The 'Tinder Swindler', aka Simon Leviev (right), with his bodyguard Peter in front of Table Mountain in Cape Town on his former Instagram page @simon_leviev_official, which has since been closed.
With Valentine’s Day romance swirling in the air, women have been warned not fall into a “honey trap”.
The alert comes as the so-called "Tinder Swindler", aka Simon Leviev, posing as the fake son of a real diamond billionaire on dating site Tinder, took centre stage this week as a “despicable” arch manipulator of women.
Hayut, an Israeli national whose real name has surfaced as convicted fraudster Shimon Heyada Hayut, is the central figure in the Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, which trended at number one on the streaming service this week.
Calling himself the "King of Diamonds", Hayut’s jet-setting lifestyle included yachts, helicopters, luxury hotels and expensive brand accessories, which formed the basis of gaining the trust of the women he targeted and from whom he siphoned millions of rands.
There have been reports that Hayut spent time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, including a picture on Instagram of him and his so-called bodyguard Peter, with Table Mountain in the background.
His victims in the documentary, Cecilia Fjellhoy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte, who were swindled out of an estimated £600 000 (about R12 million), took to the GoFundMe crowdfunding page last week to try to settle some of their massive debts.
Cybersecurity expert at Mimecast, a Johannesburg-based cybersecurity and resilience company, Duane Nicol, said yesterday that people must exercise caution when approached on dating websites or apps, as reports of romance fraud have soared during the pandemic.
“Cybercrooks who prey on vulnerable people online ‒ often women ‒ are nothing new. However, with the impact of successive lockdowns on people’s mental state and the general uptick in cybercrime activity since the start of the pandemic, these types of scams have grown in popularity, with often devastating results for the victims.
“One of the most effective tactics used by dating scam fraudsters is social engineering, which utilises a potential victim’s personal information ‒ often publicly available on social media ‒ to psychologically manipulate them into sharing personal and financial information, and even cash. By the time the victim becomes aware of the scam, the fraudsters have often made away with their money and disappeared without a trace,” said Nicol.
He said Hayut was a master of social engineering.
“He was an expert, and to have accumulated that kind of wealth, he’s been doing it for a number of years.
“He made serious investments, such as hiring helicopters and building a fake family from an authentic family. He’s very clever; he has a flawless success rate; and, being handsome, well spoken and well-dressed, he gained the trust of his victims,” said Nicole, adding that the lavish billionaire lifestyle would have secured the trust of Hayut’s targeted victims.
“In reality, he did it smartly because his victims took out loans in their own names. There was nothing in his name.
”It’s astounding; he’s cunning and absolutely despicable,” he said.
Nicol added that the top two tactics used by fraudsters was to first gain the trust of the victim and then introduce a sense of urgency, as Hayut does in the documentary. One of his victims described their first kiss as “that perfect first kiss” and that he “really knew how to listen”. Hayut’s ploy was to then tell his victims that his life was in danger and could they take out a loan for him because he had to become untraceable.
Victim Cecilie Fjellhoy said Hayut told her the marks on his back were when he spent time in jail in South Africa “on false pretences”, when he was negotiating a diamond deal that turned bad.
Nicol said a major red flag was “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”, and to trust any gut instinct that raises the possibility that something is wrong. This includes a billionaire whisking you away for a luxury weekend on his yacht.
While social media platforms and dating apps, including Tinder, blocked Hayut this week, Nicol said fraudsters were capable of bypassing most systems to create another identity.
“There are some algorithms which could identify his (Hayut’s) picture, but most of these criminals can do the same thing again with a different flavour,” he said.
In the SA Jewish Report this week, a Johannesburg businessman (who was not named), recalled meeting Hayut in the first class line at OR Tambo International Airport in 2017.
The businessman said Hayut introduced himself as Maor Leviev and “was very nice and friendly. He never tried to con me. I told him I was in the property game, he told me he was in diamonds”. When he saw the Netflix documentary this week, he said he “couldn’t believe it” that this was the same person he’d met on the flight.
The three victims in the documentary, Cecilia Fjellhoy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte opened a GoFundMe page last week, which had racked up more than £80 000 (R1.6m) in five days, with the women saying: “The past few days have been a whirlwind and we have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone. The sheer love is more than we ever expected.”
The company Hayut claimed to be associated with, LLD Diamonds, have said in a statement: “Our company has no connection whatever with Shimon Hayut. He is a fraud who has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars.”
On social media this week, South Africans posted their opinions on #TinderSwindler.
Lady T posted: “where are your parents? Are they not billionaires? Why Can’t They Help You?”
Barbieana said: “it could never be me, I wouldn’t be approved for those loans and credit cards”, while a common sentiment was “why would a billionaire need to borrow from you?”
Meanwhile, Hayut, on his Instagram handle Simon_Leviev_Official, posted this week, “I will tell my whole truth soon” before his page was banned.
Late last year, the FBI, US Secret Service, Interpol and the Hawks arrested eight foreign nationals in Cape Town suspected of being involved in internet scams, money laundering and fraud. This was in connection to vulnerable widows or divorcees being duped out of R100 million while they believed they were involved in serious relationships.
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said they would check the records to see if Hayut had been imprisoned in SA, “however, these things take time".
The national SAPS did not respond to a request for comment.
The Independent on Saturday
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