Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Todd Dean |
| Born | Late July 1968, Billings, Montana, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Self-described Entrepreneur, Business Consultant |
| Known For | “The Selfie Scammer”; Featured on Netflix’s Love Con Revenge |
| Companies | Sanjara Wellness (defunct), Todd Dean & Co. |
| Current Location | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Net Worth | Effectively zero; filed for bankruptcy in December 2023 |
| LinkedIn Title | Founder & CEO, Todd Dean & Co. |
Introduction: A Man Built on Image
Some people become famous for what they build. Todd Dean became famous for what he pretended to build.
Born in Montana in the summer of 1968, Todd Dean spent decades crafting a version of himself that was polished, inspiring, and magnetic — and for a long time, it worked. He had the confidence of a man who had made it. He talked like an entrepreneur, dressed like a success story, and lived in a high-rise condo in the heart of Nashville. On LinkedIn, he called himself a visionary. On dating apps, he called himself a man with a mission.
But underneath all of that? Investigators, journalists, and at least eight different women would eventually allege that there was no money, no business, and no plan. Just a very persuasive man with a front-facing camera and a talent for keeping women emotionally hooked.
Todd Dean became the subject of a Netflix documentary, a wave of civil lawsuits, and countless news reports. His story raises uncomfortable questions about trust, charm, and what happens when the legal system struggles to catch someone who has never technically broken the law — or at least, that’s how he sees it.
This is his story, told plainly.
See also “Sina Gebre Ab Net Worth: How Much Is He Really Worth?“
Early Life: Growing Up in Big Sky Country
Todd Dean was born in Billings, Montana, in July 1968, the second of two children raised by his parents, Robert and Melanie Dean. By most accounts from those who knew him growing up, the household was a stable and caring one — a fairly typical American family in a fairly typical American city.
Billings is Montana’s largest city, though “largest” is relative out there. It’s a working-class place, surrounded by wide-open land and a sky that seems to stretch forever. It is not the kind of place that tends to produce Instagram-ready lifestyle entrepreneurs. But Todd had his eye on something bigger.
He attended Billings West High School and graduated in 1986. Those who have followed his story note that even then, Todd was reportedly good at making people feel special — a natural with people, comfortable in conversation, and aware of the effect his presence had on others.
Education: Earning the Credentials
After high school, Todd went on to pursue a university education, completing his degree in 1992. Though the specific institution is not widely reported in public records, his graduation timeline suggests he completed a standard four-year program.
Whether he pursued business, psychology, or something else entirely isn’t entirely clear from publicly available records. What is clear is that by the time he finished his degree, he had the foundation to enter the professional world — at least on paper.
Early Career: Selling Himself to Sell Insurance
Fresh out of university, Todd landed a role in life insurance sales and management, working for American Income Life. It’s a telling start. Life insurance is an industry that rewards those who can connect with strangers quickly, build trust, and keep people engaged long enough to sign on the dotted line. Todd, by most accounts, was good at all three.
He spent years in this industry, moving around and eventually transitioning toward what he would later describe as entrepreneurship and consulting. Over time, he built up a professional-looking resume — a LinkedIn profile packed with titles, leadership language, and the vocabulary of the modern startup world.
He relocated to Seattle for a period, then eventually landed in Nashville, Tennessee — a city that was, during this time, booming with young professionals, startups, and an increasingly trendy downtown scene.
Nashville suited Todd. He rented a condo in a downtown high-rise with a balcony view of the city. He dressed well. He photographed well. And he had a dream — or at least, he described one.
The Big Idea: Sanjara Wellness
Somewhere around the mid-2010s, Todd Dean became obsessed with an idea. He would build a luxury mental health and wellness retreat center in the hills of southern Kentucky. He called it Sanjara Wellness.
On paper, the concept was genuinely appealing. Mental health awareness was growing. Luxury treatment retreats were a booming market. And Todd spoke about Sanjara with the kind of quiet conviction that made people want to believe in it.
He described Sanjara as a place that would blend traditional therapeutic practices with holistic wellness — a yin-and-yang approach to helping people heal from the inside out. He positioned himself as the Founder and CEO. He held meetings with potential investors. He purchased land in Kentucky where the facility was meant to be built.
There was a LinkedIn page. There was a website. There was even an assistant, a woman named Sheena, who worked for him in the venture.
What Sanjara never had — at least according to those who looked closely — was a real business structure capable of sustaining itself. It never opened its doors. And the money that flowed toward it, according to lawsuits filed later, appeared to have gone somewhere else entirely.
The Pattern: How the Selfie Scammer Worked
This is where Todd Dean’s story gets complicated — and painful for the women involved.
Beginning at least as far back as the mid-2010s, Todd developed a pattern in his romantic relationships that investigators and victims would later describe in remarkably consistent terms.
He would meet women — often through Facebook Dating or other platforms — and move quickly. He was charming, attentive, and unusually communicative. Rather than texting, he would send constant selfies: video messages, front-camera clips of him drinking coffee on his balcony, walking downtown, or simply talking to the camera about his day. Women said it felt intimate, like they were truly being let into his life.
Then came the love bombing. Affection, validation, deep conversations, future talk. Women across different states described feeling like they had found someone extraordinarily special.
Then, gradually, came the asks. Small loans at first. Then larger ones. Todd would explain that Sanjara needed funding, that cash was temporarily tied up, that an investment was just around the corner. He gave some women promissory notes promising repayment. He told at least one woman he was a military veteran who had survived a traumatic experience in war.
Multiple women loaned him tens of thousands of dollars. At least eight eventually came forward publicly. The total amount allegedly taken across these relationships runs into six figures.
Public Exposure and the Media Storm
In June 2023, Nashville’s WSMV4 investigative team published a story that would change Todd Dean’s life. Reporter Jeremy Finley documented the allegations of several women who said they had been financially and emotionally deceived by the same man.
The story spread rapidly. Women who had never spoken to one another recognized the same tactics, the same stories, the same selfies. Todd earned a nickname that would stick: the Selfie Scammer.
Private investigator Brianne Joseph and romance scam advocate Cecilie Fjellhøy — who had herself survived a high-profile romance scam — became key figures in building the case against Todd. Fjellhøy, already known for her work exposing the “Tinder Swindler,” began connecting victims and pushing for accountability.
Together, they tracked down Sheena, Todd’s former Sanjara assistant, who provided information about bank accounts and transfers that seemed to link personal expenses to business funds. The picture that emerged was of a man who used Sanjara as a financial vehicle — a way to collect money under the guise of entrepreneurship, then spend it on his lifestyle.
Todd denied wrongdoing. He claimed he was trying to build a real business. He portrayed himself as a victim of a smear campaign.
In Court: Judgments, Disappearances, and Bankruptcy
The civil cases against Todd Dean began piling up. Women sued him for the money they said he owed them. In July 2023, one Nashville woman received a default judgment of over $71,000 against Sanjara Wellness — a judgment made possible largely because Todd failed to appear in court.
On multiple occasions, Todd did not show up for scheduled hearings. Jill Schardein, one of the most publicly visible accusers, made the trip from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Nashville courtrooms at least six separate times trying to hold him accountable. When a WSMV4 reporter finally located Todd during one of his absences from court, he was at a poker game.
A court eventually ruled that Todd owed Jill Schardein over $30,000. But collecting that money proved to be another matter entirely.
In December 2023, Todd Dean filed for personal bankruptcy. During a subsequent creditor meeting conducted via Zoom, he confirmed what the women had suspected: he had no income and no job. He stated, directly, that he had been living off loans taken from women he was dating and from other creditors while attempting to build Sanjara.
The Sanjara property in Kentucky — land that had been valued and even listed for sale at $3.4 million — was held under a business LLC rather than in Todd’s personal name. Courts ruled that proceeds from selling it could not be applied directly to his personal debts. The bankruptcy trustee announced they were “hunting for money” to repay creditors. Sanjara Wellness filed for its own bankruptcy shortly after and closed permanently.
Personal Life: Family, Claims, and What’s Real
Todd Dean reportedly has children, though details about his family relationships are not broadly documented in public reporting. He grew up with one sibling, raised by parents Robert and Melanie Dean in Billings.
One of the most striking elements of Todd’s personal conduct, according to his alleged victims, was the ease with which he fabricated emotional anchors. He reportedly told women he was a military veteran who carried PTSD from watching his best friend — a man he called Clarence — die while saving his life in combat. No evidence of military service has been publicly confirmed.
The layers of fabrication extended even to his emotional backstory, leaving victims unsure which parts of the man they had fallen for were real and which were constructed.
Financial Situation: A Net Worth of Almost Nothing
Let’s be direct about this, because it matters.
Todd Dean’s net worth, as of the available public record, is effectively zero — or worse, negative. He filed for personal bankruptcy at the end of 2023. He openly admitted in a legal proceeding that he had no income and no job. Courts awarded significant judgments against him that he has not repaid.
Whatever assets he may have held were either placed in business LLCs beyond the reach of personal creditors, or simply did not exist in the way he claimed. His high-rise Nashville condo was a rental. His Sanjara property was a business asset that went to creditors. His LinkedIn titles and CEO status were self-declared labels, not reflections of financial substance.
There is no known stock portfolio, real estate portfolio, or investment base. The money that flowed through his life appears to have come largely from the women he was dating, not from business revenue.
In short: Todd Dean looks wealthy. By every measurable financial metric, he is not.
Life Today: Still in Nashville, Still the Visionary
As of late 2025 and into 2026, Todd Dean remains in Nashville, Tennessee. Despite the bankruptcy, the lawsuits, the Netflix documentary, and the public branding as the Selfie Scammer, he has not relocated or gone quiet.
On LinkedIn, he continues to present himself as the Founder and CEO of Todd Dean & Co., which he describes as a global, full-service business advisory firm focused on helping mid-market and enterprise-level businesses grow. He describes himself as a consultant and motivational guide for entrepreneurs.
Netflix’s Love Con Revenge: The Selfie Scammer aired in 2025 and quickly became one of the platform’s most-watched shows. The documentary featured interviews with his victims, archival footage, and details of the investigations by Brianne Joseph and Cecilie Fjellhøy. It reached the number two spot on Netflix’s most-watched list.
None of his accusers have received their money back.
None of his victims have seen him criminally charged.
And Todd Dean, by all appearances, continues to live much the same way he always has.
See also “Sina Gebre Ab Net Worth: How Much Is He Really Worth?“
Final Words
Todd Dean’s story is uncomfortable in a very specific way. It does not fit neatly into a box. He is not a convicted felon. He has never been arrested. He did not hack anyone’s accounts or forge any documents in a way the courts have pinned him for.
What he did, allegedly, was something older and harder to prosecute: he made people feel loved and then let them carry the cost of that love.
The women who came forward — Jill, Karen, Kristi, Bridget, and several others — lost not just money but months and years of emotional energy. They trusted someone who, it appears, was never quite the person he showed them.
What makes Todd Dean stand out is not the scale of the fraud. The Tinder Swindler moved larger sums. What makes him notable is the intimacy of it. The selfies. The daily video messages. The carefully constructed feeling of being seen. He didn’t just take money — he built relationships, real ones from the victim’s side, and then used those relationships as a financial resource.
The legal system, as currently designed, struggles enormously with this kind of behavior when no single wire transfer is large enough to trigger federal charges and when every loan comes with a promise and sometimes even a signed note.
Todd Dean walks free. His victims are left to rebuild.
That tension — between what the law can do and what justice actually looks like — is what makes this story linger.
FAQs
1. Who is Todd Dean?
Todd Dean is a Nashville-based self-described entrepreneur who was publicly accused by at least eight women of financially deceiving them while in romantic relationships. He became known as the “Selfie Scammer” after a 2023 investigative news report and was later featured prominently in the Netflix documentary series Love Con Revenge.
2. Where did Todd Dean grow up?
He was born in Billings, Montana, in July 1968, and grew up there alongside one sibling. He attended Billings West High School and graduated in 1986.
3. What is Sanjara Wellness?
Sanjara Wellness was a mental health and wellness retreat center that Todd Dean claimed to be building on land in southern Kentucky. It was the vehicle he used, according to his accusers, to solicit money from women. The facility never opened. Sanjara Wellness LLC filed for bankruptcy and shut down permanently.
4. What is Todd Dean’s actual net worth?
Effectively nothing. He filed for personal bankruptcy in December 2023 and confirmed in a creditor meeting that he had no income and no job. Court judgments against him remain largely uncollected.
5. Why is he called the Selfie Scammer?
Because his primary communication tool with romantic partners was an endless stream of front-camera selfies and short video messages sent throughout the day. The volume and intimacy of these images helped him build strong emotional connections with women before allegedly asking them for money.
6. Was Todd Dean ever criminally charged?
No. Despite numerous civil lawsuits and widespread media coverage, he has never been criminally arrested or charged. His accusers have expressed frustration at the limitations of the legal system in addressing this type of relationship-based financial manipulation.
7. How much money did his alleged victims lose?
Individual losses ranged into the tens of thousands of dollars per person. Jill Schardein loaned him nearly $25,000. One unnamed Nashville woman won a default judgment of over $71,000. Across all alleged victims, the total appears to reach into six figures.
8. Who investigated Todd Dean?
Nashville’s WSMV4 investigative journalist Jeremy Finley broke the story in June 2023. Private investigator Brianne Joseph and romance fraud advocate Cecilie Fjellhøy later took up the case and connected multiple victims, building evidence for civil proceedings and the Netflix documentary.
9. What is Todd Dean doing now?
He remains in Nashville and continues to present himself on LinkedIn as the CEO of Todd Dean & Co., a business advisory firm. He has not publicly acknowledged wrongdoing and has largely continued his lifestyle despite the bankruptcy and media exposure.
10. Did Todd Dean have a real job?
He worked in life insurance sales and management early in his career, starting around 1992. His later entrepreneurial ventures, including Sanjara Wellness and Todd Dean & Co., were not financially productive in any documented way. He admitted under oath that he lived off money borrowed from women and other creditors.
11. Did the Netflix documentary lead to any legal consequences?
Not directly. Love Con Revenge elevated his profile enormously and brought renewed public attention, but as of the time of this writing, no criminal charges have followed the documentary’s release.
12. What can Todd Dean’s story teach us about romance scams?
His case illustrates that romance fraud does not always look like a foreign prince asking for wire transfers. It can come from a handsome, well-spoken, locally present person who builds a genuine emotional relationship over months or years before making financial requests. The most effective deceptions feel the most real. His story is a reminder that love and caution are not mutually exclusive — and that asking questions about someone’s finances is not unromantic. It’s smart.
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