The Tinder Swindler

My heart goes out to the young women who were used by this swindler. Losing money through fraud is hard enough, but the man broke their hearts. Also, because he was a professional thief, the fear of being more victimized will never leave them.

Conmen have always been with us, but never in history has it been so easy for them to find their marks. They don't need to find a Doris Duke or Kim Kardashian. With the internet providing all the background they need on potential victims and dating applications proving a pond of lonely victims, they just have to pull the same con again and again.

This film does a great job of showing who the victims are, who the conman is, and how the con works. It underscores the complication of trying to prosecute the criminals across the world, and how police are hampered by language, law, and the intimacy of the relationships. It shows that the conman has the upper hand, and will keep doing it again and again.

Please, look behind the profiles of people you meet on social media. Romcoms are not real. There is no Prince Charming, and you aren't Cinderella. Do a background check, and, if he asks for money, run (don't walk) in the opposite direction. Do not lend money.

And, again, a conman is a sociopath. And a conman who gets his own Netflix show is a conman who is really good at it.

This show is less "shocking" than "predictable." Dogs bark. Conmen steal.

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.

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.

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". 😑

My question with all these women was, why didn't they say, "Ask your rich family for the money!"

My mother really did tell me to run the other direction if a guy ever asked to borrow money from me. Boy was she right! So this is my gift to all you women out there - don't lend any guys money.

So - these women did and this documentary shows how it happens and why and how to spot a swindler.

Too many reviewers call the women gold diggers. Stop it. If the roles were reversed, you'd jump on that plane as fast as a woman, so pot/kettle.

As one reviewer put it - it is disturbing (and it is) and wait until you see the ending. Holy crap.