Tinder Swindler
Tinder swindler is a recently released docuseries in Netflix interviewing a victim of Simon Leviev. Simon portrayed himself as the “prince of diamonds”. He showed off his luxurious lifestyle through his tinder and IG accounts. He took on the persona as the son of the diamond king Lev Leviev a billionaire businessman.
The Victims
In the series, we meet Cecilie Fjellhøy who shares her experience with Simon. They met through Tinder and she has seen his photos and immediately was impressed. Simon messaged her and introduced her to his world of jets, five-star hotels, and luxury living. Cecilie was struck by his lavish lifestyle. She continued to stay in touch as he began sending her flowers and video messages.
They seem to have a working long-distance relationship as Cecile appears to be very happy with her new boyfriend. It suddenly took a bad turn when in the evening, Simon sent a photo of his bodyguard bleeding. This began a series of claims of him being in danger and that he needed Cecile to help him out. The help he asked for was through financing since he claimed his “enemies” are tracking him through his card movement. Cecile took out a new credit card and funded Simon for the next few days. His bill reached a debt of $100,000.
On the other side of the pond, Simon was spending time with Pernilla Sjoholm. Although the initial intention was to be lovers, they ended up being friends enjoying each other company. So much so that Simon invited Pernilla to join him and his girlfriend on a tour. It didn’t take long until Pernilla started to receive the same photo of Simon’s bodyguard bleeding. Simon asked to borrow money from Pernilla amounting to $30,000.
While Pernilla was providing Simon with new cards, the now infamous tinder swindler is on a date with Ayleen Charlotte. Although the trend was the same, somehow Aileen was able to take some revenge on Simon. She was able to convince him to sell his luxury clothes to raise funds.
A Norwegian newspaper called VG investigated the so-called tinder swindler and published a piece about him. This news became viral as they found out that Simon whose real identity is Shimon Hayut has been doing it for some time. This all became a part of the documentary launched by Netflix.
Updates
Under the barrage of social media, Shimon posted a message on his IG page saying “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, both to the involved parties and myself. Until then, please keep an open mind and heart.”
What is a good explanation for scamming women?
The three women he scammed have racked up hundreds of thousands of debts and were left to fix it themselves. They have created a GoFundMe page. “The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla, and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone,” they wrote in the fundraiser description. “All we want are our lives back”. Their goal is to reach $811,206. This will be used to pay for the loans they took to help Simon.
The internet has mixed reactions to their case. What are your thoughts?