'Tinder Swindler' who inspired addicitve Netflix doco officially banned from the dating app

In case you have lived in a cave for the last five years and have never heard the word "Tinder", it is arguably the world's number one dating app. The ground-breaking app created a whole new meaning for the words "swipe right" and brought millions of people together.

Tinder does have a dark side, however, with tales of more minor dating misdemeanours such as "ghosting", to more bleak scenarios that have resulted in harm and misery. It is the story of one such misery-making man who is the focus of the new Netflix documentary film, The Tinder Swindler - and it has everyone talking.

The man, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, but is also known as Simon Leviev, swindled his Tinder matches out of millions of dollars, according to the documentary. On Friday, a spokesperson at Tinder confirmed that Hayut has been banned from using the app for some time.

"We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019. He is permanently banned from Tinder. In the lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases.", Tinder confirmed in a statement.

The Netflix film tells the story of three women - Cecilie Fjellhoy, Pernilla Sjöholm and Ayleen Charlotte - all living in different parts of Europe, who were targeted by Hayut between 2018 and 2019.

According to his victims, Hayut purported to be the billionaire son of a diamond mogul and called himself the "Prince of Diamonds". He was charming and easy to talk to. Hayut gained their trust with generous gifts and lavish dinners, gaining their trust before asking them to lend him money, often claiming his life was in danger.

The documentary also revealed that Hayut had a previous criminal record; he is wanted in Israel on charges of theft, forgery and fraud, according to the Times of Israel.

Hayut was also sentenced to two years in prison in Finland in 2015 for defrauding two women. After that he returned to Israel, before fleeing again to continue his conning, and it is this period of his life that is covered in the film.

According to the film, Hayut is still free, whereabouts unknown, while his victims continue to struggle to repay debts incurred on his behalf.

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.