Exclusive Video: How Romance Scammer Derek Alldred Gained The Trust Of A Teacher And Family — And Then Ruined Them

Tracy met scammer Derek Alldred on Match.com in 2010, and immediately fell for his charm, her sister Sara tells us in this exclusive interview with the team behind the upcoming documentary “Seduced by Evil” on Oxygen, February 9, 8/7c.

It was her sister’s first relationship with someone from a dating website. An elementary school teacher still moving on from a bad divorce, she was the ideal target for Alldred: caring, vulnerable, trusting.

Derek Alldred, known for scamming at least 27 women in elaborate love cons, appeared to be a catch.

Tracy had no idea that Alldred had just gotten out of prison, her sister tells us. He had been serving time for six felonies including embezzlement, burglary, and making false insurance claims across four California counties, reported Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Most of these convictions had to do with Alldred taking on personas including a ranking firefighter and pediatrician in order to gain access to emergency rooms to pilfer pain medication.

“Derek was a very nice guy, very caring. He fit in really well with our family… he was always really helpful with everything,” said Sara, who added that it seemed “almost too good to be true.”


And it was too good.

Derek Alldred, a career con artist, was misrepresenting himself to Sara’s sister. He said he was an investment banker for the Royal Bank of Scotland, and would ask her sister for rides to an office in downtown Sacramento where he would go in on his own to drop something off quickly.

“When he would leave the house, he had on nice suits, very well dressed. He was gone, he would come back, so we all just assumed he was working,” remembered Sara. Derek had nothing “but good things to say about his family.” Sara’s family knew that he was adopted, that his mother lived in Sedona, Arizona, and that his father had died.

“We were just so happy that my sister had met such a great guy,” recalled Sara.

Alldred and Tracy moved in together. He told her he sold his house in El Dorado Hills — “which I don’t think that he ever had,” said Sarah — and began working “from home.” He was helpful around the house, making dinner and taking care of the kids.

Alldred’s daughter, who some of the other conned women in “Seduced by Evil” remember hearing about but never meeting, was a big part of the family, Sara said.

“Derek's daughter was a very big part of our family. She was always at Christmas, holidays, Thanksgiving, my parents had birthday parties for Derek's daughter and all of her friends at their house, 'cause they had just a great house for entertaining,” said Sara. Derek’s daughter also joined the family for vacations to Lake Tahoe, where Sara’s parents kept a place.

But then Alldred planned a trip to Hawaii for the entire family. Judging by the testimonies of the women involved, it was a popular vacation spot for him.

He was planning on proposing to Sara’s sister, he told them. The couple married in the spring of 2011.

About a year into the relationship, the red flags started appearing.

“He somehow had her phone, like her cellphone forwarded to his phone so anytime someone would call or text, it would go directly to him,” said Sara, adding that when she asked him why he was answering her sister’s phone, all he said was “that’s weird.”

 And then, Sara said, her parents started getting phone calls from the bank that her mortgage on her house was not getting paid — the loan was in their name — and that Alldred would shrug it off as a bank error. Alldred had reportedly told her sister that he would handle the finances, her mother told KARE 11, an NBC-affiliate in Minnesota.

Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported that he even produced a letter from a lawyer that included a ‘Deed of Reconveyance,’ saying the debt on the home had been paid off.

A few weeks before Christmas 2012, Alldred told Sara’s parents that the heating unit in their house was fried, so his mother was going to pay for the whole unit. When Sara’s mother called Alldred’s mother to thank her, Derek’s mother had no idea what she was talking about.

Sara’s mother Janet dropped by the house — her daughter had a pair of prized purebred boxers she was concerned about, Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported. She then saw men packing up her daughter’s belongings, and found out the house had been auctioned off for a fraction of its price.

Sara’s father rushed off to the hotel where the couple and their kids were put up. Derek had already left, but Sara tracked his location on Facebook messenger to downtown Sacramento. By the time the cops got there, he had already skipped town, and was found in Los Angeles by his parole officer.

He called Sara’s sister to explain, and that’s when the whole family found out he had been in prison prior to the match made online.

And then he completely vanished.

The family never saw the dogs again, either.

“My sister was angry, she was hurt, shocked, couldn't believe this was really happening. It was a crazy time,” said Sara, adding that her family still took care of Alldred’s daughter. He had left behind his child and all of his belongings — and also had stolen valuables. Sara said that he cleared out Sara’s sister’s savings account and her children’s accounts in addition to causing the foreclosure of her house.

“Not only did Derek just vanish and wipe out my sister financially and just leave her in distress, he also broke into my mom's safe and stole all of her jewelry and pawned it,” said Sara.

Sara’s family was “angry and just blindsided, but at the same time as crazy as it may sound after a little bit, we were just like wow, is this real life?”  Sara said it was like something out of the movies.

“This guy's good,” Sara said, explaining that she hopes her family’s story will serve as an eye opener. “This clearly can happen to anyone, 'cause it did. It happened to my family and it happened to dozens of other women.”

Derek Alldred was sentenced to 24 years in prison for mail fraud and aggravated identity fraud in August, 2018.

Watch the fascinatingly terrible story unfold in the documentary "Seduced by Evil" on Oxygen, February 9, 8/7c.