Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler—The Man Who Stole Hearts And Millions Of Dollars

Dating app users’ worst nightmare came true in a new Netflix documentary—The Tinder Swindler —about a man who conned multiple women into giving him a combined $10 million.

The documentary explores the emotional and financial damage the victims of Simon Leviev, the Tinder Swindler, suffered. 

Their pain was in hopes of finding love, or as one of the victims—Cecilie—put it, finding “Prince Charming.” 

Throughout the documentary watchers get to know three women who recount their experience. 

On Tinder, Leviev presented himself as wealthy and as the son of a billionaire in the diamond business. He used the dating app as a means of love-bombing vulnerable women and later getting them to hand over thousands of dollars as a part of an elaborate scheme.

The elaborate scheme being: pretending to be in life-threatening danger after a deal gone wrong in South Africa. 

Providing bloody pictures of him and his bodyguard, he created the narrative that he needed money because his bank accounts were frozen. 

The women he was using thought they had no choice but to help him because Simon made them believe if they didn’t, he would die and it would be their fault.

Felicity Morris, the documentary’s director utilizes dramatic editing as well as fast-paced storytelling to present the film as a journalistic expose. In doing so, she keeps viewers engaged in the narrative.

The story unfolds in a rather unexpected way when it is revealed the three women figure out what Leviev was doing and help to apprehend him. 

With the help of the Norwegian newspaper, Verdens Gang, they link Simon Leviev to convicted conman, Shimon Hayut.

The documentary showcases the red flags to look for when meeting someone on a dating app, especially when things are too good to be true.

Even though the red flags were obvious in The Tinder Swindler, it’s important to remind people how victims can be blinded.

The Tinder Swindler was released on Feb. 2.