The Tinder Swindler

As "The Tinder Swindler" (2022 release from the UK; 114 min.) opens, we are introduced to Cecilie, a 29 yr. Norwegian living in London who has been on the Tinder dating app for 7 years. She LOVES Tinder. One day, she right-swipes on the profile of a certain Simon LeViev, a guy from Israel who embodies the "life style of the rich and famous", and before you know it, literally within days, Cecilie and Simon are tight, super tight. At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the directing debut of UK documentary producer Felicia Morris. Here she brings us the story of, as the movie's title implies, how a slick guy uses the Tinder dating app to prey on women for money. He is not the first guy to do this, and surely also not the last guy. What makes this documentary so surprisingly entertaining is that the 3 victims who bring their story (Cecilie, Swedish woman Pernilla, and Dutch woman Ayleen) turn out to be master story tellers. Indeed, much of the movie is simply letting them talk, albeit backed up by (i) their iPhone communications which all were stored for posterity, and (ii) scene re-enactments. I typically am put off by scene re-enactments but for whatever reason I wasn't here. Add a layer of slick and pure eye-candy photography (Oslo!, London!, Stockholm! Amsterdam!, Prague!, Mykonos! It's like a James Bond movie), and the end result is quite tasty. Kudos to the three ladies for stepping forward and sharing their story. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to live through this. As for the Tinder swindler himself, may he get what he deserves.

"The Tinder Swindler" premiered on Netflix this past week. If you are a fan of true crime documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

There's lots here, as a woman, I can't understand. Maybe I've watched too many of these shows, but the "Hurry up, I need it now" is such a classic old school con. Especially after a month. Too many questions with answers that didn't exist or didn't make sense. Couldn't he just go to his family, for money and/or protection? And if he wasn't doing anything illegal, the police would have protected him. And the credit card statements would show what he was doing. I can see online things as they appear.

I do feel bad for the victimes, all of them, not just on the show. I know how the "be nice and help everyone" is sometimes ingrained in us.

Worst part of the show is the end. Five months in jail for 10 million dollar scams, that are still ongoing. Big deal.

The first 30 minutes of this documentary was more than enough, but I stayed with it til the end in order to write this review. I feel sorry for those women swindled, but HOW can one not see that there is something wrong with this guy and situation from the first story of "enemies after me" and "I need money".

If it seems too good to be true, it IS too good to be true.

The delusion of "love" after only a couple of luxury dates is at its core the blind allure of a windfall life of riches, jet-set luxury, lavish lifestyle, and financial security.

Like all Ponzi scams, getting-rich-quickly is the bait used to scam people, whether it's investments or the possibility of finding love with a rich "prince"...but like the Tina Turner song, "what's love got to do with it".

It's an outrageous over-the-top example of scamming, and one hopes this will give women pause before jumping into too-good-to-be-true scenarios, (especially off dating sites), and learn to head for the exit as soon as obvious red flags pop up.

The sad truth is it probably won't make enough of a dent to prevent this type of thing from happening again...the desire for a rich lifestyle is always going to bait some people into bad scenarios via denial - "it's a tale as old as time". 😑

Be careful who you fall for, the story of young women who have fallen in love with the son of a wealthy diamond trader, Simon Laviev, however all is not as it seems.

Originally I thought this was going to be a movie, the content and format came as a real surprise, I didn't get into it straight away, it all seemed a little wishy washy, however as it develops, and you learn the actual content, it becomes a great, shocking watch.

You may we'll be like me, and screaming at the screen, how on Earth could these women have fallen for his story, it is just baffling. You have to chuckle about the comments about Tinder being a place to find love, but this isn't the place for that conversation.

Very well made, it looks great, beautifully filmed, with such powerful interviews and insight.

9/10.

The documentary does a nice job of putting together the timeline and puzzling together the swindler's path of action with his victims. They could have made an effort though to add some police expert on whether the key elements of the frauds are the same as for other con artists as some general advice. What was definitely missing was a deeper look into the tinder profile of the victims and what they had in common. The swindler must have been looking for a certain type of women.

I am applauding the three women for going public. It can't have been easy for them. At least they made it harder for him to defraud more people, unfortunately not impossible as it seems. Fingers crossed that the women can bring their financial problems in order.