The Tinder scammer has been the most impactful content of the beginning of 2022 for Netflix. The story, more than a week after the documentary was published, continues to be the most talked about topic on social networks and in the media in general.
Viewers watched to the level of horror as Simon Leviev cunningly cheated several women out of tens of thousands of dollars: he convinced them that he was the heir to a fortune in the diamond mining business.
The latest news: an Argentinian came to have a date with Leviev, but did not fall for the deception and left him after noticing a series of warning signs. How did she do it?
Her name is Valeria Calpanchay, she was born in Argentina and has lived in Germany for almost four years.
The story was published exclusively this Saturday, February 12, by the British newspaper The Mirror.
According to Calpanchay, in 2018 he had a date with Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut. It was in Munich, where the young woman had lived for a few months.
The Argentine says that after “matching” with the Tinder scammer she came to have an appointment with him, but different episodes that occurred in the meeting they had and in a phone call made her suspect, so he left it and didn’t know anything else about it… until he saw it now on Netflix.
Calpanchay, who now lives in Berlin, says he read a note on Facebook about the documentary, so he went to see it. There she immediately recognized the one she herself had contacted some years ago.
This is how he told The Mirror what happened: “I had a Tinder account that I had opened to meet people, I saw this boy named ‘Simon’, who seemed handsome and who traveled a lot, I also like to travel, I have done it by many countries so I thought it would be interesting to meet, it made me curious”.
How this Argentine avoided falling for the Tinder scammer’s deception
According to Valeria, Leviev “immediately” asked for her WhatsApp number and they communicated that way before the first date. Everything went very fast.
“Our meeting was very spontaneous and happened the day after we met on Tinder. She was leaving work and she sent me a WhatsApp message saying that if she was free, let’s meet.”
The first sign of suspicion was the exposure of money on the dating app. “The first thing he thought is that millionaires are not showing their money on Tinder, there is no need.” So she was curious to see what it was really like, ”Valeria recounted.
Knowing of his expensive tastes, she suggested they meet outside a hotel on one of Munich’s most exclusive streets, in an area of designer shops. They then walked to a restaurant for coffee. It was there when the doubts amplified.
Said the Argentine: “I remember that we sat down and after five minutes he told me to leave because he didn’t like the menu. We ended up in a shopping center, where we had a coffee, it was a very expensive place.
warning signs
Valeria remembers the Tinder scammer as “a very talkative person”, who “talked too much about himself” and who seemed to “want to give the impression that he was mysterious”. When she asked him where he was from, what his origins were, she evaded the answer.
Another red flag arose when she saw that he had two smartphones and openly received strange calls when he was on the date. Argentina assures that Leviev spoke of transactions of millions of dollars in those calls. “Who talks about so much money in front of a stranger?” she wonders now.
He also talked about other women, even showed her photos. “I wouldn’t trust someone who shows private photos to other women.”
After the appointment, which lasted about an hour, Valeria says that “she was not convinced if she was what she said she was.”
A few hours later, Valeria says that the scammer sent her a message inviting her to a party at her home in Munich. “It was already late and she was in her pajamas, she didn’t feel like going. We had a little chat over WhatsApp, and she was like, ‘I thought you were more spontaneous’.
See more:
With new function Tinder leaves the door open to scammers
Victims of Tinder scammer raise funds to recover their finances
The Tinder scammer is the most wanted in Mexico: the reasons for another great Netflix success