The Tinder Swindler - Review: using your love

How do you become a victim? The new Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, is about a man who says his name is Simon Leviev. He pretends to be a millionaire in Tinder's dating app.

He gains the trust of the women and then starts asking for money. He dates many women, and one pays the expenses of the other. Strange? Maybe, but it worked for a long time. Too long.

Why did you believe that man?

As soon as the story became public, many people blamed the victims. How could they be so naive? How could they not get suspicious?

When watching the documentary is pretty evident that something is wrong, but that is our perception now. We are already looking for leads that he is not who he says he is. It's easier that way. These women were involved, and psychology worked against them.

He poses as a rich man. Money is a key to safety these days. So, he makes them feel safe. He is kind, generous, and in danger. He shows himself vulnerable. Many people don't realize how being vulnerable towards someone else is the best way to be powerful. But, he did know that and built the perfect plan.

Many points were against these women. One of them was the fact that he pretended to be a millionaire. He doesn't need money, right? He is just having a momentary problem. So there is no reason for them not to believe that he would pay them back.

There was another point of significant importance: they were in love, and he was at imminent risk. They didn't have time to think (or so he made them believe).

Justice?

As annoying as it is that people still blame the victim, that's not the most revolting of this story.

What can really get to your nerves is the fact that he is still free. This man had few to zero consequences, while his victims are paying loans and drowning in debt.

If it is too good to be true… probably it isn’t

I liked the documentary very much. You may feel it a bit difficult to follow up with so much traveling, but that isn't the important part at all. Just ignore the place and focus on his actions.

It is a good warning of the elaborate schemes you may find online. Definitely worth watching.

Comments

The Handmaid’s Tale – From Brilliant to Frustrating

When The Handmaid’s Tale first aired, it felt sharp, terrifying, and painfully necessary. I wrote about the first season as a dark and brilliant adaptation, one that used restraint, symbolism, and dread to tell its story. Now that I've finished the third season, my opinion has shifted — not wholly, but noticeably. The show is still good . Sometimes very good. But it also became frustrating, uneven, and less powerful than it could have been. June Osborne: From Survivor to Exhaustion Let’s talk about June (Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men ). I understand the idea behind her arc. She was meant to evolve — to become more confident, more assertive, more dangerous. A woman shaped by trauma who stops surviving and starts fighting back. On paper, it makes sense. On screen, however, it often doesn’t work. June becomes reckless to the point of irresponsibility. She repeatedly puts others in danger without seeming to fully care about who might be caught in the crossfire. Her actions feel impuls...

Gangsta Granny – Hilarious and Surprisingly Moving

I have a ten-year-old daughter, and one thing we like to do is read the same books so we can talk about them afterward. Gangsta Granny was a birthday gift for her, and she read it so quickly that it immediately made me curious. When a child finishes a book that fast, you know something is working. When I finally read it myself, I was pleasantly surprised — and completely charmed. A Story That Is Funny and Moving At first glance, Gangsta Granny is a crazy, over-the-top, and very funny story. David Walliams clearly knows how to make children laugh, using absurd situations, exaggerated characters, and a fast-moving plot that keeps young readers hooked. But beneath the humour, the book is also sweet, touching, and emotionally rich. What starts as a wild adventure slowly reveals a story about family, loneliness, empathy, and learning to truly see the people around us. This balance reminded me of Roald Dahl’s books , where outrageous humour and emotional depth coexist effortles...

Grief in the Shadows: Why 'The Silencing' Stands Out

A moody thriller about grief, violence, and how far we go for the ones we love. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ( Game of Thrones ) is Rayburn Swanson , a former hunter who now lives in isolation, running a wildlife sanctuary named after his missing daughter. Years after she vanished, Rayburn is just barely functioning—haunted, grieving, and clinging to the hope that she might still return. When a murdered girl turns up in the woods with eerie similarities to his daughter's disappearance, the local sheriff, Alice Gustafson ( Annabelle Wallis ), launches an investigation. Rayburn, meanwhile, accidentally crosses paths with a mysterious masked figure hunting a girl on his land. This encounter pulls him into the heart of the case in ways he never expected. The investigation twists, misleads, and slowly unravels, building toward a reveal that isn’t obvious—and intentionally so. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems. Themes of Grief and Family What makes The Silencing compelling is...

All Forms of Art

Search This Blog