The tables have turned on the “Tinder Swindler.”
Shimon Hayut—who was introduced to the world as “Tinder Swindler” Simon Leviev via a Netflix documentary of the same name—was himself swindled out of $6,664 by a woman who claimed her boyfriend worked for Instagram’s parent company Meta. Per TMZ, the woman reached out to Hayut via his Instagram DMs and said her boyfriend could get both Hayut and his girlfriend verified.
Hayut agreed to speak with the woman’s boyfriend on FaceTime, and sources told TMZ that the man in question appeared to be in a busy office when the FaceTime occurred.
The man said the only way Hayut could be verified and have other fraudulent accounts deleted would be to pay $6,664 in two separate payments via PayPal to him and his girlfriend. After Hayut coughed up the cash, his manager grew suspicious and reached out to contacts at Meta to verify the man’s claims. They told him Meta never charges for verifications. The couple scrubbed their internet activity shortly after receiving the payments, including their Instagram accounts.
The news comes as the prominent Israeli Leviev family announced they were suing Hayut for impersonating their family name during his swindling days documented in the doc. According to the lawsuit, Hayut made “false representations as being the son of Lev Leviev and [received] numerous benefits (including material ones), cunningly and using false words,” while pretending to be a diamond heir.
Chagit Leviev told NBC News she was happy that Hayut’s crimes have been exposed.
“Shimon Hayut is a fraud who stole our family’s identity and has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars,” she said. “I am relieved that his real identity and actions have been globally exposed, and hopefully this will bring an end to his unscrupulous actions.”
