The Tinder Swindler, a documentary based around a romance scam was released on Netflix on February 2nd and instantly gained the attraction of thousands of viewers. The storyline follows the journey of con artist Shimon Hayut- or more commonly known as Simon Leviev to his victims, and how he managed to swindle over $270,626 (£200,000) from women in return for his love.
Simon presented himself as the son of a billionaire, and would romance the women with flights to different countries, luxurious gifts, and most importantly- his love and commitment. Once the fraudster secured the women's trust, he would ask them for large sums of money in order for him to go undercover from his 'enemies' and in order to stay safe. Of course, these women, not wanting to see their other half hurt or targeted, would send the money over as Simon would promise to pay them back, spoiler- he never would.
Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm and Ayleen Charlotte are only some of the women that had came forward about Simon scamming them after meeting him on Tinder and being manipulated by him, these women are victims and are still paying the price for their actions to this day.
Simon Leviev, after being set up and caught by one of his victims, got sentenced to 15 months in jail- he was released after just five, and walks away a free man. The women who came out on the documentary and outed Simon, have since set up a GoFundMe page to try and raise enough money to pay back their debts.
So what did people really think of the documentary?
These were just some, of the hundreds and hundreds of tweets left on Twitter after the release of the documentary. So why do we treat victims of romance scams so poorly? These women have been emotionally manipulated, and practically given up half their lives for this ideal man who has promised them the world, yes it might have been pretty naive of them, but aren't we missing the real point here and dismissing the serious fraud that Leviev has committed.
There has been such a huge focus on the fact that women have been attracted to him on Tinder because of what he portrayed himself as, a billionaire. People are tuning back to the misogynistic view of 'gold digging women' and branding the women that were scammed by Leviev as 'gold diggers' when in fact, the women were just doing all they could to protect Simon, they felt that ultimately, his life was in their hands. Some viewers have in fact twisted the whole narrative of the documentary to portray Simon Leviev as the victim instead.
Romance scams are particularly more well known to leave the victims on the receiving end of more public shame and trolling than the usual scam. This is because of the complexity and intricacy of the scam itself, it does not only involve money but involves feelings and relationships too. To us, these women and Simon may not have known each other for long, but everyone feels things differently, these women were in love with Simon (one in particular for 14 months) and would do anything for him- just as anyone would for their partner.
The victims of Simon had been groomed and manipulated to the point that their reality was distorted- Surely they can't be blamed for this? These scams are cruel and very believable, and in fact are a lot more common than you would think. They can be easily compared to domestic violence and abuse- these women were trapped in this abusive relationship with Leviev, there was no way out once that first deal was done and the first wad of cash was passed over, little did they know that this was only just the beginning.
Critics of this documentary are failing to see the bigger picture and are just focusing on the money that the women have lost- what about their feelings and the physiological harm involved in the scam overall, these women are not to blame.
In an interview with ITV's Lorraine, one of the victims, Fjellhøy said;
“We kind of knew it might come, but to be called a gold-digger for giving out money, like we said, we must have been the worst gold-diggers in history.”
Which is true. When you look up the definition of 'gold digger' in the dictionary, this is the definition.
'a person who forms a relationship with another purely to extract money from them.'
Isn't this the complete opposite of what the victims are then? Their whole point in the documentary is that they were scammed out of money. Simon Leviev is the real gold digger here, if anything.
Yes, the victims may have seen the fact Simon was a millionaire and swiped right, but what difference does that make? The whole point in Tinder is to judge people based on a small bio, photo and lifestyle, which obviously attracted many women. A very common message seen all over Facebook and Instagram comments regarding the documentary was 'don't give money to people you don't know.' But, in fact, these women did know Simon, they had been on dates with him, slept with him, to them, he was their boyfriend. People transfer money to their family, friends and boyfriends/ girlfriends all the time, this is the exact same thing.
Its the usual misogynistic view that we still see today from both men, and woman. People simply do not like the idea of women looking for love, and finding this in a wealthy man. Why though? Wealth does not decide whether someone is worthy of love and in the long run, should not matter.
Within the landfill of tweets under The Tinder Swindler on Twitter, is tweets upon tweets of viewers with a very common statement- 'would not be me'. But that is the fact, yes, it wouldn't be you- because these women are dating billionaires, and these scammers would not date the type of women who wouldn't share money anyway- that is the whole point of their scam. They are preying on woman who they can take advantage of.
Doesn't it make you ask yourself, why are there more tweets on the internet making fun of these woman than expressing a real rage at the real issue here (spoiler, it's not the women) - Simon Leviev is a free roaming man- and will and can continue to scam other woman who are just classed as 'dumb enough to be kind.'
These poor women have been punished enough. They are the victims. They have suffered enough without being victim blamed over, and over, and over again.
"A man who uses 'I Love You' to manipulate a woman who's deeply in love with him should have a special place in hell."
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