The dating industry\u2019s lead trade group is urging Apple and Google to block a new dating app that the convicted fraudster known as the Tinder Swindler says he plans to launch to safeguard women from similar criminals.<\/p>\n
Simon Leviev, soon to turn 36, who inspired a 2022 Netflix documentary by that alias after achieving notoriety for conning at least six women out of an estimated 7 million pounds, wants to name his app Safe Love.<\/p>\n
Leviev\u2019s criminality first became widely known after reports by Natalie Hansen and Kristoffer Kumar and others from the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang, assisted by ICIJ\u2019s Israeli member Uri Blau.<\/p>\n
The son of a rabbi, Simon Leviev wooed several Scandinavian women with glamorous trips, gifts and expensive meals, then shook them down by claiming to be in danger and needing cash to flee danger.<\/p>\n
Each victim was used to fund the seduction of the next.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Leviev was sentenced to jail in Israel for 15 months after being extradited from Greece and convicted of theft, fraud and forgery of documents. He served only five months.<\/p>\n
Leviev, whose actual name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, had posed on the dating app Tinder as the playboy heir to the Russian-Israeli diamond billionaire, Lev Leviev.<\/p>\n
At the time he changed his name, he had several prior convictions for fraud. One former girlfriend accused him of physical abuse in a BBC interview.<\/p>\n
This week, Leviev told Britain\u2019s ITV\u2019s Morning Show and Israeli TV that he is a rehabilitated man and a father of two, who wants to teach young men to treat women with respect \u2014 and to allow them to date safely online.<\/p>\n
Unconvinced by Leviev\u2019s self-professed rehabilitation, The Online Dating and Discovery Association has written to Apple and Google calling on them to cancel the convicted fraudster\u2019s planned app.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our view, a convicted fraudster having any involvement in our industry seriously undermines the work our sector is doing to tackle fraud,\u201d ODDA chief Simon Newman told ICIJ in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can only have negative repercussions for platforms and users alike,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe it should not be allowed to happen, and that action is needed to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman called on Apple and Google to seriously consider the harmful impact that could occur if they were to host any dating app founded, operated or fronted by Leviev.<\/p>\n
Leviev said that his past as a fraudster meant he possessed a different set of skills and could advise others on how to avoid fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I do know how to lie,\u201d Leviev told the Morning Show. \u201cI do know how to cheat. I do know how to manipulate.\u201d<\/p>\n