The Tinder Swindler Simon Leveiv | Picture: Supplied
The public’s imagination has recently been captured by the subject of one of Netflix’s latest crime documentaries – The Tinder Swindler. The documentary interviews a number of women who either befriended or got into a romantic relationship with a man named Simon Leviev, only to find themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Their stories all begin in a similar fashion. They swipe right on a well-dressed, good-looking man, go on an amazing date that quickly becomes a serious relationship.
And before they know it, this diamond industry tycoon and son of a billionaire is suddenly in need of quick cash and they’re somehow the only ones who can help him.
Once The Tinder Swindler sees just how willing his mark is to hand over large sums of cash, the requests keep coming.
Unlike most romantic scams where the mark has not met her scammer, the women in this story have met Leviev. He initiates the relationship by putting on a show that makes it seem as though he is as wealthy as he says he is, when, in actual fact, he is just splashing cash that he deceived other women into giving him.
He even goes as far as manufacturing a security emergency which gets the money out of these women each time.
At some point, he pretends to pay the women back with forged cheques and falsified proof of payment documents.
His scam comes crashing down when one woman decided to share her story in an effort to make it harder for him to do this to anyone else.
Upon finding out that her boyfriend at the time was the Tinder Swindler, another one of his many girlfriends decides to scam him back in an effort to recoup some of the money he got out of her.
Netflix viewers all over the world cannot stop talking about the show.
According to a report by Bustle, Leviev is out of prison, after serving a 15-month sentence, and is currently living the high life in Israel. Tinder finally banned him from using the app after the documentary gained momentum.
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