The conman from Tinder - the story of the "diamond prince" Levaev, who lured millions from women
Netflix released on February 2 a documentary about one of the most famous scam lovers of recent years. His hero, Simon Levaev, managed to lure $ 10 million (750 million rubles) from gullible ladies. The fraudster found his victims on the Internet, through a popular dating app. That is why the film was called "The Conman from Tinder".
The viewer, unfamiliar with the real story of Simon Levaev, will decide that the script of the film is another Hollywood fairy tale. But the story of the "scammer from Tinder" is true from beginning to end. A young and handsome Israeli, Shimon Hayut, calls himself the son of billionaire Lev Levaev. Rich Levaev is the owner of the diamond mining company LLD Diamonds, so Shimon easily attracts the attention of girls.
The guy met on Tinder, calling himself Simon Levaev. To maintain the legend of his origin, the fraudster created impeccable social media accounts, sported branded clothing and took pictures near supercars and private jets.
It is not at all surprising that women lost their heads from Simon and were ready to do anything for his favor. After a short conversation, the "son of a billionaire" suddenly declared to a new acquaintance that he was in danger. He urgently needed money, of course, in debt and he almost always received it.
The girls gave the last and got into debt to save the man of their dreams from death. Of course, after receiving the money, Simon Levaev dissolved like smoke and did not appear in the life of a compassionate passion anymore. The film is based on first-hand materials obtained from the victims of the conman. Three women have found the courage to tell their stories to the world: Eileen Charlotte, Pernilla Sheholm, Cecilia Fellhoy.
One of the ladies deceived by Levaev scored loans in the bank for a quarter of a million dollars and sent every cent to the crook. After it turned out that she had been deceived, the woman was hospitalized with a nervous breakdown.
Israeli Shimon Hayut was born in the city of Bnei Brak in the Tel Aviv district in a very decent family. Suffice it to say that Shimon's father is the chief rabbi of El Al Airlines. But the son did not follow in his father's footsteps and decided to earn money in a simpler way. In 2011, Shimon almost fell into the hands of the police for forging checks.
Shimon worked part-time in one family, looking after a child there. The employers were so careless that Hayut managed to steal their checkbook. He managed to spend a lot of money until he was exposed by a fake signature. Then the young swindler managed to avoid arrest. The guy left the country and, when he was put on the wanted list, changed his name.
Then Shimon was only 18 years old and since then his family has not known anything about him. The criminal settled in Finland, where he continued his criminal activities. In 2015, he was arrested and received a sentence for fraud. Two years later, Khayut was released and decided to act more cautiously. Then he had the idea to make money on the greed and carelessness of girls from dating sites.
The swindler always acted according to the same scheme. He got acquainted with a girl on Tinder through a fake account with his staged photos. When he managed to convince the victim that she was the only one and the most desirable for him, a neat but confident pumping of money began. Not all the money Shimon spent on himself - part of the unearned income went to gifts for girls.
At the same time, the conman communicated with several women. In the end, he claimed that he was in trouble and could no longer use his bank accounts. To make it clear that he was actually in danger, Khayut sent photos of brutally beaten people to the victims. He wrote that these were his employees and that the enemies were about to get to him.
The girls believed the fraudster and gave all their savings and even took out loans. One of the Internet acquaintances was so impressed by the story of the false Levaev that she gave him 25 thousand dollars (1.87 million rubles) in cash. Some of his victims were "registered" by Shimon in his diamond company for a salary of 90 thousand dollars. So that the girls would not suspect that they had been deceived, he made fake transfers in their name and lied that the money had been lost somewhere by mistake.
To others, the crook left expensive things as collateral, which turned out to be penny Chinese fakes. Thanks to this and many other tricks, Shimon managed to keep the victims silent and not report him to the police. The exact number of victims of the "scammer from Tinder" is unknown. But journalists believe that Shimon earned about $ 10 million this way.
But sooner or later the women realized that they had been deceived and reported to the police. In 2019 , Shimon Hayut was arrested in Greece and deported to Israel. In December of the same year, the fraudster was tried and given an unexpectedly lenient sentence. For all his tricks, he received only 15 months in prison. The swindler did not even serve that — six months later he was released thanks to exemplary behavior.
Now Shimon Hayut lives in Israel and continues to call himself Simon Levaev. He claims that a person has the right to take any name he likes. The fact that his new surname strangely coincides with the surname of Lev Levaev, he calls an accident. Moreover, he denies that he once called himself the son of a rich man.
As for the deceived girls, Levaev exposes himself almost as a victim. He claims that he made expensive gifts to beauties at his own expense, and even paid for travel and expensive vacations for some. The guy himself continues to live luxuriously, drives Rolls Royce and Lamborghini, and when asked about the source of income, he modestly says that he moonlights as a business consultant. Simon talks about his carefree life on Instagram and Twitter.
Simon Levaev flatly refused to communicate with the creators of the film "The Conman from Tinder". The most interesting thing is that his activity brought a lot of unpleasant moments to Lev Levaev— a solid businessman and father of 9 children. The billionaire has repeatedly made denials of kinship with the brazen rogue alphonse.
The story of Simon Levaev is not too instructive, because the conman did not suffer serious punishment. Much less lucky was his colleague from China, because the laws there are much tougher.