One of the victims of the “Tinder Swindler,” Pernilla Sjoholm, disclosed her pregnancy in a dating app advertisement.
Sjoholm rubs her growing baby bulge in the video to simultaneously announce her pregnancy in a commercial for the competing dating service Wingman without disclosing the identity of the father.
The “Tinder Swindler,” also known as Simon Leviev, pretended to be the son of a diamond trader but was really a con artist by the name of Shimon Hayut.
After a 114-minute Netflix documentary revealed how he brutally defrauded women he had met on Tinder out of an estimated £7.4 million, Shimon Heyada Hayut, a 31-year-old from Israel, gained attention.
One of them was Sjoholm, a 33-year-old Swedish woman. She is not, however, the only victim shown in the advertisement.
The advertisement also featured Cecilie Fjellhoy, another victim of the con.
The thief stole from Sjoholm between $50,000 and $60,000 while pretending that his life was in danger.
According to GQ Magazine, he made her bankrupt at age 35 and compelled her to move in with her mother due to her financial loss.
Coworkers, friends, and family may evaluate and rate possible matches on the app, which is a feature that, had the victims been able to utilise it, would have probably revealed the scammer’s genuine intentions.
The advertisement speculates how Sjoholm and Cecilie Fjellhy’s lives may have turned out differently if Wingman had been utilised instead of Tinder.
Sjoholm begins the video by declaring, “We were messed over; I’m never doing online dating again.”
She continues, “I wish we could go back in time.”
This is exactly what the advertisement does, showing two women in a spa who are ready to swipe right on Tinder when another spa patron interrupts them and introduces them to Wingman.
The flash-forward concludes with Sjoholm expecting twins and Fjellhy getting engaged.
But it wasn’t all make-believe.
Sjoholm announces her pregnancy with twins while flaunting her growing belly in real life.
Sjoholm verified the tidbit by announcing her pregnancy in a private video that she posted on Instagram and in which her boyfriend was also present.
In the Netflix documentary, the fast-talking conman famously conned Sjoholm and Fjellhy.
After taking out credit card loans to bail him out of trouble—a lie he concocted to extort more money from her—Fjellhy was left with debt totaling more than £200,000.
The app’s developer, Tina Wilson, told Page Six, “I couldn’t help but believe if the ladies had close friends or family evaluating their dates for them, they never would’ve [fallen under his spell].
While he still awaits the resolution of fraud allegations in numerous nations, Hayut was given two years in jail in Finland and 15 months in prison in his own Israel.
Hayut would pose as Simon Leviev, the CEO of LLD Diamonds and the son of Israeli-Russian billionaire Lev Leviev, who Forbes once dubbed the “King of Diamonds.” Simon Leviev is the son of Lev Leviev.
The conman is accused of defrauding women who used the app out of more than $430,000.
Following the Netflix documentary, Tinder said it will provide additional tools to allow users to do background checks on potential dates.
In 2020, Tinder unveiled a new security feature that allows users to monitor their whereabouts and inform authorities when they feel threatened.
Additionally, the business last year developed features to assist customers in blocking ex-partners as well as nasty and racist remarks.