More than £30,000 has been raised for the victims of the victims featured in The Tindler Swindler, after they set up a GoFundMe to help get their ‘lives back’. Watch Cecilie Fjellhøy’s Instagram announcement about the fundraiser here:
The fundraiser is being organised by Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte, who all appear in the Netflix documentary to detail their encounters with pretend playboy Shimon Hayut, who scammed women out of millions of pounds as he travelled around the world on the run from authorities.
Cecilie had been a Norwegian student living in London when she found herself in a whirlwind romance with Hayut, while Ayleen lent him a total of £103,000 after meeting him on Tinder – later learning from a newspaper report while in Prague that he was a conman who ‘seduced and swindled young women for millions’.
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Stockholm-based Pernilla had travelled to various countries to visit the self-proclaimed ‘Prince of Diamonds’, and was eventually contacted by journalists from VG before reporting her so-called friend to the police.
Their stories have struck a nerve with viewers, who can’t quite believe how Hayut was able to get away with what he did for so long.
And the trio's new fanbase has been putting its money where its mouth is, having raised thousands for the women.
Within just two days, the GoFundMe has raised £32,302 - a figure that's still climbing.
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A description reads: “You’re probably here because you’ve heard about our story, and we appreciate you taking the time to search and find this page.
“The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone. The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much.
“After careful consideration, and many chats, we have decided to start this GoFundMe fundraiser. So many people reached out to us asking if we had one, and it hadn’t occurred to us to make one prior to this. However, we’ve spotted plenty of fakes, which makes us uneasy. We don't want more people getting defrauded.
“We realise there are a thousand other worthy causes to donate to, and remain forever grateful if you choose to donate to this one. All we want are our lives back.”
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Hayut spent two years in a Finnish prison for defrauding several women and after his 2017 release he went back to Israel, before fleeing the country for Europe so he couldn't be arrested.
He was eventually caught for using a fake passport in Greece in 2019.
He was extradited to Israel and sentenced to 15 months in prison for theft, fraud, and forgery of documents - all charges from 2011, unrelated to the accusations made against him in the Netflix documentary.
Hayut was later released after five months on good behaviour.
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, The Tinder Swindler
Jess Hardiman