‘Tinder Swindler’ Simon Leviev arrested in Georgia

This July 28, 2020, file photo shows the icon for the Tinder dating app on a device in New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)

Israeli fraudster Simon Leviev, made famous by the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, has been arrested in Georgia, officials said on Monday.

Leviev, 34, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, rose to notoriety after investigative reports and media coverage exposed a pattern of romance fraud and financial crimes.

He has been “arrested at (the Black Sea city) Batumi’s airport at Interpol’s request,” interior ministry spokesman Tato Kuchava told AFP, without giving further details.

Between 2017 and 2019, Leviev allegedly used the dating app Tinder to pose as a wealthy heir and trick women into advancing him large sums of money, which he never repaid.

His scheme became one of the most notorious examples of “catfishing” -- creating a false online persona to lure victims into emotional and financial entanglements.

In Leviev’s case, the elaborate deception reportedly involved fake luxury lifestyles, bodyguards and private jets, making the scam unusually convincing and costly.

The Netflix documentary, released in 2022, recounted the stories of several of his alleged victims.

Netflix has said Hayut “ultimately defrauded victims in Norway, Finland and Sweden out of an estimated $10 million.”