Jen Shah of 'Real Housewives' gets 6 1/2-year prison term

Jennifer Shah, a tearful member of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" who insisted she is not the character

she plays on the show, was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in prison for defrauding thousands of people, many of them vulnerable or older,

in a telemarketing scam that stretched nearly a decade.

Shah, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein as a leader of a nationwide fraud that targeted people

who were often unsophisticated electronically and could least afford to lose their money.

Shah pleaded guilty in July to a conspiracy charge. Prosecutors sought a 10-year prison term, which would have been a year under the federal sentencing guidelines

minimum recommendation but well above the three years in prison that Shah's lawyer suggested.