The Tinder Swindler

The Tinder Swindler

Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, an Israeli conman wooed women online then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now some victims plan for payback.

  • Released: 2022-02-02
  • Runtime: 114 minutes
  • Genre: Crime, Documentaries
  • Stars: Cecilie Fjellhøy, Shimon Yehuda Hayut, Pernilla Sjöholm, Ayleen Charlotte, Kristoffer Kumar, Erlend Ofte Arntsen, Natalie Remøe Hansen, Josh King Madrid (JetSet)
  • Director: Felicity Morris
 Comments
  • Zooha-47207 - 13 February 2024
    A Shocking Tale of Deceit and Manipulation
    The Tinder Swindler documentary is a fascinating and shocking exploration of modern-day deception, and it rightfully earns a 7/10. This documentary takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, from disbelief to respect for the cunning involved, and then to utter disgust at the actions of the swindler.

    The documentary does an excellent job of showcasing the intricacies of the con artist's Ponzi scheme, revealing the sophisticated methods used to swindle victims met through Tinder. It's a story that seems almost too bizarre to be true, yet it unfolds with undeniable reality. The level of manipulation and deceit displayed is both astounding and horrifying.

    What's particularly striking about this documentary is the swift timeline of the events. The fact that such an elaborate scheme was set up and executed in less than two years, and the swindler was free shortly after, is mind-boggling. It raises important questions about the effectiveness of the legal system in dealing with such modern scams.
  • Kimsy1724 - 26 September 2022
    Well put together and interesting.
    Well I ignored this one when it first came out because it was one of those things that everybody was watching and then posting about. I'm never a fan of particularly trendy documentaries and similar so this one has been ignored by me for quite awhile.

    It was quite well put together and I preferred it being condensed into a 1.5 hour film instead of a 10 episode series that really drags out every bit of information to try and make as much money as possible.

    It tells the story of Simon Leviev (or whatever his real name actually is) who was known as the "Tinder Swindler". This guy would find women on Tinder, wine and dine them with romantic and expensive dates to earn their trust and love completely before supposedly running into trouble and needing money. One poor soul gave over $250,000 to the slimeball. He operated a Ponzi scheme whereby he would use the money of one woman to start a scheme on the next woman of wining and dining her before using her money to then wine and dine the next one.

    It's certainly difficult to watch because it is so frustrating that he's able to get away with it. Kudos to the women who dealt with him and how they worked together to bring him down but it's shocking to see that he really had no comeuppance for his crimes. He was sentenced to a paltry 15 months of which he only served 5 and now appears to be living the highlife in Israel, absolutely loaded and living and indulge in a luxury life while the women who were screened by him are still left paying debts of over a quarter of $1 million. Let's hope Netflix coughed up from their deep pockets to help these ladies out.

    It's sad that there aren't more things in place to stop this happening or for him to have to pay off the debts that they have taken, particularly when there was so much evidence in their conversations and WhatsApp chats but it seems to be the injustice of the world. It was also sad to see that when their story was aired, the were the subject of so much vitriol; that it served them right and they deserved it. Again, such a corrupt world we live in.

    It's an interesting watch, it's a fairly concise story but I'm afraid the ending is rather disappointing for everyone involved except for Simon who really didn't learn his lesson. If you don't like to see people getting away with physical daylight robbery then I don't recommend watching it because it leaves you feeling quite disappointed and angry that there really is no comeuppance for this horrendous human being.
  • joon_ong - 26 July 2022
    When things seems too good to be true, it probably is
    Listen through Cecilie when she talks about the journey, you can see the sparkle in her eyes, how she really enjoys the moment and she really falls in love. Some people say Simon is just a guy who sucks gold digger but I can't agree on that. Gold digger would suck a man dry out without contributing anything and Cecilie was so mentally attached to Simon at that time. He is a typical manipulative people, he creates fear in them, and makes them seems like they have no choice but to do what he says.

    Hard to put myself into their shoes, but really appreciates that Cecilie and Pernilla take a step forward, and speaks the truth regardless of how other people think them... So that we can take precautions when similar thing happens.
  • ZelvinCollinsII - 26 May 2022
    More Content Like this Should be Made
    Very great documentary, there are a lot of people there that are just like him that need to be documented about. I came up with an idea to do the same thing for someone that is like this in the music industry. People think it's ok to do things like this to people and they should be exposed.