Hi Hivers.
After much persuasion and pressure from my siblings and friends, I finally watched the Tinder Swindler documentary and I gotta say it is very controversial. Not on anyone being right or wrong but on the actions taken from both the man and the women.
Warning: spoiler alert for those that are yet to watch the documentary.⚠️
If you’re still reading then either you have seen the documentary or you just don’t give a F about spoilers and I like you for that.😂
Let’s get into it.
This movie is basically about tinder dates as the name already implies.
It started off with a lady named Cecilie Fjellhøy casually swiping on men till she found him.
Simon Leviev
Who poses as a young billionaire, ventured into the diamond business his father owns among other of his investments, loves to travel, looks fit, naturally striking, kind of the whole package a woman looks for in a man.
Cecilie swiped on Simon’s profile and got a text almost immediately. Still perplexed at the speed on which he messaged her, she replied. Then they got each other going. It was all rosy and dreamy for her. She got flowers, they went on expensive dates, traveled together etc. Simon asked her to be his girlfriend and she thought she finally found the one.
Simon was never at one place for a long time, he always made sure she knew what city or country he was at and even where he’s lodged in. She really loved him.
But as we all know, dreams are not reality and most does not easily come true.
One faithful day, Cecilie got a text from Simon that he and his personal guard Peter were attacked. Also went ahead to tell her how his funds and assets were all frozen and he had no access to money. He asked Cecilie to send him some money as she will be refunded immediately he had access to his assets. She had no such amount on her of which she informed him then he instructed her to take a loan. She was confident to take the loan as after all she had seen, she knew he would be able to settle the debt as he had promised.
It was all good until three days later Simon needed another loan and another and another. This happened almost every 3 days for weeks.
Simon was in another country awaiting his next victim.
Pernilla Sjöholm
Pernilla found Simon on tinder and swiped. She also got a message immediately. They talked, got to know each other, the whole cycle begun again. Simon took her to the club, ordered expensive drinks, it was fun. They also talked daily. Until Pernilla also developed a fondness for Simon, he noticed this and repeated the same thing to Pernilla. Told her how he was attacked by his enemies, how his assets were frozen also how Peter was injured. He needed money.
Pernilla took all her savings and transferred it all to him, he expressed his thanks and promised to pay back as soon as he had access to his assets again. Everything was great again until he needed another loan and another of which Pernilla offered with the confidence he could pay back.
Until finally she was fed up.
Cecilie on the other hand was worried as she still had not been refunded to pay back what she owe. The companies were already sending her a reminder of the loan. Simon was yet to refund her. He kept on posting her and became abstractly violent towards her.
He wasn’t showing her the care they started with anymore, they hardly talk. Until it hit her that she had been conned.
She owed over $500,000 and had no way of paying. She took upon herself to find out the truth behind Simon. She searched and searched till she found an article about him and how he conned women on tinder. She messaged the journalist and told her own story. Together they set on a mission to capture Simon.
Pernilla got tired of Simon posting her on refunding her and told him. Simon offered her his watches to sell off since his funds were still frozen. She took them to pawn it off only to find out they were all fake. It dawned on her that she had been conned. She called Simon about it, told him she knows he scammed her. He got upset and started threatening her. Cecilie was able to track Simon and got a hold of his new victim Pernilla, she told Pernilla how he also scammed her then they joined forces to capture Simon.
Cecilie and Pernilla now published a story on Simon Leviev the Tinder Swindler. The documentary was on front pages, it went viral. They realized Simon created a pyramid scheme as he uses the money he scammed from a woman to spend on another woman, then scam the same woman he spent on and uses the money on another woman, it goes on and on.
They got so many messages of other victims Simon had swindled and escaped with it.
Until they stumbled on a certain Ayleen Charlott.
She was currently in a five year relationship with Simon.
Simon still trusted her. Ayleen immediately believed the story and also joined forces with Cecilie and Pernilla to capture Simon.
She played along with Simon and acted like she does not believe the viral story.
Simon wasn’t able to scam any other woman as he was already viral and people were aware of him so he hit rock bottom.
He was in hiding and he had only Ayleen at the moment.
Ayleen has a plan to strip him of all valuables she could as revenge. Naturally Simon requested some money from her but she declined and instead offered to sell his designer clothes and accessories for him then credit him with whatever amount she is able to make from it. Simon at this point had no other choice but to comply. Unknown to him Ayleen had other plans and was never going to credit him.
She sold everything and kept the money, after some weeks when Simon didn’t get any money from Ayleen he realized her true intentions and got really violent and upset. Knowing he couldn’t do anything to her Ayleen kept the money to herself.
After some time, Simon was captured, found guilty fraud, theft and forgery.
He was sentenced to fifteen months in prison but was later released after five months on good behavior.
Simon is now a free man but it might take a while to recover from the defamed character people already know him for.
Yes this incident could have happened to absolutely anyone, although a lesson I took from this documentary would be never to take a loan with my name on another person’s behalf and also I know everyone must have heard this “Not all that glitter is gold”.
All images are sourced from screenshots I took while watching the movie