her, and so, bam, they arrest her. And I don't have her mugshot, but here she is crying. I am innocent.

I did not do any of the things that have been alleged against me. And so Jen ends up pleading guilty, and she gets six and a half years in prison.