Kriti Mehrotra
It was in 2023 when Todd Dean of Nashville, Tennessee, became a national sensation, as it came to light that he had been accused by several women of financial deception while dating them. He also acquired the moniker The Selfie Scammer for his alleged pattern of sending his partner/reported target numerous front-camera images or mini-vlogs per day instead of simply texting or calling. This much has even been chronicled in Netflix’s ‘Love Con Revenge: The Selfie Scammer,’ wherein many of his victims – like Karen Kofsky Alpert – actually open up about their experiences with him too.
Karen Alpert Suspected Todd Dean’s Alleged Schemes Before It Was Too Late
Although a proud native of New York, Karen Alpert was enjoying a vacation in the place she calls her second home when she first came across then-aspiring entrepreneur Todd Dean. They were both skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, when they happened to end up on the same lift by pure chance. He then decided to have a polite yet candid one-on-one conversation with the brunette beauty. According to her accounts, he asked about her background, work, and whether she was single, dating, or married before they rode down the mountains together and returned to their hotel.
It was there that Karen noticed Todd’s charm, especially when he treated everyone as if he knew them in the same way, resulting in her feeling an innate, genuine pull towards him. Therefore, she gave him her unwavering attention as he reportedly told her he was an entrepreneur from Seattle, Washington, with a second home right by the river in Sun Valley, which did impress her. That’s because she had a second home in the area for years, as revealed in the show, so she knew he had to be extremely successful to be able to afford it.
Karen and Todd seemingly connected over these shared similarities for a while before he mentioned he was actively working on several exciting investment projects and asked if she would want to join too. The initial amount he allegedly managed to secure from her was $5,000, which he reportedly followed by asking her to invest in a few more small businesses several times. She claims he told her these were primarily start-ups, but the amounts he requested were mostly in the range of $100,000, making her suspect something fishy was probably going on. That’s when she began keeping track of everything and soon believed she was being scammed, prompting her to step away.
Karen Alpert is a Family Woman Who Continues to Advocate For Truth
The moment Karen felt as if everything was not as Todd was portraying it to be, she drafted a formal document detailing that he owes her $24,920, which he signed without any hesitation. She believes he did so because he thought “it would make him look legit,” but it eventually only helped her in the long run when he defaulted following only a few payments. After all, she filed for a default judgment within months, which brought Todd’s name, his actions, and all the circumstances surrounding this case into the public record. In the end, in 2018, a judge entered a default judgment in Karen’s favor after Dean failed to repay her, though this was not a fraud conviction. Yet, since she has still not been repaid, the total now owed to her is $46,000 due to interest.
As for Karen’s current standing, even though her case against Todd has largely been resolved, she is still dedicated to bringing her truth about him to light. “I am sure I have never despised another human being on this planet as much as I despise Todd Dean,” she once said, which is why she even agreed to be featured in the Netflix documentary series. On a more personal level, it appears as if the adventure-loving travel enthusiast currently splits her time between her two homes in New York and Idaho, where she is surrounded by loved ones at every turn. In fact, it seems like she is also a devoted family woman, especially close to her elderly relatives, siblings, and kids, as well as their partners, so her priority is spending quality time with them.
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Karen Alpert is a Dedicated Yoga Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
As for Karen’s professional experiences, she is actually a marketing professional turned proud yoga entrepreneur. She reportedly earned a Bachelor’s in Economics from the University at Albany in 1985 before enrolling in New York University’s Stern School of Business for a Master’s in Business Administration. It was only after she graduated that she kick-started her career, initially serving as a Marketing Professional at Fragrance Evaluation from 1990 to 1997, prior to taking a long break. She returned to work in 2010, but by this point, she had completely switched gears as well as developed a deep passion for yoga, resulting in her launching her own business in December.
Since then, Karen has not only taken YogaFlex to new heights of success by breaking glass ceilings and having 3 different locations, but she has also evolved herself. She currently holds the high-level Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500-hour certification and is an expert in Hot Yoga, Vinyasa Inferno Hot Pilates (IHP), and Bootcamp Yoga. It’s imperative to note that while the entrepreneur is undeniably thriving as of writing, she is even extremely generous with her affluence, as she doesn’t hesitate to give back to the community/organizations dear to her. In the past 4 years alone, she has publicly donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the National Scleroderma Foundation, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
