The latest Netflix sensation is the British documentary The Tinder Swindler, which tells the story of Shimon Hayut, a convicted Israeli fraudster who used Tinder to scam women in Europe. He even legally changed his name to Simon Leviev, claiming he was the son of a wealthy diamond magnate.
Leviev, 31, was born Hayut, but he legally changed his last name to Leviev to pretend he was released to Lev Avnerovich Leviev, a famous Israeli businessman known as the “King of Diamonds.” In 2011, he was first charged with fraud in Israel, but fled to Europe through Jordan. The following year, he was indicted by an Israeli court for theft and forgery of checks. He was then arrested in Finland in 2015 for defrauding multiple women. When he was arrested in Finland, he was found with several forged documents from Israel and fake American Express credit cards.
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After he was released from prison in Finland, Leviev went back to Israel to be charged again. While there, he legally changed his name to Leviev, then fled to Europe, where he pretended to be several different people. He attracted women on dating apps like Tinder, claiming to be Lev Leviev’s son. Although Lev Leviev is estimated to be worth $1 billion, Leviev still convinced women he met to loan him money he never repaid. He then used that money to get the next victim lavish gifts. He pretended to repay the women using fake bank documents. It was basically a Ponzi scheme, where Leviev used the money from one victim to attract another victim. He allegedly asked his victims to get lines of credit for him under their names for what he claimed were security needs.
In 2019, Interpol arrested Leviev in Greece, where he allegedly used a false passport. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Israel, but the sentence was reduced because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the Times of Israel reported he pretended to be a medical worker to get a COVID-19 vaccine early. He is still wanted on several fraud charges in other European countries. It’s estimated that Leviev stole $10 million in total from his victims.
Netflix released The Tinder Swindler on Feb. 2. It was directed by Felicity Morris, and includes interviews with some of Leviev’s victims and the journalists at the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang who published an article of the same name. After the film was released, Tinder officially banned Leviev from the platform. He was also banned from other dating apps. Netflix also plans to dramatize the story, sources told Variety. The streamer also launched a three-part companion podcast, The Making of a Swindler.
