Did you know the real story of the "Tinder Swindler"? (Warning: spoilers.)
On Tinder, he was a millionaire playboy and a loving boyfriend. In real life, he was a convicted con man who duped his dates out of their life savings... Here's how he got caught.
On Tinder, he was a millionaire playboy and a loving boyfriend. In real life, he was a convicted con man who duped his dates out of their life savings... Here's how he got caught.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00He took me to a five-star hotel.
00:08He said we had a special connection.
00:09It felt like stepping into a movie.
00:11You have brought me even a favorite.
00:21This isn't your regular catfish story.
00:25This is like a whole other level.
00:30Simon Leviv, he was born Shimon Hayat.
00:39He grew up in a small town, a town just outside of Tel Aviv called Bnei Brak.
00:46His father is a rabbi.
00:48His criminal charges and so on stretched back a number of years.
00:54In 2011, he had committed a number of small frauds in Israel, but he fled the country.
01:01And then in that time, he conned three Finnish women.
01:06This is sort of just the things that he's been charged with.
01:24Simon surrounds himself with a business partner, a bodyguard.
01:32He does drive around in Ferraris and Rolls Royces.
01:36He does travel on private jets.
01:38So the persona of Simon Leviv, i.e. an heir to the Leviv LLD Diamond's diamond fortune,
01:47totally, totally stacks up.
02:01By the time Cecilia and Pernilla and Eileen met him as Simon Leviv, he'd almost become the very best Tinder scammer you could be.
02:11The interesting thing, I think, that we learned while getting to know him, getting to understand the relationships
02:17and reading through the incredible archive that we had, which was their WhatsApp logs.
02:24We were all messaging constantly.
02:26And what we discovered was that actually these women didn't fall for Simon because of his money.
02:33That wasn't the case.
02:34Like Simon was a committed, reliant, loving, caring boyfriend.
02:39He said he has threats against him.
02:42He needs our cash.
02:44$20,000.
02:45$30,000.
02:46$140,000.
02:48His life depended on me.
02:51The way that he does the con is to get these women to open up credit cards in their own names.
02:57So it's like a fingerprintless crime in a way.
03:00And he was then spending on the credit cards and then sending them bank transfers,
03:05saying, look, I'm sending you this money to pay off this credit card.
03:09And then two days later, an excuse comes.
03:11Oh, I'm sorry, it's because the bank is closed.
03:13But all the while, they're doing this because he has genuinely made them believe.
03:17And I think anyone who was in this situation would also believe that his life was totally in danger.
03:26And if they didn't help him, the person they love at this point most in the world,
03:30then that he would die.
03:33When they discover that he isn't who they thought he was,
03:37the guy that they've slept with, that they've been sharing a bed with,
03:40that they've entrusted with, you know, secrets and so on,
03:43is why this sort of devastation that's felt is obviously and understandably so real and so strong and so horrific for them.
04:04He was obviously then caught in Greece.
04:07Knowing that now Simon is out of prison and is seemingly looking like he's living a fabulous Instagram lifestyle,
04:16you know, still driving around in Ferraris, dating glamorous women,
04:20I think for them is very, very difficult to stomach.
04:23But what we've wanted with this film is for it to feel like, you know, a little bit of justice for them,
04:32because essentially, you know, we are exposing him for who he really is.
04:41I just thought, well, wow, this is an amazing story that offers so much.
04:46And at the heart of it are these two, you know, incredibly charismatic and brave women.
04:51We've all been ghosted, we've all had sort of experiences of dating online and so on.
04:57For me, the message isn't close yourself off and, you know, don't lose your faith in finding the right person for you.
05:07For me, it's more about, you know, speaking out when things like this happen to you, because there's a real power in that.
05:17And I hope that the women feel sort of empowered by how we told their story.