Valentine’s Day is upon us and it’s a stark reminder that love, like many other things; is a multi-billion-dollar business. Now, I don’t mean to sound cryptic. I myself have been in a long-term relationship with my boyfriend and I certainly believe in the idea of love. However, love is an emotion – not a tangible thing. You don’t need flowers, chocolates, fancy cars, diamond rings, or more to show someone you love them. However, certain Hallmark holidays and social media/dating apps/rom-coms have all pushed the idea that your Prince Charming comes in a wealthy box, wrapped with decadence.
My Review for The Tinder Swindler
Now, I – like most children, especially young girls – grew up hearing the same thing I’m sure most were. Dream of that big wedding. “Marry rich”. “Make sure he can provide for you”. The idea of “being taken care of” should ideally be emotionally being taken care of. A partner to share your life with – to divide things 50/50. Now, I’m not here to preach what love should look like because every couple is different. However, the old archaic 1950s mindset of what a household should look like has essentially morphed into this incredibly superficial model of something that is so far removed from love. Everything has essentially said, “ladies, if your man can’t fly you on a private jet to Maui for coffee, then he doesn’t love you”.
I use these two paragraphs to set up why a case like The Tinder Swindler was inevitable and why it’s probably happening more often than we think. I also don’t want any blame put on the women in this new Netflix documentary – a con artist comes in many forms and the subject for this documentary twisted a person’s innate desire for love (on top of the idea of what love is due to everything mentioned in the first two paragraphs) for their own personal gain.
Simon Leviev is the Worst Kind of Con Artist
Netflix has really been winning in the true-crime documentary field. While most of Netflix’s headlining documentaries have to deal with death, The Tinder Swindler explores one man who uses manipulation to ruin the lives of his victims. Simon Leviev looks like a modern-day Christian Grey and considering all of the red flags in The Fifty Shades of Grey movies, I don’t mean this as a compliment. If a man is literally dropping millions on private jet tours, Rolls Royce afternoon drives, and is wanting your passport information and it’s only been a month, these are red flags.
Of course, how many romance movies have we seen where behavior like this is literally glorified? So, when someone meets this in real life, it’s most likely easy to get caught up in this kind of real-life fairytale. Simon knew this and used it in order to con women out of all of their money to pay for his lavish lifestyle. It’d almost be “impressive” that Simon was able to grift this hard over total bullshit if the ramifications for his manipulation didn’t include women considering suicide to avoid the 100s of thousands of dollars worth of debt they had due to him.
Simon’s Grift
Once you saw a few of the stories, his grift became predictable. Simon would meet these women, shower them with love and wealth. Tell them he got his fortune due to being in a dangerous business. Then would tell them he’s in danger due to his business and ask for money. Because these were caring women who believed him, they wanted to help. Besides, he was rich – why wouldn’t they think he’d pay them back? Instead, it was all a lie and these women will probably be plagued with lifelong debt and life-changing credit damage (which is a whole other conversation in on itself).
Rating: 4/5
Netflix did a great job in building up this story. At first, I almost wondered if the film was glorifying or excusing Simon’s behavior, but the veil of who this man was quickly was lifted. This was not a well-put-together man who had it all. He was a low-life, swindler, and con-artist who quickly became unhinged when he met his match later in the documentary. This documentary will keep you hooked almost in the same way The Tiger King did. At the end, you will be upset over the emotional and financial damage this man has callously done to others. And it will make you angry to know this man is still out and about. That’s right, Simon is a free man – able to con other women; hopefully, though with this documentary, his grift can come to an end finally.
Have you seen The Tinder Swindler? What do you think?
Before we let you go, we have officially launched our merch store! Check out all of our amazing apparel when you click here and type in GVN15 at checkout for a 15% discount!
Make sure to check out our podcasts each week including Geek Vibes Live, Top 10 with Tia, Wrestling Geeks Alliance and more! For major deals and money off on Amazon, make sure to use our affiliate link!
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
