Since The Tinder Swindler aired on Netflix on February 2 it has accumulated 45.8m viewing hours. I’d harbour a guess the documentary on romance scammer Shimon Hayut has accumulated many more hours of discussion, being the number one topic with friends over the last few weeks. Reaction has ranged from incredulity to anger, empathy to enquiry – most notably how three of his victims – Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte were lured into Hayut’s web of deceit via well practised moves.

Posing as billionaire playboy Simon Leviev and claiming to be the son of Israeli Russian diamond tycoon Lev Leviev, Hayut’s MO was to connect with women on Tinder, and then spoil them. Dates in five star hotels, trips aboard private jets, holidays in resorts around the world, gifts, fine dining and posing in an endless supply of designer clothing all seemed to be legit. After all, in an age where we have Google, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles to browse, it should be easy to check someone’s identity. In this sophisticated scam Hayut created the website LLP Diamonds, so that anyone who Googled him would see the link to the website and assume that he really was the son of a multi-millionaire – a “prince of diamonds”.

As Leviev, Hayut followed a pattern; once emotionally hooked, he would then tell each girlfriend that he had many “enemies”. As documentary evidence he would send a photograph of his bodyguard, bleeding in the back of an ambulance. To hide from these “enemies” Hayut alleged he couldn’t use his own credit cards, so asked the women to take out credit cards in their name, and then give him the card or send him cash. Forwarding false transfer papers as proof of repayment and blaming banks for not processing the transactions, Hayut then ghosted his victims. Fjellhøy lent him almost $250,000 in loans and credit card payments – money that he never paid back.

Sadly it’s a universal story. Here in Ireland, a woman aged 41 was scammed into losing €26,000 by a man claiming to be a well-known musician. Another 51-year-old female believes she’s been a victim of romance fraud after transferring €90,000 to a man online in the belief that it was a loan for his business. A 38-year-old man reported that he began engaging online with a female who said she needed money to return to her Mexico home. The man sent €3,800 to her via Bitcoin in one transaction.

There is little the victim of a scam can do other than raise awareness. Once her fairy-tale ended, the revenge thriller began: Fjellhøy decided to contact Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (or VG) to relate her story, which went viral. The newspaper started a very thorough investigation of the case, following Hayut’s trail all the way to Israel, where they learned his real identity, and his background from a poor district of Tel Aviv. In the process, Fjellhøy discovered other targets and they have since banded together to share their story. They are not alone.

Since uncovering his real identity, The Times of Israel has estimated that Hayut has stolen around $10m over the years from scamming numerous women across Europe in similar Ponzi schemes. Hayut was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud in Finland in 2015. In 2019 he received a sentence of 15 months for the crimes committed in Israel, but got out of jail after just four.

What was not discussed in any great depth during the Netflix documentary were Hayut’s possible accomplices, the authenticity and sophistication of the fake bank accounts and the fraudulent activity of his father. This is discussed in Netflix’s new three-part podcast The Making of a Swindler, hosted by Felicity Morris and Irish producer Bernadette Higgins. In episode 3: The Rabbi’s Son, we learn Hayut Senior, Yohanan Hayut, was rabbi for Israel’s national airline El Al for 15 years, during which time he is suspected of using his son’s fake identity to con philanthropists and businessmen out of millions. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say …

At the present time, Hayut is once again living his best life in Israel, with a new girlfriend, model Kat Konlin. Rather than being repentant about his past actions, he has got himself a celebrity agent – Gina Rodriguez – who believes her client to be “the world’s greatest salesmen.” Together Hayut and Rodriguez are planning to “crack Hollywood” and there have been suggestions he may front a dating show, share dating tips on a podcast, appear on Dancing With The Stars or reinvent himself as an entertainment mogul. We’ll see how that goes. For now he has created an account on the Cameo platform, under the name Simon Leviev, where celebrities share videos with congratulations or birthday wishes for their fans. He is charging €177 for personal use and €1,243 for corporate bookings and has already garnered five star reviews from fans.

Furthermore the 31-year-old claims that The Tinder Swindler is one-sided and that he is not a fraud. In a preview of a two-part interview, which airs this evening on Netflix (February 21 & 22) Hayut says: “I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder.” Previously he said of the women who accused him of fraud and theft, “Maybe they didn’t like being in a relationship with me, or the way that I act. Maybe their hearts were broken during the process.”

Should he break up with his current girlfriend, he won’t be welcome on many dating apps in the future. Tinder carried out its own internal investigation on Hayut and have deleted all the accounts under any of his known aliases. According to an NBC News report, Hayut has been banned from other dating apps such as OkCupid, plenty of Fish, and Match.com.

As for LLD Diamonds, it released a statement to Newsweek: “LLD Diamonds has been a well-regarded leader in the diamond industry for three decades. Our company has no connection whatsoever with Shimon Hayut. He is a fraud who has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars.”

“Our sympathies go out to his victims. His fraud has also caused ongoing confusion about our company. Nothing he has said, about LLD or anything else, should be believed. As soon as we learned of the fraud, we filed a complaint with the Israeli police, and we hope that Mr Hayut faces the justice he deserves.”

Currently, Fjellhøy, Sjoholm, and Charlotte are campaigning for justice and have set up their own GofundMe page, aiming to raise round $810,255 to pay off their collective debts. The trio’s fundraiser reads: “You’re probably here because you’ve heard about our story, and we appreciate you taking the time to search and find this page. The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone. The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much. After careful consideration, and many chats, we have decided to start this GoFundMe fundraiser. So many people reached out to us asking if we had one, and it hadn’t occurred to us to make one prior to this. However, we’ve spotted plenty of fakes, which makes us uneasy. We don’t want more people getting defrauded. We realise there are a thousand other worthy causes to donate to, and remain forever grateful if you choose to donate to this one. All we want are our lives back.”