Love scammers unmasked

Former victim of a romance conman uses Netflix doc to expose others

- SANJEETA BAINS

WITH his lavish dates, private jet trips and claims of being the wealthy son of a diamond billionaire, it wasn't long before Shimon Hayut swept Cecilie Fjellhoy off her feet.

But her world came crashing down when she was fleeced out of £200,000 by her boyfriend, she says.

He claimed he needed access to her credit cards to evade the rival diamond dealers who wanted to hurt him, Cecilie alleges.

Hayut, a convicted fraudster from Israel, was the subject of Netflix hit series The Tinder Swindler in 2022. He used dating apps to meet multiple women, wining and dining them before setting up lines of credit and loans in their names. Cecilie met Shimon, who went by the alias Simon Leviev, on the dating site Tinder in January 2018.

Now, in Netflix's new series Love Con Revenge, Norwegian-born Cecilie sets out on a quest to unmask other scammers. She works alongside private investigator Brianne Joseph, Cagney and Lacey-style, to uncover the cruel love cons that have left victims broke and traumatised.