In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission recorded consumers
reported losing $547 million last year, in 2021 in love scams.

The Tinder Application And The Tinder Swindler

Tinder application like other applications is also one of
the match-making apps where millions of people are registered, and this app
caught the attention of many people when a documentary, “The Tinder Swindler” was
released on Netflix this year (2022).

Felicity Morris directed The Tinder Swindler, a British true-crime documentary film that premiered on Netflix on February 2, 2022. The movie
depicts the story of Israeli conman Simon Leviev, who is born Shimon Hayut. He
used the dating app Tinder to connect with people who he then emotionally
tricked into financially supporting his opulent lifestyle on the premise of
escaping his “enemies.”

Shimon Hayut is the real name of the main character of The
Tinder Swindler documentary he was born in Israel and went around Europe posing
as the son of Russian-Israeli diamond tycoon Lev Leviev, called the Diamond
King. He pretended to be Simon Leviev on the dating app Tinder and duped women
into borrowing him the money he would never pay back. He would attract women with
extravagant gifts and fly them to dinners on private jets with money he had
taken from other women he had scammed.

Later, he would pretend that he was being chased by his
“enemies,” sending the same messages and photographs to each woman whom he had scammed. He claimed that he had been stabbed, and threatened with a knife and
that his bodyguard had protected him, but was injured. He then urged his
victims to support him financially as a result of the security issues, which
allegedly prevented him from using his credit cards and bank accounts; the
women would frequently take out bank loans and new credit cards to assist him,
without knowing his evil intentions.

Furthermore, he’d then use the money he’d made from the lie to entice new
victims, thus running a Ponzi scam. Later, he would mail counterfeit paperwork
purporting to demonstrate false bank transfers, ostensibly repaying his victim
and then disengaging from the victims. He would even threaten them and use
manipulation to demand extra money from them on occasion. He is thought to have
scammed $10 million from people all around the world.

 Legal Actions Against Him

Image by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

In 2017, he was found guilty of scamming women in Finland,
but he fled to Israel. After pleading guilty to fraud charges, he was
imprisoned in Israel in 2019 and two and half year in Finnish prison. Despite the fact that he was condemned to 15
months in prison, he was released after only 5 months.

When some of the victims Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm, and Ayleen Charlotte sued him and legal actions were taken against him, then he was kicked out of the dating apps like Hinge and Tinder, and many others. He has kept his innocence and has become an Instagram
influencer, posting pictures of his lavish existence. 

However, his legal difficulties persist. The genuine Leviev
family was reportedly suing Hayut. He is accused by the billionaires of
benefitting by falsely claiming to be Leviev’s son.

This documentary The Tinder Swindler received 45.8 million
hours of global viewing between the 31st of January and the 6th of February,
and it debuted in the top ten on Netflix in 92 countries.

“All that glitters is not gold,” as the saying
goes, and this is especially true in the realm of online dating or match-making,
where what you see and hear is not always accurate. You must exercise greater
caution while selecting a mate online. If you use such apps, you must be extra
cautious because romance scammers might target both your heart and your wallet.