Simon Leviev, the subject of Netflix's new documentary "The Tinder Swindler," was banned from dating apps like Tinder and Hinge after the filmmakers alleged he had scammed several women for an estimated total of $10 million.
“The Tinder Swindler” follows three women who said they were conned by Leviev, an Israeli man they all met separately on Tinder sometime in 2018 or 2019.
In the documentary, the women alleged that Leviev — whose real name is Shimon Hayut — claimed he was the son of a wealthy tycoon, took them out on extravagant dates and started relationships with them before he eventually scammed them out of large sums of money.
At the time of its release Feb. 2, "The Tinder Swindler" said Hayut was back on Tinder — which the company denied in a statement.
“We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019," a Tinder spokeswoman said. "In the lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases.”
Hayut was also banned from using dating sites and apps under Match Group Inc., including Match.com, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid, she said.
Attempts to reach Netflix and Hayut for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Hayut did not appear in the documentary, but a voice message the filmmakers said he sent them was included in the film.
“I will proceed with the lawsuit against you for defamation and lies and, you know, that everything is based, basically, on a lie. And that’s it, this is how it’s gonna be,” Hayut said in the voice message.
On Feb. 1, a day before the documentary was released, Tinder published a set of new guidelines titled "Romance Scams: How to Protect Yourself Online."
The fact sheet, which did not mention Hayut or the documentary, included tips about how to identify a scammer and what not to do while dating online.
In July 2019, Hayut was arrested in Greece and extradited back to Israel, where he was convicted of four fraud charges and ordered to compensate his victims a total of more than $43,000, The Times of Israel reported. He was released after having served only five months of his 15-month sentence.
Since his release in May 2020, Hayut has lived as a free man and regularly posted on his Instagram account, which amassed more than 100,000 followers, according to the newspaper.
His Instagram account had been deleted as of Tuesday morning.
