The Tinder Swindler is a Netflix documentary that shows Simon Leviev —known as “the Tinder scammer”—, an Israeli man who manipulated and robbed different women around the world through the popular dating application.
In this way, the production follows Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Koeleman, who set out to locate Leviev (whose real name is Shimon Hayut) after meeting him on Tinder and being swindled out of millions of dollars.
Leviev is estimated to have stolen $10 million over the years, after luring his victims with expensive dates to gain their trust. He pretended to be an heir to a family known throughout the world for his diamonds.
However, Hayut does not seem to care about all the controversies that arose as a result of the documentary, since recently created an account on Cameoan application where fans can request videos dedicated to celebrities in exchange for payment.
On the app, Leviev charges $200 for each personalized video message for fans and $1,400 for a professional one for businesses.
In an example birthday message at your profileHayut, who signs all of his videos as Leviev, thanks an imaginary client for protecting his girlfriend from “my enemies,” a reference to how he convinced women to send him money.
Images of Hayut’s first Cameo clips began to appear on Twitter, in which he made more references to his scams. In one of them, he mentioned: “Jessica, Charlie is running away because his enemies are after him, so if you can send him some money. I wish you a great and magnificent day, and Happy Valentine’s Day.
The tinder swindler is on Cameo and I can't believe people have paid him for stuff videos but also love this one 😂 pic.twitter.com/M2UQVTeeUx
— Courtney 🌸 (@Tweeting2Much) February 17, 2022
In February, Fjellhøy and Sjoholm, two of Hayut’s victims, were invited to the program Tamron Hall with Felicity Morris, the director of the documentary The Tinder Swindler. There, Sjoholm mentioned that “it broke their hearts” that Cameo wanted to “collaborate with a criminal.”
“To be honest, it broke my heart to see a company collaborating with a criminal. They are still looking for him in Europe, so at the moment he is only hiding in Israel. I think he has crimes against him, accusations against him also in the United States, but no. Honestly, he’s heartbreaking,” Sjoholm said.
“We come here, we share our story, we try to show a criminal to the world and what he is doing, and for someone to collaborate with these types of people is honestly very heartbreaking,” the woman added.
In a statement shared with The Independent, a spokesperson for Cameo said: “Cameo aims to be a ubiquitous market. To that end, we believe our customers should be in control of the connections they choose to make through our service, and we do not control the beliefs or opinions of the talent and fans who use Cameo.”
As depicted in the Netflix documentary, in 2015 Leviev was arrested and convicted in Finland on charges of defrauding multiple women, serving two years in prison.
In December 2019, he was also sentenced to 15 months in jail in Israel, after fleeing the country twice (in 2011 and 2017) to avoid charges of theft, forgery and fraud. Ultimately, Leviev served five of the 15 months and was released in May 2020.
On the Tamron Hall show, Sjoholm also addressed the news that Leviev hired a talent manager, a woman named Gina Rodriguez, to help him pursue “a career in the entertainment industry.” In an unusual way, she herself confirmed it.
“I was intrigued with the Netflix story. I saw the world’s greatest salesman. He left me with many unanswered questions and was very biased. I think there are two sides to every story and everyone should have a chance to tell their version of it,” Rodríguez told ET.
According to the same medium, Leviev is analyzing the possibilities of making a podcast, presenting a dating program or writing a book.
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