SWIPE WRONG
Who are Simon Leviev’s victims?
FRAUDSTER Simon Leviev tricked women he met on Tinder into handing over hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Three of his victims bravely shared their stories for new Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, which uncovers his deceitful scheme.
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Who are Simon Leviev's victims?
Cecilie Fjellhøy
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Cecilie is a 33-year-old user experience designer from Norway.
She first matched with Leviev on Tinder in January 2018.
Cecilie had not long moved to London when she found herself going out with who she thought was a globe-trotting millionaire businessman.
She said: "I didn’t have a big friendship circle and he gave me the attention I needed."
But despite hundreds of red roses and lots of supposed love and attention, Leviev scammed her out of £185,000 in the 13 weeks after their first date.
Upon realising his scheme, Cecilie described feeling suicidal and almost crashed her car.
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In 2018, she took her story to the Norwegian newspaper VG, and later shared it for Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler.
Cecilie now works as a senior UX designer for software development company Sopra Steria.
She also founded and now runs the action:reaction foundation - an organisation which supports victims of fraud.
Her Instagram suggests she remains close to another of Simon Leviev's victims, Pernilla Sjöholm.
Speaking in The Tinder Swindler, she said she was single and still looking for love on the app.
Pernilla Sjöholm
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Swedish Pernilla is a Stockholm-based independent business owner.
She first met Leviev in March 2018, just two months after he matched with Cecilie.
She had just split from her fiancé of almost eight years and took the plunge to fly to Amsterdam, Stockholm, Mykonos and Rome to meet the so-called "prince of diamonds".
After months of deceit, and parting with significant amounts of cash, Pernilla was contacted by journalists from VG and reported Leviev to police.
He later threatened her, saying: "If you double-cross me, you will pay for the rest of your life," to which she responded: "I am paying for it."
Ayleen Charlotte
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Ayleen is understood to live in Amsterdam and work in the luxury fashion industry, but little else is known about her current situation.
She learned from a newspaper article that her boyfriend of 14 months was scamming women out of money all over Europe.
But instead of running scared, she beat him at his own game and scammed him right back.
She said: "Suddenly, I realised I was in a quite powerful position."
Ayleen pretended to remain loyal to Leviev and even branded those accusing him of fraud as "b****es".
She suggested Leviev let her sell some of his designer clothes for a quick cash fix and quickly earned thousands of pounds.
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Ayleen helped police track him down and he was eventually extradited to Israel after attempting to board a flight using a fake passport.
She said during the documentary: "Of course, it wasn’t in line with everything that I gave him, but it felt like a little bit of payback."
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