Tinder Swindler Key Signs: Personality Traits Exhibited by Romance Scammers Unveiled [Study]

People use Tinder to find their "the one," but more and more have met romance scammers. A new study shared the traits of a Tinder swindler to navigate dating apps safely.

How to Spot a Tinder Swindler

Netflix dropped a documentary titled "The Tinder Swindler" that followed con artist Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, scamming multiple women. He conned women he met on the dating app out of about $10 million, according to reports, which he denied.

According to Esquire, Cecilie Fjellhøy was one of his victims, and their whirlwind romance left her heartbroken, deceived, and in debt of over $200,000.

To avoid falling on a man like Leviev, experts screened 232 papers to search for romance scam profiles and targeted victims. The new study shared the typical traits of a Tinder swindler, Daily Mail reported.

Idealistic Profile

Dr. Lynsay A Shepherd, who worked on the study, told Tech Xplore that romance fraud starts from curating an ideal appearance of a desirable partner. It may vary depending on which country they live in.

Italian profiles pose as real estate agents, while Filipinos were drawn to fake sales careers.

In Netflix's documentary, Leviev posts as a millionaire with a jet-setting lifestyle. He pretended to be the son of the "king of diamonds," Lev Leviev, a famed Russian-Israeli diamond oligarch.

Military Persona

Many romance scammers adopt a military appearance or pretend as servicemen. They do so to portray an image of authority and emotionally manipulate their partners.

They use this strategy to ask for emergency money, saying they are stuck out somewhere where they can't access their financial funds, so they borrow money to escape an emergency related to health or help a family member with food and medicine.

Flattery

Tinder swindlers are good with words. Fraudsters will pile you with compliments and pet names, indicating a strong longing for a partner.

However, flattery allows them to reel their target before asking them for money.

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Money Requests

When romance fraudsters' targets are already in them, they will ask for money. They will request to escape an emergency or help a relative.

In Hayut's case, based on the documentary, he would tell his girlfriends he was worried his enemies were after him. He would send them a photo of his bleeding bodyguard allegedly injured to incite concern.

He would then message his girlfriends that he couldn't use his credit card for security reasons as they could use it to track him. He would pursue his girlfriends to lend him money, open a new one under her name for him to use, and more. According to the Times of Israel, he stole an estimated $10 million.

Leviev was convicted of theft, fraud, and forgery of documents in Israel in 2019 and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. After serving five months of jail time, he was released on good behavior. He lives as a free man.

Romance Scam Warning

The study noted that scammers often target women between 35 to 54 years old because they have limited experience and a poor understanding of fraud.

It is crucial to conduct a study and discover new strategies for safeguarding individuals against scams because con artists are constantly coming up with new ways to deceive people, Shepherd said.

By developing process models to characterize the development of the scam or by analyzing linguistic patterns and persuasive strategies used by the con artists when interacting with their victims, the majority of studies in our review contributed to the profile of romance fraud.

These results can be used to improve detection and mitigation methods and serve as a springboard for creating useful training and awareness campaigns.