When the 'Tinder Swindler' came to Cyprus

must.com.cy

by Zoe Toutountzidou

A few weeks ago, Netflix released a new docuseries entitled 'The Tinder Swindler',  an incredible story that tells the tale of several women who fell victim to a man known as Simon Hayut or Simon Leviev who they had met on the Tinder dating app.

As the story goes, Simon, who posed as the son of a wealthy diamond trader, would meet women on Tinder and after several dates, extort money from them.  One of his victims, British Courtney Simmonds Miller revealed in a Spotify podcast "You cannot make this up".

According to Ms. Miller, who spoke on the show "The Making of a Swindler", she met Simon in 2010 while they were both working in a store in Limassol.  It didn't take long before Simon asked her to rent him a car using the credit cards he gave her to use.

"It was a lot of fun. We were very good friends, he really liked fashion and the beautiful things in life. He was a little obsessed with these things, he always took pictures of himself… he was always out and posing… you know with the girls", she said.  "We rented a car and everything was fine for about a month. Until the car rental company called us to return the vehicle and sign some papers".

Ms. Miller revealed later that the credit card used to rent the car was stolen, and they were both arrested.  Simon assured her that everything was a misunderstanding, but managed to leave the country before the continuation of the court proceeding, leaving Miller to face litigation alone for a number of years before she was acquitted.