The Tinder Swindler- Online Dating Fraud

Online Dating Apps

People are shifting towards online dating sites or matchmaking networks in today's world, where everything is digitalizing. There are many applications where millions of people register and communicate with people they find interested, but scammers are more active on these apps because they tricked with people's minds and steal valuable things, data and money from them. Instead of finding love, they encounter a con artist attempting to dupe them into giving money. Women are an easy target for them because they believe in these cons and become entangled in their labyrinth.

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.