‘Tindler Swindler’ victims are raising £600,000 to help pay off their massive debts: ‘All we want are our lives back’
The three women featured in the hit Netflix documentary Tinder Swindler—victims of Shimon Heyada Hayut a.k.a. Simon Leviev—have set up a GoFundMe page to help rebuild their lives ruined by the alleged conman.
In the documentary, Cecilie Fjellhøy, Ayleen Charlotte, and Pernilla Sjoholm each detailed their personal experience with Hayut, who claimed he is the son of Israeli billionaire Lev Avnerovich Leviev, after meeting them on the dating app Tinder.
The women revealed that in separate occasions, Hayut—who has a long history of scamming people especially women according to a Washington Post report—initially showered them with gifts, billeted them in luxury hotels and jetted them off in private jets.
As Hayut gained his victims’ trust, he tells them an elaborate story of how his life is in danger from “enemies,” therefore he will not be able to use his bank accounts. From there, he asks his victims to send him money with the promise of paying them back. But he never did.
Over the years, Hayut allegedly siphoned off more than $10 million (P514 million) from different women he met from the app to fund his lavish lifestyle.
In the aftermath of the documentary, there was an outpouring of support for the women, who set up a GoFundMe page with the hope of raising £600,000 (P41.8 million).
As of this writing, there are over £33,000 (P2.3 million) raised from more than 1,200 donors from all over the world.
“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,” they wrote. “The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much.”
The women said they decided to start the GoFundMe fundraiser as people have been reaching out to send them financial help.
“We realize 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,” they said.
They added, “If you have the opportunity to help we are forever grateful, but knowing that you’ve even checked out this page in solidarity means the world to us.”
In an interview with metro.co.uk, Fjellhøy and Sjoholm said they would fight “to the bitter end.”
“I lost all my savings, I still don’t know my home. I ended up in debt due collected flights and everything,” Sjoholm said.
She added, “So I’m still fighting and trying to get my life back in order but either you just lay down and give up or fight five to 10 times harder.”
Hayut has lived a free man—only serving five months of his 15 months sentence in Israel for fraud—as those he conned are still paying massive debts they have incurred because of his scam. His recently deleted Instagram account with over 200,000 followers, reportedly showed he was once again parading his lavish lifestyle.
He was recently banned permanently from the dating app after Tinder reportedly conducted additional internal investigations after the release of the documentary.