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Pernilla Sjoholm, one of the victims cheated by the ‘Tinder Swindler,’ disclosed in a dating app ad that she is expecting twins.
Sjoholm rubs her baby belly in the video to simultaneously announce her pregnancy in an advertisement for the competing dating service Wingman.
The guy who used the identity Simon Leviev, often known as the “Tinder Swindler,” claimed to be the son of a diamond trader, but his real name was Shimon Hayut, a con artist.
Shimon Heyada Hayut, 31, from Israel, gained attention when a 114-minute Netflix documentary revealed how he defrauded Tinder women out of an estimated £7.4million.
Sjoholm, a Swedish woman of 33 years old, was one of these ladies. However, she is not the only victim shown in the advertisement. Cecilie Fjellhoy, who also fell victim to the con artist, was also featured in the advertisement.
The thief defrauded Sjoholm of between $50,000 and $60,000 by claiming he needed the funds to save his life.
According to GQ Magazine, he left her destitute and forced her to move in with her mother when she was 35 years old.
In the app, coworkers, friends, and family evaluate prospective matches by giving ratings and recommendations – a feature that would have undoubtedly revealed the con artist’s genuine intentions had the victims been able to use it.
The advertisement imagines how Sjoholm and Cecilie Fjellly’s lives might have been different if they had used Wingman instead of Tinder.
Sjoholm begins the video by stating, “We were ripped off, and I will never do online dating again.”
She adds, “I wish we could go back in time.”
The advertisement then depicts women at a spa who are ready to swipe right on Tinder when they are stopped by another spa-goer who introduces them to Wingman instead.
At the conclusion of the flash-forward, Fjellhy is engaged and Sjoholm is expecting twins.
It wasn’t all fantasy, though. Sjoholm flaunts her baby belly in a real-life announcement that she is expecting twins.
Sjoholm announced the news by posting a personal video on Instagram announcing her pregnancy with her spouse.
In the Netflix documentary, Sjoholm and Fjellhy were infamously scammed by the fast-talking con artist.
Fjellhy racked up over £200,000 in debt after taking out credit card loans to bail him out of difficulties, a lie he fabricated to get more money from her.
Tina Wilson, the app’s developer, 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 have fallen under his spell.”
Hayut was sentenced to two years in jail in Finland and fifteen months in his home country of Israel, verdicts that come while he awaits the results of fraud accusations in many nations.
Hayut would pose as Simon Leviev, chief executive officer of LLD Diamonds and son of Israeli-Russian billionaire Lev Leviev, often dubbed by Forbes as the “King of Diamonds.”
The suspect is suspected of defrauding women of over $430,000 through the app.
Tinder said after the documentary that it will release new tools allowing users to do background checks on potential dates.
Tinder debuted a new safety feature in 2020 that tracks the location of its users and alerts authorities when users report feeling in danger.
In the last year, the business has developed capabilities to assist users ban ex-partners and racist and nasty communications.
