If you’re a fan of true crime you should check out Netflix’s newest documentary The Tinder Swindler even though I will mainly be spoiling the mechanics behind the movie. The Tinder Swindler a British documentary film that was released around a week ago that focuses on Shimon Hayut, a convicted fraudster from Israel. The documentary is actually from the team producers of Don’t F**ck With Cats, another well known crime documentary that became widely talked about through social media.
The documentary tells the story of a master Tinder conman by the alias of Simon Leviev who has seduced and swindled young women for millions and is a fugitive from justice in several countries. He used the dating app to acquire a life of luxury by defrauding women all throughout Europe by posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul. He did this by establishing lines or credits and loans in their names, leaving them to handle his bills. Now i’m sure many of you are wondering how he was able to get away with it even though he was already convicted with fraud. In able to pull off his schemes he utilized a number of fake identities. Because he was convicted of Fraud in Finland with his real name Shimon Hayut, he used the alias Simon Leviev on Tinder. He claimed to be the son of wealthy diamond tycoon Lev Leviev.
Tinder Swindler victims
He would find his victims on Tinder and lured them in with expensive dates with private jets, expensive dinners, and luxury hotels. He would then slowly build their relationship while traveling around the world and secretly dating other women behind their backs. He would tell his “girlfriends” that his “enemies” were after him and would send pictures of his bleeding “bodyguard” for proof. Then he would urgently message each woman to say that his credit card could not be used for security reasons and ask her to open a new one under her name for him to use. In total he was able to con around 10 million dollars from his swindling. Leviev would evade repayment by cajoling, threatening and otherwise stalling his victims.
After conning so many women, it was only natural one of them would catch on. his long-time girlfriend Ayleen Koeleman saw a post about his actions and set out to give him a taste of his own medicine. When a story about him went viral, he turned to her for support and she convinced him that she would help him earn money by selling designer brand clothes, then choosing to keep the cash for herself. She went even further to figure out where his next travel was and gave the authorities notice of his plans to escape to Greece. Simon Leviev was wanted by the police in Israel, and reported for fraud in Sweden, England, Germany, Denmark and Norway. Norwegian police even dropped the investigation. He was finally arrested in 2019 and sentenced to 15 months in prison for fraud in Israel thanks to Koeleman.
Though Leviev was still on Tinder when the documentary was released, the dating app has since banned him from the platform. Regardless, at the end of the documentary we see Simon continuing the same lifestyle he led before prison, along with a new girlfriend so it leaves an interesting interpretation for the audience to end with and leave them curious about what he is doing now.
Hi Julianna,
I watched “Don’t F**ck With Cats” when it first came out, so I was excited to read your summary of this documentary when you said they were produced by the same people. It’s crazy to think that this guy got away with fraud for so long, even though he was wanted in so many countries. It would be interesting to do a psychoanalysis on him and see why he failed to feel sympathy for betraying the women that he built a short-term relationship with. I would predict that he is psychopathic and narcissistic. Also, only fifteen months in prison? That is absurd I think he should get at least 10-15 years. And he should be tasked with returning the money to the people that he took advantage of, because that credit and debt will follow them for the rest of their life due to his actions.
Hi Julianna,
I surprisingly know about this guy, and I haven’t even watched the series! It’s a ridiculous story, and I understand how people would say, “Oh my God, how could those girls be so dumb,” but the honest truth is we trust people, and when things happen so fast, it is hard to pull back. You fight with your inner thoughts about what is true or not, but you find yourself being dragged in further and further. I think this is an essential documentary for people to watch because I truly believe there are A LOT of scammers/catfishes out there taking advantage of hopeless romantics. It’s astonishing to read about the amount of money that was exchanging hands and that he got out of prison. I can’t imagine how those women felt. Thanks for the review!
Would a billionaire really ‘need’ to go on Tinder to look for dates in real life? If this man posed as a Shop worker instead of the Son of a billionaire, would all these women have fallen for it??. Also what message do you give if you reviewed such a big scamm?.. You get lots of newspaper payouts and publicity on TV shows. I had a recurring attempted Scamm that they call the Nigerian Scamm using a man’s many many photos in America. I wasn’t even looking for friendship.as I’m married happily to a great man. Yet the scammers were persistent with them trying to use 14 different email addresses under the same name then trying to UP their game as, to me, it was very very obvious. Very obvious what the scammers were doing. The scammers even said to me eventually “I’m talking to someone who is nasty to me”. So it makes me wonder if the ‘victims’are also engaging in some form of grooming that make the scammers hooked. I’ve never been targeted by a Rommance Scammer before and was not even educated on the subject as I don’t do much social media at all. But again even when they tried to UP their game it was obvious????
This was a very interesting read as I was not previously aware of this convoluted series of events. I can not help but question how in the world did these women not realize it was a scam! Then, I realized how necessary it is that I dissect the intricate nature in which ‘Simon Leviev’ conned countless women. Tinder, a dating app, is anonymous and for the most part…untraceable. It is extremely simple to create a fake life, fake job description, etc. To put myself in these women’s shoes, I would most likely be suspicious. That suspicion would fade, however, because who would’ve guessed that there was a mastermind deceiver on the other end of the my device! This just proves how careful you must be online!
I also don’t see these so called ‘generous and kind hearted’ tinder victim women emptying g so much as a £20 note to a homeless man to afford a decent meal!! Yet they freely give out all that money to a billionaire?? And yes that Cecil had to get out loans and didn’t have 200 thousand upfront so she says but you have to have a high salary to he given that type of loan in the first place.
We see a newspaper article that Cecil slats UK authorities…. Well then go back to your own country then!!