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.

At the outset of Friday’s hearing, Stein cautioned a courtroom packed with Shah’s family and friends and members of the media that he was not sentencing the person people see on television.

Stein said that person was “simply a character. It’s acting.” And he added that the housewives program “involves role playing. … It’s a heavily scripted operation.”

His words were echoed by Shah, who told the judge: “Reality TV has nothing to do with reality.”