British doctor, 36, thinks she almost fell victim to fake millionaire dating fraudster

A British doctor has revealed how she dated the business partner of the fake millionaire dating fraudster who is exposed in the new Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, and only realised after watching the show. 

The 36-year-old had a whirlwind relationship with a friend of Israeli conman Simon Leviev, 31, who is suspected of conning women out of £7.4million.

The documentary revealed how Lamborghini-driving Simon, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, had been conning women by operating a kind of Ponzi scheme. 

She met Leviev’s friend Avi on dating app Tinder in December 2017 and was wined, dined and treated to overnight stays in London and Berlin.

The medical professional, who asked not to be named, said her relationship with Avi fizzled out because she couldn’t see herself being part of the ‘crazy jetset lifestyle’ which he led with business partner Simon. 

It was only when she watched the Netflix show on Thursday night that she recognised the two men, and realised she’d come into close conact with Simon Leviev, who posed as an international diamond dealers to defraud women he met on dating apps of more than £7 million.

Israeli conman Simon Leviev, 31, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, is suspected of conning women out of £7.4million by operating a kind of Ponzi scheme

The doctor, who is being named as Sarah by MailOnline, lives in the north of England and first saw Avi’s Tinder profile after splitting up from her partner of four years. 

She said: ‘I was going to London a lot to stay with friends at weekends at the time and I was going on Tinder. If someone is paying you attention, it’s a great way to forget about your ex.

‘I did meet a few people in London, and then Avi’s profile suddenly popped up. It was full of pictures of him on private Jets and in luxury cars. 

A British doctor who is being named Sarah by MailOnline, believes she nearly fell victim to the fake millionaire dating fraudster who is exposed in the new Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler

‘He seemed to have a fun life, and dressed well. He seemed nice and I liked the idea of meeting someone successful.

‘We matched immediately after I swiped right, and he started sending me messages straight away over Tinder.

‘I was worried that he was probably a Catfish, but I didn’t think that I had anything to lose as long as I was careful.

‘He took my phone number and we started WhatsApp messaging. We also spoke on video calls, so I realised his profile pictures were definitely him and he was not Catfishing me.

‘He immediately told me that he was always in different countries and was flying more than one million miles a year.

Avi, pictured sitting in first class, had a dating profile with photos in luxury cars and private jets, and Sarah said ‘he seemed nice’ and ‘liked the idea of meeting someone successful’ 

Sarah said she spoke to Avi over the course of a couple of weeks and he was always sending her pictures from different locations, including Italy, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria and Amsterdam

‘We spoke over a couple of weeks and he was always in a different location, sending me geotags from five star hotels all over Europe in places like Italy, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, and Amsterdam.

‘He seemed to be in a different place every day, and he kept sending me pictures of more private jets. It just didn’t seem real.

‘I did check his Tinder account which shows the distance that a person is from you and it all seemed to match with the places he claimed to be in.

‘He said he had lots of business interested including diamonds, real estate, a transport company, credit consulting and business management.

‘He also told me that he had been in the Israeli army and his family lived in America. He said his full name was Avishay which meant “gift from God”.’

Sarah said she was going to London a lot to stay with friends at weekends at the time, after breaking up with her boyfriend, and says she was intrigued by Avi after matching on Tinder

The couple swapped plenty of messages, with Avi describing himself as ‘Mr Worldwide’ and Sarah aptly calling him an ‘international man of mystery’.  

She added: ‘Things were going well and we decided to meet when he was next in London. I was definitely intrigued by him and felt the feeling was mutual.

‘We arranged to meet up one morning for a coffee, but then he suddenly had to fly back to Amsterdam so it didn’t happen.

‘He was flying in to London a week later and we arranged to meet at the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane where he was staying.

‘I waited in the foyer and he came down the elevator. He was slightly shorter than me but he had dark eyes and was good looking. We had a drink and he told me, “You are so much more beautiful in real life.”

Sarah first met Avi, left, when they arranged to meet at the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane, where Avi’s business partner Simon Leviev, right, was dressed ‘head to toe in designer clothes wearing pink lens glasses and a couple of girls

Along with Simon, Sarah says another tall man who ‘was their bodyguard’ because ‘of all the diamonds they had’ was in the entourage, before heading out in two Rolls Royce’s

‘He then asked me if I would I like to go out with his friends, for some food and onto a club. Suddenly this entourage appeared.

‘There was Simon who was dressed head to toe in designer clothes wearing pink lens glasses and a couple of girls – one was Israeli and the other a blonde Scandinavian girl living in London.

‘She told me that she had only met Simon two weeks earlier on Tinder.

‘There was also a big tall guy, and they told me that he was their bodyguard because of all the diamonds that they had.

‘We went outside and there were two Rolls Royce’s waiting with chauffeurs in uniforms. One was a big Phantom and the other was pale blue with a soft top.

‘It was January and cold but the roof was down! I went with Avi in the Phantom and Simon was with the other girls. They all seemed very happy and friendly.

‘We went for a meal, I think in a Turkish restaurant because it was very late, and then headed to this club.

‘Avi and Simon seemed familiar with the door staff, and we were immediately shown to a table. There were bottles and bottles of Dom Perignon and they were all smoking inside, with nobody seeming to care.

‘The evening was great fun, with everyone drinking champagne, and dancing. On the way back to the cars there was another guy I hadn’t noticed before. He had an English accent and I noticed a gun on his belt.

Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, claimed to be a worldwide diamond dealer, and in The Tinder Swindler, three women spoke about their experiences with him

One of the women in the Netflix documentary learned from a newspaper article that Leviev, pictured, had been scamming other women all over Europe, and so helped police track him down to Greece, where he was arrested while trying to board a flight using a fake passport

‘It was becoming more like a movie now. I asked why he had the gun and he said it was for protection, because of the business Avi and Simon were in. I am guessing now that it was a fake.

‘By the time we got back to the hotel, it was early hours of the morning, so I didn’t want to walk in London on my own. I slept in Avi’s bed, but nothing happened and to be fair he was actually very respectful.

‘In the morning, I headed back to where I had been staying with my friends and told them about my ridiculously insane night. I was saying that my new friends were great.

‘Avi and I carried on speaking and doing video calls every day. I found his jet set life fascinating if slightly over the top, but it was a massive distraction from splitting up with my ex.

‘We decided to meet again, this time in Berlin a couple of weeks later as they had no business in London for a while.

‘Avi sent me a plane ticket with a seat at the front of the plane and picked me up from the airport in a chauffeur-driven luxury car.

‘We had a nice evening having dinner and a few drinks, and were going to spend the next day sightseeing in Berlin.

‘We shared the same bed again, but we did not have sex as I was not ready for it.

‘The next morning Simon kept ringing Avi, He didn’t pick up for a while, but when he did, they had this tense conversation in Hebrew, I had no idea what they were talking about.

‘Then Simon burst into the room, whiIe I was still in bed. He was saying they had to leave immediately and a car was waiting downstairs for us.

‘He was saying that a deal in Amsterdam had gone wrong and we had to go there straight away. They asked me to go with them, but by then I just wanted to go home.

‘Yes, it was fun and exciting, but they were cross, and there was an element that they were trying to put across that there was some form of danger.

‘I decided to pay for my own flight back to Manchester, and went in the car with them to the airport. They were telling me that they were going to New York after Amsterdam and asking me along.

The documentary disclosed that Avi, who Sarah (pictured) dated briefly in 2017, never faced any charges

Sarah (pictured) said that she didn’t feel able to keep up with Avi’s jetset lifestyle and the relationship fizzled out 

‘Perhaps it was just instinct, but I didn’t want to go, and I insisted on flying home. Something did not seem quite right.

‘But while we were in the airport business lounge, I saw Simon video calling numerous girls telling each of them that he loved them and missed them.

‘As soon as the calls ended, he was straight onto Tinder, swiping and matching with every single girl, and then messaging the ones he matched with.’

Sarah said she and Avi messaged each other over the next few weeks, but their relationship fizzled out and they did not meet again.

She added: ‘He continued to send messages, and geotags giving his location. He was in Tel Aviv one day then going to USA.

‘But I wasn’t interested in developing a relationship with somebody who wasn’t in one place.’

The 36-year-old medical professional explained that Avi seemed shorter in person but was very attractive 

Leviev was eventually extradited to Israel where he was given a 15 month sentence for crimes committed a decade ago. It emerged he had also served two years in jail in Finland for similar dating frauds. The documentary disclosed that Avi never faced any charges. (pictured is a photo from the inside of a private jet, sent from Avi to Sarah when they dated in 2017)

Sarah said that one of her friends had watched The Tinder Swindler earlier this week and told her to watch it, saying that the person involved might be the man she dated.

She added: ‘My friend sent me a screenshot of Simon who was on the programme, but it wasn’t a great picture and I didn’t recognise him.

‘Then when I sat down to watch the show, I realised within seconds that it was the Simon I met, and Avi popped up a couple of times. I recognised the bodyguard as well. It was just like a movie, but this was real life.

‘I was horrified to see how Simon had been ripping off all these women.’ 

Simon, 31, would sometimes spend thousands on wooing women to help make them think that he was a diamond dealer.

Avi, pictured, has never faced any charges. Sarah recognised him when she watched the hit Netflix documentary about his friend Simon, the so-called Tinder Swindler

Victims believed his bogus claim that he was the hugely wealthy son of Russian-Israeli gem tycoon Lev Leviev, dubbed The King of Diamonds, who has an estimated net worth of $1billion (£738million).

But the money he lavished on his dates – including chauffeur-driven cars, fine dining and trips on private jets – was all conned from other women.

The documentary revealed how once he had victims under his spell, he would pretend to be in danger, or that enemies had frozen his bank accounts.

Other times he would claim that his bodyguard had been attacked due to a business deal going wrong and would send pictures showing him covered in ‘blood’.

His victims sent him their savings or took out huge credit card loans to get him out of trouble.

Three of his victims, bravely told Netflix how they had been conned.

One of the women learned from a newspaper article that he had been scamming other women all over Europe.

She helped police track him down to Greece, where he was arrested while trying to board a flight using a fake passport.

Leviev was eventually extradited to Israel where he was given a 15 month sentence for crimes committed a decade ago.

It emerged he had also served two years in jail in Finland for similar dating frauds. The documentary disclosed that Avi never faced any charges.

After their first meet in London, Avi (pictured) and Sarah carried on speaking and doing video calls every day, then deciding to meet in Berlin. Avi sent Sarah a plane ticket with a seat at the front of the plane, and picked her up from the airport in a chauffeur-driven luxury car

She explained that she found Avi (pictured) and his jet set life fascinating, ‘if slightly over the top, but it was a massive distraction from splitting up with my ex’

He is now free and until recent days still had an Instagram account under his real name, full of pictures of his supposed jetset lifestyle.

The account with more than 200,000 followers was deleted after release of the Netflix documentary.

Sarah said: ‘I am quite a trusting person, and it would have been easy for me to be sucked in. 

‘There was never any sense that they wanted money from me. I don’t think I would ever have taken out a loan, but I could have given money.

‘I remember them clocking my Louis Vuitton case – it seemed strange but Simon started to give me more attention from then on and was joking to Avi that he liked me. I told him about all aspects of my life. He knew where I lived, and my work.

‘I was definitely conned into their lifestyle like the other girls. I had no reason to doubt them at the time as they were very professional.

‘To begin with, I could laugh about the craziness, but quickly I became scared thinking how close I came to being hurt.’