The notorious “Tinder Swindler” has been caught. Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, was arrested on September 14, 2025, at Batumi International Airport in Georgia, as confirmed by local authorities. The 35-year-old Israeli conman, long wanted by Interpol, gained infamy through a Netflix documentary that exposed his elaborate scams targeting women on dating apps.
Leviev, posing as the heir to a diamond empire, allegedly defrauded women across Europe out of an estimated $10 million between 2017 and 2019. He used Tinder to meet victims, charming them with a lavish lifestyle before spinning tales of danger to extract loans and credit card access. His schemes left many with crushing debts; some were forced to sell possessions to recover.
The 2022 Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, detailed these stories through victims like Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, and Ayleen Charlotte, sparking global outrage and a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $600,000 to support them. Born in Bnei Brak, Israel, Leviev’s criminal history began early. In 2011, he faced charges in Israel for theft, forgery, and fraud after cashing stolen checks. He fled the country using a fake passport, only to continue his scams elsewhere.
By 2015, he was convicted in Finland for defrauding three women, serving two years in prison. After his release in 2017, he resumed his cons across Europe, evading justice until his 2019 arrest in Greece for using a forged passport. Extradited to Israel, he served just five months of a 15-month sentence for his 2011 crimes, released early in 2020 due to COVID-19 measures. The Tinder Swindler seemed unstoppable.
Despite a ban from Tinder, Leviev continued to live freely, even attempting to monetize his notoriety through Cameo videos and plans for a Hollywood project. The reasons for his latest arrest remain unclear, with Georgian officials citing an Interpol Red Notice but offering no specifics. Leviev’s lawyer, Sagiv Rotenberg, told reporters his client had traveled without issues until now, and they await details on the charges concerning the Tinder Swindler arrest.
