The Tinder Swindler (Netflix)

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If you haven’t seen The Tinder Swindler you have probably heard or read about it, an entertaining and almost unbelievable documentary about a cruel Israeli guy masquerading as the wealthy son of a rich diamond mogul, ripping off loads of attractive women from around the world with a dating scam through Tinder. Throughout the film you can’t help feel for the women taken for significant sums of money and brave to talk about it, especially on Netflix, the ladies featured in the film equally exploited and abused on social media after the film took off, accused of being dumb blondes, gullible and gold-digger’s etc. The worrying thing is they are not that dumb, and maybe some were after money; love their objective, so they say. We all know dating apps are a minefield and good and bad things can happen there so you have to accept that deceit and deception online. But it’s mostly disappointment you get with dating apps. People rarely look like the photo-shopped beauties in the pictures, and we all talk up our achievements, men programmed to as they know deep down women prefer successful men than everyday Joe’s. The film exposes the contradictions of women, men know so well. They want true love but the money is nice. Some want one without the other but some would prefer both. With men, the wealth of the women is rarely attractive, a woman of means just another route to male insecurity. You see many beautiful young women with much older ugly rich men but not the other way around. Women want a bloke taller them, better looking than them, richer than them. Sorry but that’s the rules. The film begins with a bright, vivacious middle-class Scandinavian lady, Pernilla Sjoholm, attractive enough to photograph well on dating apps from all angles, picking and choosing her men, comfortable with the whole culture of the scene. She recounts her first meeting with a man known to her as Simon Leviev, who seems to click with her rather quickly, as does she on whatsapp, the two agreeing to meet at a restaurant for the first date when he is in Oslo on business. The meal goes so well she agrees to jump in a private jet with him that night, no less, a weekend in Denmark, the offer. I won’t spoil the film but it’s not long into their relationship that he starts spinning tales about reasons she should give him money and so she hands it over, a lot of money, maxing out credit cards, quick loans and some. Our films second major contributor is Cecille Fjellho , a more savvy Euro chic , who is intrigued by the handsome young rich guy but does not declare an attraction to him in the film but also ends up given him lots of money. The Israeli’s deception is professional and believable, Leivev (born Shimon Hayut) is the guy in the photos, the private jets are real and so are the swanky hotels and champagne. The girl’s feet don’t touch the ground and they go with it, no questions asked. As with all of these romance scams the ladies want it to be real, why they get sucked in. Not that the Jews have a history of massive frauds, mind. 90% of people trapped by dating scams are female. Why, because blokes are just more cynical in general about dating apps. Sadly we learn this guy scams one woman and uses the money to romance the next one, and so on, even employing a security guard, Peter, and a manger, Amut, to authenticate his yarns that get the women to hand over the cash. He is reckoned to have conned up to $10 million dollars out of people over the decade. But the third lady in the film, a clever Dutch lady called Aylene Charlotte, although gullible to a point, also handing over lots of cash, finally fights back as the net closes on The Tinder Swindler. Epilogue ... Now this is a true story but not necessarily in the right order. He was a crook because he went to jail in Israel for his crimes there but not so easy to jail him away from Israel. In fact he is out and about today on social media and the fast cars and women are back, mostly cashing in from his appearance on this film, it seems. Interestingly the two ladies in the film also enjoyed the fame after and also appeared to have been paid for the film and for media appearances on TV shows and newspaper appearance around the world thereafter. In fact watching this, there is always that feeling in the back of your mind that the deception has been exaggerated to make the documentary more thrilling. Whatever your thoughts on dating apps it’s well worth a watch. The last 20 minutes some up the man and his downfall. Greed and avarice brings us all down.