Tinder bans Simon Leviev from dating app as victims set up GoFundMe page

The infamous Tinder Swindler has been banned from the dating app while his victims try and raise money to pay off their £600,000 debt.

The Netflix true-crime documentary uncovers the story of a group of women who were conned out of millions through a man from Tinder. Using the alias Simon Leviev, The Tinder Swindler revealed that he stole an estimated total of $10 million (£7.4 million) after deceiving his victims into thinking he was the heir to a diamond empire.

Following the popularity of the documentary, a spokesperson for Tinder confirmed that Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, is no longer active on the app under any of his aliases and has been banned since his actions became public in 2019.

“We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019,” the spokesperson said. “He is permanently banned from Tinder.”

In the statement, they also added that in the “lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases”.

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Meanwhile, three of his victims – who featured in the Netflix documentary – have set up a GoFundMe page in an attempt to reverse the financial damage.

Cecilie Fjellhøy, Ayleen Koeleman and Pernilla Sjoholm aim to rack up £600,000 and have so far received just over £33,000 at the time of writing.

They wrote: "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."

After recently deleted his Instagram, the conman said: “I will share my side of the story in the next few days when I have sorted out the best and most respectful way to tell it, both to the involved parties and myself,

“Until then, please keep an open mind and heart.”

In 2019, he was jailed in Israel for travelling on a fake passport, but was released after just five months. He has still never been charged for any crimes related to the women.

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