People hope to find love on the dating app, Tinder, and there are some who hope to find their next big fish. Shimon Hayut aka Simon Leviev is exposed in this Netflix true-crime documentary for the 'Tinder Swindler' that he is. Luring women out of their money with romantic gestures and bogus claims, and living a fake life for the gram.
Who Is Simon Leviev?
Simon Leviev is one of the many aliases of Shimon Hayut, an Israeli pretty boy. He took a rather romantic route to operate his con ways although he has other means. In this documentary, three of his victims share how they met Simon on Tinder and he takes them on lavish dates to 5-star restaurants on the very first date.
They all have the same story, he presents himself as an influential son of a billionaire diamond entrepreneur, they get involved and months later, he comes up with an elaborate story of how 'his enemies' are after him. He then needs the women to help him out with some money because for some reason, he can't access his own money.
The women are already smitten by him so it's not hard to for them to do all they can to assist him. He never pays back ofcourse and it eventually dawns on each of them that they had been scammed. We're talking thousands of dollars here.
Drama Queen
This documentary wasn't really exciting enough for me as a true-crime lover, but I did get excited when one of the victims, Ayleen, came into the picture. Ayleen was 14 months into a relationship with Simon when she discovered from an article that he is a con artist.
She had given him some money before then but when she found out, she played his game. She told him she could get a lot of money from his sales of his designer wardrobe and send him all of the money. She laundered his expensive clothes and sold them off on resell sites but never sent him the money ofcourse.
The grin on her face was the most exciting thing ever. She didn't recover all he stole but she was proud she got payback. He called, threatened, wailed, and begged her to send him the money from the sales but she didn't budge.
He talked about having nowhere to live and no money and she mocked him for being a drama king. The mugu said he's not a drama queen but a homeless king.
Fake Life
It's really interesting how much wealth Simon flaunts on Instagram when in reality he has nothing. He takes women on lavish dates with money he stole from other women, and doesn't have much going for himself.
He was said to be wanted in Israel for fraudulent activities and he even got arrested for a fake passport somewhere but he served only 5 months out of the 15-month sentence. He got out and continued the fake life, even threatened to sue the producers of this documentary when he was contacted.
Red Flags
I won't lie I was disappointed that the women didn't immediately see the red flags. It was so obvious. Why couldn't he contact his billionaire family and friends for support? They were smitten by the fact that he was a billionaire because why would you travel with someone on the first date? Someone you met on Tinder for that matter.
I understand spontaneity, I wouldn't be with who I am now if I wasn't spontaneous but at least, do yourself the good of thinking things through. There were several loopholes to this guy's story that they ignored right from the first date to the months that followed.
Free
Simon is a free man today because there's no case against him. He deleted his Instagram after the documentary's release and before that, he said he'll say his own side of the story soon. He now has a website where he offers business advisory services.
Conclusion
I wasn't wowed by this documentary production-wise. The Cinderella stories in between were annoying and time-wasting. The sequence with the ladies telling their stories was tiring for me also. I was annoyed by how dumb the first woman was, she didn't have to lose that much.
It was off-putting to find out that Simon (or Shimon) went to Israel and wasn't arrested even when the Israeli police claimed he was a wanted man. The system really is shitty.
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