Inside Tinder Swindler’s sick manosphere rebrand from DATING APP to £150 vids… but victim exposes the real Simon Leviev

HAVING been exposed as The Tinder Swindler – a “charming but evil” con man who defrauded singletons out of more than £7million – many would assume Simon Leviev would want to silently slink off into the sunset. But instead he is supposedly raking it in from shameless new hustles, in spite of his worldwide infamy, including becoming an influencer in the highly toxic manosphere and flogging a perfume range, a failed cryptocurrency, £1,000-a-time video messages and unbelievably, a dating app. Simon ‘Tinder Swindler’ Leviev is trying to capitalise on his Netflix infamy Credit: Instagram The Israeli earned legions of fans posting in sports cars and private jets Credit: simon.leviev.of/Instagram At one point Leviev was flogging Cameo videos for up to £1,000 Credit: Supplied Leviev’s ‘first victim’ Courtney Simmonds-Miller is appalled by his rebrand Credit: Supplied Leviev’s alleged crimes emerged in 2022 Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler. He posed as an Israeli diamond billionaire and took women on lavish dates before coercing them to take out loans, credit cards and handing over cash. Despite being convicted of five counts of fraud, theft and forging signatures on stolen cheques, resulting in two short prison stints, the crook – real name Shimon Yehuda Hayut – is far from shy about his attempted rebrand, which has been called “shameless” by victims. When contacted by The Sun, Leviev boasted about “making amazing money” – professing to be worth £258million, claimed he had a “dating app in development”, a “Hollywood manager” and that he was proud to be “fighting for man (sic) rights”. One of his posts on Instagram, where he has 919,000 followers, he especially leaned into manosphere tropes by accusing women who post content from private jets and superyachts of engaging in “prostitution”. Leviev wrote: “If your biggest achievement is posing on some old man plane or yacht, that’s not luxury. That’s pro***tution (sic)… we all know what you[‘re] doing to get on it, and the guy who paid for it, never in the photo.” With his regular posts showing private jets, flashy supercars, expensive watches and glamorous women, he’s easy fodder for worshippers of the manosphere – a movement popularised by self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. And far from distancing himself, he doubled down when asked about his highly toxic and dangerous newfound following, telling The Times this week: “People like me, they see a guy who won’t give up.” Leviev’s accusers are appalled by his reinvention, including Cambridge-born Courtney Simmonds-Miller, 35, who claims to be his “first victim” after he coerced her into committing international credit card fraud. Courtney, now 35, tells The Sun: “Every time I see him on social media, it makes me feel sick. He nearly ruined my life by trying to send me to prison for his crimes. “It’s scary and disappointing that he has been able to use his notoriety to become a ‘celebrity’ now but I’m not surprised. “It’s all part of his endless lies. “I’m not shocked that he’s become a manosphere influencer. He will jump on anything to stay current, relevant and make money. He’s shameless. The guy has no shame. “This is just the new trend that he’s trying to capitalise on. He’s trying to ride the wave of people like Andrew Tate, get fame off the back of it and money. It’s pretty desperate. “I’m disgusted that people in this world pay him attention. We all have critical thinking so we should know better. He’s very self-serving and doesn’t care about anybody else. “It’s a shame because he could become super successful if he worked in a different area. Unfortunately, his speciality is lying and deception.” This week, Leviev described his Netflix exposé as “the best thing that ever happened to me” and claimed he was “laughing all the way to the bank”. Within a week of the doc’s release in 2022, it had been watched by more than 87.3million accounts. It also hit the streamer’s Top 10 lists in 92 countries and was their most-watched documentary. It exposed how Leviev treated dates to five-star dinners, private jet trips and expensive gifts – all funded by takings from his previous victims – before staging a fake crisis. They includes “enemies” having stabbed his bodyguard and stolen his bank cards. He then begged suitors to take out credit cards and massive bank loans in their name, alongside handing over money and cryptocurrency, before disappearing. There are at least eight known alleged victims of Leviev, who has only served two short prison stints, so far, in Finland and Israel. It’s suspected others may not have spoken due to embarrassment. Cambridge-born Courtney was his target in 2008. Back then he used his birth name Hayut, while they flogged hair straighteners and extensions in a Cyprus mall. “I knew him before he was the Tinder Swindler before all of the private jets, cars and money,” she says. “I knew him as a salesman in a mall who no one took seriously. “It’s hilarious to later see him boasting by posting photos on private jets because I used to have to drive him to work when he didn’t have a car.” Back then, Courtney says he claimed to be the son of an Israel airline owner, who wanted him to understand “the value of money”. He said he was set to “inherit a lot of money”. Leviev has peddled that claim to various outlets. Yet to The Sun, he now insists he “didn’t grow up in [a] rich family” and said: “I made my money by myself”. Courtney claims she and colleagues were regularly “footing the bill for him” on nights out. She was his wingwoman, but he rarely had success with women. Leviev lived in “a crappy apartment” with multiple other colleagues who also worked at the mall and was always touting get-rich-quick schemes to anyone who would listen. She adds: “No one took him seriously, he was always trying to get our boss to go in with him on some crazy business idea.” Describing him as “a very charming personality”, Courtney claims he was able to convince people to cover for him while he “skived from work for hours on end”. Courtney, front, worked with Leviev, back, selling hair products in 2008 Credit: Courtney Simmonds-Miller She often acted as a wingwoman for Leviev, right, but says he didn’t have much luck with women Credit: Courtney Simmonds-Miller Other employees were “too scared to take a toilet break”, yet Leviev would vanish and when confronted always won over bosses. “He would talk his way out of it every single time and then waltz off, anything he wanted he would get,” Courtney says. “He also used to lie, claiming he had made more commission than me. “I knew it was a lie. I’d say, ‘It’s black and white, it’s there in the [sales] book’ but he never backed down. “He lived in a fantasy world and oddly that was part of his charm and character. I suppose we overlooked this massive, big red flag because we were so young.” Things took a dark turn when Leviev, who called Courtney his “best friend” and often told her “he loved me”, offered to pay her £2,500 a month to be his personal assistant. Months later, she was arrested by Cypriot police alongside Leviev after being asked to rent a car on his behalf using, unbeknown to her, a credit card stolen from Israel. Police arrested them at the same time but ahead of them being handcuffed Courtney claims Leviev made an extremely sly and incriminating move. “He gave the credit cards to me, so I was arrested with them on my person,” Courtney says. “It was very smart of him and the case against me was pretty damning. “I was just his little pawn and I didn’t realise. I feel very lucky that I didn’t have to serve prison time for that b***ard.” Courtney was not aware of the crime, which amounted to international credit card fraud and risked a seven-year prison sentence. Eventually she was acquitted. While on bail, she claims Leviev “escaped Cyprus, leaving me in the s***”. Courtney adds: “I was terrified, utterly terrified, of what would happen because I was a foreigner in a foreign country. “They threw the book at me because I was the only person left in the case. I was acquitted because there was no evidence but it could have really ruined my life. “He groomed me during our six months of friendship, I was 100 per cent under his spell.” When contacted by The Sun, Leviev bizarrely claimed: “I [have] never been to Cyprus. I don’t know what you[‘re] talking about. “Never met who you referred to and have no clue what is this nonsense and what is those accusations. Courtney in the car that Leviev asked her to rent out – which resulted in their arrest Credit: Courtney Simmonds-Miller Leviev claimed to The Sun that he had a ‘Hollywood agent’ and was working on a dating app Credit: instagram/simonleviev7 “Every woman that wants publicity on (sic) my back will say she know[s] me or I did something to her.” It’s an unusual response considering The Sun has photos of both Leviev and Courtney together, as well as photos she took of him in Cyprus. Additionally, Leviev – then living as Hayut – was named as a defendant in court documents for the credit card fraud case. The case is still believed to be open. The Swindler has also previously mentioned being in Cyprus. When quizzed over the discrepancies he complained about being painted as “a big villain”. Reiterating his manosphere allegiance, he added: “I’m tired that because a female says something automatically people believe that it’s true, so no, I’m fighting for man rights.” Courtney calls his new allegiance “pretty scary” and “pretty desperate”. “We should be exposing him, not giving him a chance,” she added. “But he will incriminate himself anyway. Give him enough rope and he will hang himself.” Unfortunately that ‘rope’ seems to be quite profitable – if Leviev’s £258million net worth claims are to be believed. He gave The Sun a lengthy list of supposed future projects including a movie, TV shows, a cryptocurrency coin, a perfume range and – most galling of all – a dating app in development. Last September, Leviev released memoir The Story Behind The Man: The True Story of The Tinder Swindler, which promised to reveal the “uncensored truth”. It’s currently being sold for £11. He also sold personalised video messages on Cameo – offering rates of £1,036 for businesses and £148 for individuals. TMZ reported that he made £22,000 from his first three days on the platform. Now Leviev will also be trying to capitalise from manosphere fans by luring them in to buy his products. Previously he minimised his accusers’ devastating financial situations by calling them “a few unhappy customers of a successful restaurant”. Leviev’s revamp will sting people like Courtney, who urges people not to support his future endeavours. She adds: “It’s shocking. He has no empathy, no remorse and he’s very self-serving. He doesn’t care about anybody else. It’s scary for someone like that to have such a platform. “What happened to me and his other victims could have happened to anyone. He’s shameless and will do anything to get what he wants.”