Three victims of the ‘Tinder Swindler’ Simon Leviev have pulled in more than £100,000 donations since launching their GoFundMe page. You can see Cecilie Fjellhøy’s Instagram announcement about the fundraiser here:
Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte all appeared in the recent Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, where they opened up about their experiences with conman Leviev - whose real name is Shimon Hayut.
The three women lost thousands of their own money to the pretend playboy and, after sharing their story, set up the fundraiser in an attempt to get their ‘lives back’.
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Norwegian Fjellhøy was a student living in London when she met Hayut and was whisked off her feet by the scammer.
While Charlotte met him on Tinder and ended up loaning him a whopping £103,000 - she found out who he really was after reading a newspaper article branding him a conman who ‘seduced and swindled young women for millions’.
Stockholm-based Sjoholm had been on various trips to visit Hayut - who called himself the Prince of Diamonds - but after being contacted by journalists from VG, she turned him in to the police.
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.
The women’s decision to bravely talk about their experiences with Hayut saw them receiving a flurry of support from viewers and, as well as messages of good will, the cash donations have flooded in with the total now topping £100,000 a week after they first launched the page.
At the time of writing, the fundraiser is currently at £105,732 and it continues to climb by the minute.
On the fundraiser, the women explain: “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.”
Topics: TV and Film, Netflix
Claire Reid