There are some spoilers here, including what Simon is doing now
I was scared to watch The Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler. It ended up being fascinating, horrifying and a study in modern courtship. I somewhat identified with the women who got scammed and who were brave enough to go public with their stories. While I like to think that there’s no way I would lend a date money, it does give you sympathy for the victims. Israeli grifter “Simon Leviev” (not his real name), spends months grooming women he meets on Tinder. He takes them on private planes and to exclusive restaurants around the world where all the staff know him. He wears designer clothes, drives supercars, stays in the best hotels and flies around the world frequently. He’s attractive, charming and seemingly rich beyond belief. In reality he’s using victim’s money to woo other women, rinse and repeat. People Magazine has more about this documentary and case, and I’m only excerpting the basics. I also am not mentioning my favorite parts because I want to give you a chance to watch it.
Titled The Tinder Swindler, the two-hour film that premiered on Feb. 2 chronicles the real-life events of a serial fraudster who conned an estimated 10 million dollars out of women he attracted on the popular dating app, Tinder.
Though he disguised himself under various aliases, the swindler is widely recognized as Simon Leviev, who claimed he worked in a dangerous diamond business and was the son of billionaire Israeli diamond oligarch Lev Leviev.
The scandal-based documentary is recounted through shocking, yet heartbreaking stories told by [some] of the many women who fell victim to the Tinder trickster.
If you want to know more about Simon and what consequences he’s faced, you can read People’s full writeup. Buzzfeed has even more facts about him. Without giving too much away, I want more justice for these women. Leviev and his co-conspirators should be paying much more for their crimes. I’m not going to say more than that as this was just released and a lot of you haven’t watched it yet.
Leviev has been banned from Tinder, but how long did it take?
Leviev’s Instagram is now private, however it was active all weekend up until Sunday. He was posting videos and photos to his stories from private planes, in helicopters and in big conference rooms. That could have been old content, but I doubt it. I hope someone was downloading and cataloging his social media for a future case. He also posted these messages on Friday and Sunday.
photos via Instagram and credit Netflix
I watched it over the weekend. I can see how they all fell for the con. He incorporates sex, money, diamonds and danger. The woman get to “save” him with money thinking it would come back to them 10 fold. Since he is the son of billionaire. And he created a digital footprint planting stories about this family he never belonged to. It’s a sobering reminder never to blindly trust someone you meet on the internet. They also have great tools to do background checks on people. For 10 bucks it’s worth it. These women were broken emotionally and financially by him. And he barely paid a price for it.
Not gonna watch this nor am I on dating apps anymore (frustrating), but that is a good-looking dude and I see how this could very easily happen.
Edit: no idea why this became a reply 🤔
Absolutely. It’s easy to say ‘why would you lend a date money’ byt when you actually watch it, you can 100% see how these women got to that point. This is why grooming exists! To get people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. If the first date was a private jet and, like you say, there is clearly digital evidence from a google search to support that this man is legitimate and genuinely that rich, then you cannot blame them for assuming they would be reimbursed.
Don’t want to write major spoilers but he was not working alone and that needs to be addressed.
Yes I never thought I would be grifted. But back in 2016 I was in a bad place. And someone that I thought was helping me took me for some money. And I handed it right over like a fool. It was a hard lesson to learn about trusting people.
See the thing is, I don’t see looks in that way. A good looking guy can get ugly real fast. The second someone asks me for money that I don’t know well its good bye. Fast. I don’t care how but a person who pretends to be wealthy will always have a source of money that wouldn’t involve asking a stranger. Nope. I think everyone lies until proven otherwise though. Cynical.
The other thing is I donate to places often so ots not about being cheap.
Poor women.
One of the people who clearly helped him was his bodyguard. He tries to be a celebrity now in Poland (we are both Polish), he sued Netflix for 3 mln euro for using his image without permission and a celebrity lawyer represents him. I hope Netflix will destroy him. There’s not even a 1% chance that he didn’t know.
The most mind-boggling though, is the mother of his child’s involvment. I would like to know way more about her.
I finally watched it after our girlfriend chat group was on fire about this doc. It was quite something. I wont give much away but that Norwegian girl, bless her heart.
I met my husband on bumble (so it can work) and I cannot stress enough to follow the age old online dating rules. Never give money.
I watched this and I sort of felt the women weren’t comfortable alone. They were desperate for a connection. And that has nothing to do with how successful they are in life. Maybe even drawn in by the wealth aspect. That is the trait the swindler preyed on. You have to be fine alone and strong enough to walk away if things feel weird or stressful.
Also, pick a site. If someone is on 1 dating site they have the same profiles on others. 1 simplifies it.
Simon: “Thanks for all the [non-existent, keeps making shit up] positive comments”
Watched this a few days ago, omg! My mouth was open the whole time!
I felt so bad for the women, especially the Norwegian lady, Cecile? She seemed less emotionally capable of moving past this.
I have to say though, in the beginning she came across very gold digger-ish.
I was struggling with branding any of them to be as simple as a gold digger as opposed to being incredibly naive. But Cecile did seem taken with the glitz,the second and third were doing alright for themselves and obvioisly had enough resources and credit to give him those amounts. I doubt a gold digger would just pony up that kind of money or maybe they were playing the long game.
It’s very hard for me to understand why they would not see through the ruse and lend money (how many unpaid loans does it take for you to see that he’s using you?? Also, a high profile diamond billionaire has no one to turn to for cash but his new gf? It was bewildering). However, he really went above and beyond to display his “immense wealth” and to love bomb them so it appears that he honed his perfect Prince Charming skills so well that they are completely taken. The private jets and ordering everything on the menu at 5-star restaurants were so over the top that I do believe the women believed he was in real danger. The fact that he would scam his platonic party friend and she would believe him 100% made me think that he could do it to anyone. Throw enough cash and bling at someone and eventually they will do whatever they’re told.
I had the same thought while watching this unfold, that a man that rich would not have to go to a girlfriend for money. That should have been the first clue he was a fraud. The second clue was asking her to forward her AmEx. The third clue was maxing it out in three days. A fourth clue was more of the same. No mention of going to the police despite a violent attack? Red flags everywhere.
I wouldn’t call any of them gold diggers, because that term tends to imply a woman who is really out solely for money, etc. Cecilie especially – she does come off as a woman who very much bought into the whole Disney-esqu idea of a man who can sweep you off your feet, swoop into your life and solve all your problems. She was very into that – evidenced by the fact that she got on a private plane with a man she had known for maybe a few hours! Like, even if he wasn’t rich, he could totally have been an ax murderer.
It is hard for me to have empathy when there were so many flags. Why would the son of a billionaire diamond magnate need his girlfriend to finance his security? Wouldn’t his father bankroll such a thing? I watched it and couldn’t believe it from the beginning.
I believe that this story greatly portrays one of the greateast dilemmas modern women are facing: we are raised to be independent, but still the society isn’t equal and because of the prince/male provider sterotype, we somehow want to be saved. When we are exposed to the “prince”, BECAUSE we are rationally taught not to be gold diggers, we will comply to his requests, cause we want to meet that expectations. This reminds me of a married woman who accidently found out her husband was cheating on her for 5 years. Everyone was “how couldn’t you not see it? Why didn’t you spy on his phone”. It’s a bit sad, we, as womem, are raised to provide freedom and love without being a nag and afterwards we are blamed for not being carefull enough.
I watched, and thought, this guy looks so trashy with his moobs and dong showing ultra tight pants, he doesn’t look like old money. I’ve seen and represented old money people, and they don’t dress like this, nor are they flashy. I feel terrible for the women he swindled. They saw the flashy stuff and thought he was a billionaire.
This has been my experience as well. Old money never lets itself be a billboard for anyone. You won’t see old money wearing LV, Gucci, etc. — old money is very quiet in appearance, only becoming visible when needed.
The Leviev family is not old money.
And I’d argue that this is exactly the style of kids born to new money.
It was interesting, and infuriating, to watch. Maybe, if a guy tells you that he has enemies who want to kill him, and you’ve only known him for a month, it’s time to walk away? Just a thought.
Yeah casual getting to know you early dates can be challenging enough without adding “he’s on the run from paid assassins” levels of difficulty.
Plus, I don’t know which is cause and which is effect, but everyone I’ve known who announced their “ties” to uber wealth, royalty, well known successful business people soon after meeting new people has turned out to be toxic and to be either purposely malicious or dealing with chaos/destruction levels of untreated mental illness.
This is such a frustrating story. He got away with just a few months of jail time while the women are financially ruined possibly for life. I hate it. This guy is trash. It took tinder way too long to do anything about him. Only now that his name is famous internationally they think about taking away his hunting grounds.
I watched the show, and I didn’t think it was so much an expose on dating apps as much as it was a warning to not fall for the high-life, and what looks too good to be true usually is. Maybe Simon evaluates his potential victims by how fast they will get into a private plane and jet off with him after meeting, because that is risky and not too smart. My grandparents were deeply affected by the depression and that penny-pinching, save your money or else bad things will happen mentality carried down through the family to our generation. Therefore, I would never have been able to give this dude any of my money, much less take out quick loans. But the last victim at the end and her revenge was fabulous. I loved that she was still cashing in as they were interviewing her.
I loved that she was doing that as well. However, the $10k she got from the clothes is a drop in the bucket compared to the $140k she loaned him. At least she got SOMETHING because he literally got away with everything. This is why my husband and I suspect that there is some higher-level involvement in Israel and Simon’s connections run deeper than what’s depicted. This was a Ponzi scheme run by over a dozen people and involved hundreds of victims over a period of years. On a scale of “average catfish” to “Jeffery Epstein,” his guy definitely leans more Lolita Express than your average fake billionaire.
I wish we would teach all women that even if a person like that is not a fraud, it is very unlikely that someone who lives this lifestyle, is involved in the diamond trade, and has “enemies” internationally is a very good person.
These are red flags that this is person is probably leading a very unethical life.
Even if he was a billionaire, a person who talks to you like that is not a good person.
A person who doesn’t respect your boundaries or who resorts to shouting at you over the phone is NOT a good person.
You should be running for the hills, even if a legit billionaire acts like that.
I haven’t watched this show but this is a true statement in general so I’m going to repost it.
A person who doesn’t respect your boundaries or who resorts to shouting at you over the phone is NOT a good person.
I’m intrigued so I may watch this tonight. He seems shady so I am interested in how he was able to bamboozle so many.
His con is an extremely well-oiled operation (until this expose) and I eagerly await whatever BS clarification he makes to the public. Will be shocked if his statement doesn’t end with a proclamation of how how much he loves us and wants to have our babies.
Fun Fact: I work in fraud for a financial institution and this is a quite common. However, this one is particularly egregious given the sheer amount of the grift.
This documentary is bonkers, but it is a look into how the con works. Pity that he won’t face charges since he seems to be staying in Israel.
To the readers on the continent: Is there a reason why these women haven’t filed for bankruptcy? Or is that something that’s an American concept?
It’s not just an American thing, but most people won’t want to go bankrupt as it can prevent being employed in certain jobs, means you can’t get a mortgage etc etc. No idea why these women haven’t on an individual basis but bankrupcy here is definitely a last resort and many would rather pay off the debt han have lots of restrictions on them going forward.
@CherHorowitz Thanks. That’s totally different from what I’ve experienced. (Haven’t gone bankrupt but know people who have). Once you go through the process, creditors are throwing credit cards at you (because you can only do it once every 7 years). Some people I’m acquainted with have gotten mortgages.
I think the only thing you wouldn’t be able to do is get a job in something like the CIA, although after the last 5 years of grifters in charge of the country, that could have also changed.
That’s interesting! Yeah in the UK there’s no way you’d be getting a loan or mortgage after bankruptcy or even probably a credit card really, at least for 6 years (how long stuff stays on your credit file). Even if you had a mortgage already, you wouldn’t be able to remortgage and youd be stuck on standard variable rate once your deal runs out.
And as an example job wise – i just work for a bank (in a junior role) and to be employed (and each time i get promoted) I have to be vetted, which is a criminal record check and a credit check. They even ask about CCJs (county court judgements) which you will get eventually if you don’t pay something like council tax or utility bills or even an unpaid parking ticket. So whilst it wouldn’t be as prohibitive as a criminal record across all sectors, there are definitely industries in which you would run into problems with bankruptcy.
We have another option before bankruptcy called an IVA which is much more popular i think. Again this is just UK and not all of the women lived in the UK from memory but interesting how these things differ from country to country!
Even when he sends Aylene photos from the hostel and complains about being homeless, he is running a con. He just switched it up and was trying to play to her heart strings in order to get her to send him more money because she now felt sorry for him. The man is garbage. He has brought shame on Israeli men, who are generally awesome (I dated one for ten years).
He hasn’t brought shame on anyone but himself. Let’s not generalize over an entire population just because of the (horrible) actions of one individual. That’s just not fair.
update he just deleted his Instagram page. I love when people unite against evil in the world.
I watched it the night it premiered and was shocked at how easy it was for the women to trust so openly and give him sums larger than 100 pounds, over and over again. I felt so sorry for them and their massive debts.
I was especially shocked at Cecilie just getting into a private jet with him and going to another country, just like that, having known him for less than 4 hours.
Not meeting his parents and him only having 1 bodyguard should have been a massive red flag. Also, blood diamonds? I’d have ran in the other direction. That’s like dating a cartel lord and expecting not to get in harms way.
“I will share my side of the story in the next few days when I have sorted out the best and most respectful way to tell it” translates to “hang on, lemme think of some good lies real quick”
I haven’t watched this yet but it reminds me of the Who the hell is Hamish podcast, an Australian conman who conned several people over several decades, including a woman he married.
He also had a relationship with an underage girl from what I remember or she was barely legal. He wasn’t dating several women and then conning them out of their money, but he convinced several people to invest their money in his fake businesses. Spoiler alert: he was finally sentenced to 16 years in jail in Australia so it sounds like Hamish’s victims got more justice than Simon’s. I’ll watch this but I have a feeling I am going to be deeply frustrated by these women…
The women were stupid, not naive or innocent.
This con would not have appealed to me because that kind of rich to me is a huge turnoff. That kind of thing is not impressive to me. It’s repugnant. However, no one is safe from a con. A nice rancher might turn my head. I think you have to be vigilant. Luckily, I’m too poor to be in much danger!
I watched this screaming! Who gets into a private jet within hours? That’s how you get trafficked. Who sends passport info with no fear of identity theft?? The son of a billionaire doesn’t need you to send him money. And children of Billionaires aren’t on Tinder. They have their own social circle of other multi- millionaires, billionaires, models, entertainers, royal family members, etc.
How are women still falling for this? A man a couple years ago pretended to be Brad Pitt and got a woman to send him money. Years ago a woman online dated a guy, never met him, but he convinced her to show up at the airport in a wedding dress…list goes on
I think it’s all too easy to call them naive and believe it would never happen to you. But it happens to people! And it’s only in hindsight that the red flags look completely obvious. He emotionally manipulated them and they believed they were in a genuine romantic/friendship relationship with him. I don’t think we should be so quick to call them naive and say we don’t have empathy. Isn’t that victim blaming??
It’s absolutely shocking how many people easily blame and mock the victims while he is celebrated as some kind of smart con man for frauding them. What a despicable society we live in