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The Tinder Swindler arrives on Netflix on February 2. The film director, Felicity Morris, is no stranger to online vendettas, having previously produced the Netflix documentary series Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.
The film is a one-off documentary 133 minutes long about a prolific conman who used the namesake dating app to deceive women across Europe out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by posing as a millionaire bachelor.
Several victims of Shimon Hayut, jailed for his crimes in 2019, relate their stories in the trailer and how they eventually chose to band together to seek revenge.
Three reasons to watch 'The Tinder Swindler'
1) True-crime revenge thrillers are in vogue
Viewers certainly can't get enough of shows about real-life fraudsters, as proven by the success of Apple TV+ drama The Shrink Next Door and Netflix's upcoming series Inventing Anna.
As a result, the latter platform's latest documentary offering is likely to be successful, as the production company is known to be a connoisseur of original thrillers in various languages. Revenge is also best served cold, so a lot of drama lies in store for the band of women set to take their vengeance on this conman.
2) Based on a real-life fraudster
Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut, the documentary star, is the titular Tinder Swindler. On the dating app Tinder, he pretends to be a wealthy Russian-Israeli millionaire named Simon Leviev, the son of diamond tycoon Lev Leviev, defrauding his victims of enormous quantities of money since 2017.
Expensive presents, private jet excursions, and expensive hotel stays attracted his dates in nations like Norway, Finland, Tel Aviv, and Sweden at first. However, he would eventually request money, giving false reasons.
Threats were made against the women, and they were compelled to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to him if they refused to give in to the situation.
3) The reality of it all
We're all aware that online dating has its drawbacks: catfishing, abrupt discussions, and so on. These are all common annoyances for anyone who spends more time scrolling left or right on their phones.
However, for a small fraction of online romantics, the experience can quickly devolve into a Dateline-style horror. The Tinder Swindler serves as an eye-opener to those of us who believe in finding our soulmates online in this realm of modern love.
Note: This article reflects the author's views.
