The popular ‘Tinder Swindler’ Simon Leviev, banned from dating apps after Netflix Exposes His Fraud

The dating app has officially banned Hayut, who also used the name Simon Leviev while connecting with potential dates, from using their application after the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler detailed his alleged scams.

On Monday, Feb. 5, a Tinder spokesperson told E! News, “We have conducted internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is no longer active on Tinder under any of his known aliases.”

Shimon Heyada Hayut, 30, of Israel, used numerous names, including Simon Leviev, to fool women he met on Tinder that he was the son of a billionaire diamond merchant.

Once he had the women’s trust, the con artist would persuade them to lend him money under false pretenses, which he would then use to bring in more victims by flaunting his lavish lifestyle and costly presents.

It’s unclear how many more people were duped, but it’s estimated that he made £7.4 million from his victims.

Tinder has confirmed Shimon has been banned from establishing profiles on the network after violating its rules and conditions, following the publication of the Netflix documentary Tinder Swindler.

The Match organisation, which owns Tinder and a number of other popular dating apps, has now declared that the conman will be prevented from creating a profile on any of its platforms.

The restriction would be permanent, according to a spokeswoman for Match, which owns Ok Cupid, Hinge, PlentyofFish, OurTime, Meetic, Pairs, and Match.

Hayut presently does not have an active account on any of the dating services company’s apps, according to the company, and if one is found, it will be deleted immediately.

Shimon Hayut had been on the run for years before being arrested in Greece in 2019 while using a fraudulent passport. He’d been on the run in Israel since 2011, accused of fraud, theft, and forgery, as well as skipping sentencing twice.

Meanwhile, Hayut was hopping across Europe, living lavishly off the funds of unsuspecting females who had put their trust in him.

In 2015, the serial con artist served a two-year sentence in a Finnish prison for tricking three women. When Hayut was returned to Israel in 2017 to face charges for his earlier crimes, he fled the country under a new alias.

Hayut was posing as ‘Simon Leviev,’ the son of rich Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev, when he met Cecilie Fjellhoy in January 2018. He claimed to be the CEO of LDD Diamonds and said he was frequently travelling for work.

‘He says his father is the ‘King of Diamonds,’ which implies I’m the royal,’ Cecilie Fjellhoy, one of his victims, said the Netflix documentary.

After matching on Tinder, the fraudster invited Fjellhoy to meet for coffee at the Four Seasons in London.

He asked the blonde graduate student if she wanted to join him on his private plane for a business trip to Bulgaria that afternoon after they finished their drink.

Fjellhoy told Norwegian news site Verdens Gang that his ‘team’ of employees who were joining them reassured her.

What followed was a whirlwind long-distance relationship with daily text messages, videos, and voice messages sent via Whatsapp.

Among the excessive love overtures, Hayut sent clips of himself on private jets, driving Ferraris and closeups of his luxury watches.

‘I never felt this way, if you had told me I wouldn’t even imagine it or believe it,’ he said in a voice note that Fjellhoy shared with Verdens Gang.

‘I love you my future wife,’ he said in another.

Hayut hinted at the inherent dangers of working in the diamond market from the start, claiming that he couldn’t visit Fjellhoy in London because of threats he was receiving from enigmatic foes.

After claiming they were ‘attacked,’ he went so far as to share images of himself and his security in the hospital.

Fjellhoy was taken in by it hook, line, and sinker. The conman urged her to take up a large line of credit for him four weeks into their relationship, saying that it was a preventive security step to avoid leaving a paper trail in his name.

She filled out an application for an American Express Platinum Card as per his instructions, and he told her to file a $200,000 income, assuring her that no one would check it.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

One of the main reasons why he needed it was protection…he needed my name as a cover, he said,’ Fjellhoy told Nightline in 2019. ‘I know it sounds crazy…[but] why would he have this giant guy with him if he didn’t need the protection?,’ she said, apparently referring to a bodyguard.

The cost of supporting Hayut and his ‘crew’ in their jetset lifestyle grew quickly. The attractive Israeli imposter spent two million Norwegian krone ($224,220) in just 54 days on Louboutins in Bangkok, Gucci in Barcelona, the Ritz Carlton in Berlin, and the Conservatory in Amsterdam.

Fjellhoy acquired 10 new lines of credit after her Amex was maxed out to keep paying for her crook-boyfriend. She took out a loan to pay off her credit cards, but Hayut failed to refund the money he promised.

My angel My love I just talked to the bank and they told me that the [transfer] of Amex will be there on Monday thousand percent,’ read one text message Hayut sent her. He also added a bank letter from TD Bank attesting to a bank transfer in the amount of $500,000 to her account, but that document was forged.

‘I almost wanted to throw up, it was the first time in my life that I had gotten such a shock that my body physically was telling me that, ‘OK your life is ruined,’ everything came crashing down around me,’ she told Nightline on ABC.

In the Netflix trailer Fjellhoy recalls: ‘That’s when police tell me, the man I love was never real, everything’s a lie.’

By that time, the phoney Russian oligarch had moved on to his next victim, a Swedish woman called Pernilla Sjoholm, whom he lavished $10,000 on a limousine ride to the opera.

‘It felt good to be able to give it to him and say, ‘Here’s my credit card. I managed it,’ said Fjellhoy to the Norwegian news outlet.

They first met on Tinder in March 2018. ‘He was smart and funny and very impulsive’ Pernilla said in the documentary. 

‘This may sound strange,’ Sjoholm told Verdens Gang, ‘But he’s very thoughtful.’

It wasn’t until eight months into their relationship that Hyut asked to borrow $45,000. He repaid her with valuable watch that she later discovered was fake.

When she finally confronted the man who she once called a ‘friend,’ he responded with little remorse: ‘Pernilla if you double cross me, I can tell you right now that you will pay for it for the rest of your life.’

He added: ‘They used me for my life they got expensive gifts and everything, in other words gold diggers.’

During a joint Interpol-Israeli Police operation in June 2019, the phoney wealthy fugitive was ultimately apprehended.

In December 2019, Shimon Hayut was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $43,289 in restitution to his victims, although he was released after only five months.

She was, in fact, correct. Hayut was accused of faking his way into receiving an early vaccine dose while they were only being given to medical staff, those over the age of 60, and those in high-risk categories.

He told The Times of Israel: ‘I am not someone who waits in line or at places. With all due respect, I will not sit and wait 3-4 hours. I am not someone who waits and no one can say a word about it.’

Source: dailymail.co.uk