The Con of the Tinder Swindler

Let's quickly review Simon Leviev, a.k.a. the Tinder Swindler, who was the focus of a Netflix documentary in 2022 that exposed his dating frauds.

He would take advantage of ladies by enticing them with extravagant luxury before looting them to support his lifestyle. Simon didn't start off with this complex trick, though.

In 1990, Simon Leviev was born Simonya huda haiyut in Israel, where his parents led modest lives. Yet it's obvious that Simon wanted more and wasn't prepared to work honestly to get it.

He persuaded Avi and Shavi Kobin, two family friends, to let him stay in their Brooklyn, New York, apartment for six months when he was 15 years old after telling them there were issues at home. It was then that he reportedly helped himself to Avi's credit card a few years later, in 2008, when they were on vacation. He didn't hold back, paying top dollar for a one-way first-class flight from New York to Tel Aviv, hotel suites, and even a Rolls Royce.

Simone Leviev and Courtney Simmons Miller.

During this time, he allegedly also took part in his first Tinder swindler style scam. Simone and Courtney Simmons Miller, both from Cambridge, were coworkers in a mall in Cyprus when they first met, according to Courtney Simmons Miller. He invited Courtney to work as his personal assistant after persuading her that he was a hidden millionaire who was about to collect his inheritance. The two were then detained when Simon gave Courtney access to the stolen credit card information so she could spend in her name. Simon ran away and returned to Israel, leaving Courtney to serve two years in prison before being found not guilty.

He reportedly took flying lessons in 2010. But, he was allegedly engaged in other scams, taking checks from a couple in Tel Aviv whose children he had watched. The police issued an arrest warrant when the couple reported the matter to them, but Simone fled the country using a false identity. The famous scams started at this point.

The Seriousness of His Crimes

Simon started using multiple aliases and defrauding the women he dated after running away from Israel and moving to Europe. He began using Tinder to meet victims over the following several years, cheating them out of over $150,000 in the process. He was nonetheless detained there in 2015 and given a three-year prison sentence the following year after Finnish women complained about him. Think again if you believe it has taught him a lesson. He took the last name of diamond mogul Lev Leviev after changing his identity to Simon Leviev in 2017. He was deported to Israel in 2017 to face accusations linked to the cheques he had stolen while babysitting.

He would travel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the next months before going back to Europe to prey on additional victims.

He started swindling ladies around Europe, including Pernilla Sjöholm and Cecilia Philhoy. It's anticipated that he scammed his numerous victims of a total of $10 million between 2017 and 2019.

As we discover from the movie, his situation gained a lot more attention after an investigation by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens gang, which resulted in an Interpol arrest in 2019.

What Happened to His Accomplices?

While Simon Leviev's fate following his detention in Greece is known, his comrades' whereabouts are still unknown. Familiar faces continue to pop up in the victims' various stories. So what happened to them?

Peter, Leviev's bodyguard, was probably the most noticeable. He also appeared to relish the extravagant costs paid for by the victims of the Tinder swindler. Given that his victims received photographs of Simon bleeding and wounded following a claimed attack, he was crucial in persuading others that Simon was really in danger.

Peter has hired a lawyer and is suing Netflix even though he was never charged with any charges related to Simon's fraud. He asserts that he was unaware of the scams and that the apparent affiliation has damaged his image. One of the documentary's victims, Aileen, later alleged on a podcast that she overheard him bringing about payment concerns with Leviev. Peter, like other bodyguards, may have been easily tricked, according to a security expert who said in the same podcast that they lacked the resources for thorough background checks.

Avicii, Simon's business partner, was another noteworthy, but less visible accomplice in the documentary. Although the degree of his involvement in Simon's scams is unknown, a British doctor has admitted that she dated him after the show aired. They met on Tinder, much as in the Simon scam, and she had wild evenings out with him and his friends, including Simon Leviev. She alleges that at one point Simon started paying her a lot more attention after spotting a Louis Vuitton bag she had.

The doctor chose to go home instead of continuing on the cruise after Simon cut short a vacation due to an apparent security risk. Then, the relationship deteriorated. Was Avicii attempting his own variation of the scam, or was he only looking to start dating while on the road with Simon? We are unable to be certain.

The mother of Simon Leviev's alleged kid is yet another person who has drawn a lot of interest. She assisted in persuading Cecilia Philhoy that the Tinder swindler was a decent guy by being there at Cecilia's first contact with him. It comes out that she gave a deposition against Leviev in 2015 when he was given his first jail term. While some people could have perceived her as a part of his scam, others have theorized that she might have been in a dangerous position herself.

Simon Leviev: What happened to him?

Simon Leviev's ability to scam unsuspecting ladies were greatly hampered by the media storm that followed the Verdens gang story in 2019.

These incidents ultimately resulted in his imprisonment. He was forced to confront the previous accusations he had been avoiding for so long once he was back in Israel. He was found guilty of theft, fraud, and forgery and given a 15-month jail term. Given the destruction he caused in his path, many people may feel that this sentence is too short. The story's conclusion, however, becomes worse. In actuality, Simon was freed after only five months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Naturally, he hasn't made up for any of his victims' losses either.

After his release, Simon developed a website where he provided paid business advice in a way that was reminiscent of the Wolf of Wall Street. He also opened other social media sites and even reactivated his Tinder account. Nevertheless, Match Group Inc, the parent company of Tinder, ultimately removed him from all of their dating apps in 2022 after the Netflix documentary's debut. Also, a ton of comments holding him responsible for his conduct were posted on his Instagram account. He has switched between several social media sites in an effort to grow his fan base.

Yet, He has never been able to stay on one for very long before being reported, kicked off the site, or have them deleted by him. He's even selling customized short videos of himself as of this writing.

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Nonetheless, as it seems he intends to use his popularity to advance his career in new areas, no exposure is better than bad public relations. It has been reported that he has already teamed up with many members of the entertainment sector to create a dating program, produce a book, and host a podcast on the dos and don'ts of dating. There have also been rumors that a movie is being made based on a narrative, though there is disagreement about whether or not he would be involved. If none of that shocks you, Simon Leviev has even considered a political career, stating he would make an excellent foreign minister to lead Israel.