Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Entertainment, Netflix
Cameron Frew
The Tinder Swindler is the latest Netflix true-crime documentary from the makers of Don't F**k With Cats, and it's going to have you hooked from the beginning – and probably make you delete your dating apps.
Don't F**k With Cats chronicled the efforts of internet sleuths in the manhunt for Luka Magnotta, who committed a number of hideous crimes, including vacuum-packing a cat and making his own snuff film and sharing it online. The three-part docuseries was a huge hit on the streaming platform. Now, the producers have delivered your next obsession.
The Tinder Swindler tells the story of Shimon Yehuda Hayut, also known as Simon Leviev, a professional hustler who conned his oblivious victims out of thousands of dollars.
Check out the trailer for The Tinder Swindler below:
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'Modern love is a dangerous game in the world of online dating, and not all that glitters is gold. Notoriously known as The Tinder Swindler, he has seduced and swindled young women for millions and is a fugitive from justice in several countries,' the official description reads.
'One swipe could change your life. This is the ultimate fairytale gone nightmare. Follow three women who decided it was time for payback.'
The scammer changed his name to Simon Leviev in 2017 in a bid to appear related to Lev Leviev, an Israeli 'King of Diamonds' billionaire. Before meeting the women who feature in the film, he was wanted for fraud in Israel, accused of stealing cheques from an employer, left the country on a forged passport, and he also served three years in a Finland prison for aggravated fraud.
Using dating apps, his scam was rather simple: he'd lure in women with his seemingly luxurious lifestyle and expensive gifts, before asking them to give him money when he was in some sort of danger. He'd then use that money to buy other women presents, a bit like his own pyramid scheme of crime.
'It was horrible because in a sense I still loved him, or the person I thought that he was. You know everything's a lie but you still have this fairytale on the phone. I don't understand how someone could be so f*cking evil. I felt like he knew me,' one woman says in the documentary.
It's received positive reviews, with The Independent giving it four stars, and The Telegraph describing it as a 'fascinating, fiendishly gripping film'.
The Tinder Swindler is available to stream on Netflix now.
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