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Pretty much everybody who has dabbled with Tinder has a horror story to tell.

Getting left with the bill after your date ducks out is one thing, but being swindled of huge sums of money by a professional scammer is quite another.

The Tinder Swindler, an immensely popular Netflix doccie that debuted last week, is based off a 2019 article, ‘The Tinder Swindler’, published by Norwegian tabloid outlet VG.

Here are the basics via the Netflix synopsis:

Notoriously known as The Tinder Swindler, he has seduced and swindled young women for millions and is a fugitive from justice in several countries.

One swipe could change your life. This is the ultimate fairytale gone nightmare.

Follow three women who decided it was time for payback.

One more look at the trailer:

Without giving too much away, it’s a wild ride.

South Africans have been discussing the doccie at length online – see some of their reactions here and here.

At this stage, I will drop a spoiler alert. You have been warned.

Simon Leviev, real name Shimon Hayut, mentions that he was jailed in South Africa at one stage.

SA People with more on a certain story told by one of his victims, Cecilie Schrøder Fjellhøy:

Cecilie – who some say was the real hero because she had to “put her pride and privacy aside to disrupt a long-time fraudster” – said that on their first night together she could see some marks on his back and asked him about them. He revealed he had been in jail in South Africa.

He told her he had been negotiating a diamond deal in SA when the people he was dealing with turned their backs on him and betrayed him. He said he went to jail on “false pretences” because he was actually innocent, and claimed he was “manhandled in jail because he was Jewish”.

For obvious reasons, we can’t take anything Leviev says at face value.

It does appear that he visited Cape Town with his ‘bodyguard’, Peter:

I went creepin after I watched #TinderSwindler

Cape Town was dragged for arresting him for diamond smuggling but dude and Peter still had time for sightseeing

The lady that stole his clothes and ghosted him was the best part of the doc pic.twitter.com/K10r96E2c8

— cam (@cameran_ryan) February 5, 2022

Incredibly, Simon’s Instagram account was still active after the doccie began airing on Netflix and gained more than 200 000 followers in the days that followed.

Initially, reports The Independent, Simon used it to defend himself:

Before deleting the app, he thanked his followers for their “support”, adding: “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.”

He then stated: “ Until then, please keep an open mind and heart.”

And a few open credit cards so he can fleece you for everything you’re worth and more.

Another account using the @simon__leviev__official handle has popped up in the past few days, although it’s not known if it’s actually his.

Tinder has also released a statement to Variety saying that he has been banned from the dating app:

“We have conducted internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is no longer active on Tinder under any of his known aliases,” Tinder said in a statement to Variety on Friday.

His cover is surely blown now, but before the doccie aired he was very much living the good life.

After being arrested in 2019 and sentenced to 15 months in prison for fraud in Israel, he was released after just five months.

Bustle with some of his recent activities:

Footage posted to his account shows him enjoying luxury goods including an iPhone, designer sneakers, sports cars, and more. He was also, at least at one time, dating an Israeli model.

In December of 2020, the Times of Israel reported that Leviev had impersonated a paramedic in order to gain access to the COVID-19 vaccine before the general public..

However, he claimed he had not lied to get vaccinated early, saying, “I am a businessman. I have money. I can buy anyone or anything that I want.”

In November he gave an interview to Vents Magazine claiming to be a real estate expert.

He may never spend the time behind bars that his crimes deserve but any potential date Googling his name will have second thoughts.

[sources:sapeople&independent&variety&bustle]