THEl Tinder scammer it starts with a scam, continues with a flawless journalistic investigation and ends with a bit of a bitterness in the mouth. Produced by Netflix it’s based on a true story brought to the surface by the first Norwegian newspaper: VG.
The Tinder Swindler is the original title of the investigation that unearthed an incredible and practically perfect, orchestrated scam by a young Israeli to the detriment of many women, all known on Tinder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq-LIBQ8Fms
The Tinder scammerhistory
The scammer in question is Shimon Yehuda Hayutan Israeli boy who, in order to circumvent his victims, takes possession of the most varied identities, the one told by the piece by VG and from the Netflix doc is that of Simon Levievnever existed son of Lev Leviev, Israeli businessman known as “the king of diamonds”.
The pattern was always the same: meeting a girl on Tinder, inviting her for a first date in a luxury hotel or offers her a highly spectacular first date: bought one of the victims a ticket from Stockholm to Amsterdam just to get to know each other. Then follows a phase of close courtship and display of an opulent life.
Private jets, designer clothes, expensive restaurants, even bodyguards and an ex-wife with a daughter. A perfect staging of five-star life of a billionaire set up to convince the victims of his economic well-being.
To complete the narrative Simon told his girlfriends, or friends, one of the victims had no romantic relationship with him, that he had many and dangerous enemies. The excuse with which he gets to ask for credit card details, or huge sums of money that the victims get with very expensive bank loans, is that his are impossible to use because of the traceability of paymentswhich would make him too easy a target to find.
Moving all the time from one country to another and from one continent to another and using credit cards not yours Simon / Shimon was virtually untraceable and difficult to follow with the means of the local police.
Cecile and VG
The turning point comes when Cecilie Schrøder Fjellhøy, scammed for $ 250,000wanting to prevent others from ending up in the same situation as him, he surrenders to VG everything the historian of conversations with what she believed to be Simon Leviev.
Thanks to dedication of the editorial staff, who verifies and tracks down other victims, including Simon himself, the police finally manage to put him in handcuffs. He happens in Greece, where Simon / Shimon arrived with a fake passportthe only charge against him.
Cecilie Schrøder Fjellhøy. (Netflix)
Judicial and editorial case
The epilogue leaves a bad taste in the mouth because after all, there is little justice for the girls who are victims of the Tinder scammeras Simon will not be accused of fraud against them and will not compensate them, but the real light of hope in this doc is given by the journalistic story.
The reportage conducted by VG is one little editorial pearl: in the world of hit and run journalism, especially online, the newspaper team has completed a titanic job. Not just from the point of view of the investigation itself, but also of storytelling.
The online piece, which in Norway recorded record numbers of viewsit is done in such a way that the reconstruction of the facts is visual as well as written, complete with a history of whatsapp messages and videos that the characters involved have exchanged.
The story is so surreal and well reconstructed that the piece goes around the world in a short time, which is what will put Simon / Shimon in serious trouble who can no longer lure women on Tinder, until it ends up in the hands of Netflix producerswho have suffered the potential place in the top ten of this story.
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