Tinder Swindler victim turns fraudster hunter

Cecilie Fjellhøy was scammed by Shimon Hayut but, in a new Netflix series, she's helping victims of con artists seek justice

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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 Fjellhøy off her feet.

But her world came crashing down when she was fleeced out of $200,000 by her boyfriend, who claimed he needed access to her credit cards to evade the rival diamond dealers who wanted to hurt him.

Cecilie, 37, alleges she was a victim of Hayut, a convicted fraudster from Israel, who was the subject of the 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.

Now, in Netflix's new series Love Con Revenge, Cecilie sets out on a quest to unmask other scammers. In the six-part series, we hear from victims who come forward to tell their stories in the hope of getting revenge on the con artists who deceived them.

The fraudsters here are not billionaire diamond dealers escaping thugs, as in Cecilie's case, but they have similarly extraordinary covers. These include an "army veteran", who says he needs money to give to the family of his war comrade who died taking a bullet for him, and a wellness guru who needs loans to fund his health retreat.

Conned by an expert

The stories sound far-fetched but there is always a "nugget of truth in every single one - so you believe them," said Cecilie. "In my case, Shimon Hayut was playing a character called Simon. He was not a diamond dealer but I went on a private jet with him. That's why it seemed real."

Details may vary, but at heart the scenarios all have one thing in common. "They are straight out of the romance con artist playbook," she said. Cecilie works alongside private investigator Brianne Joseph, Cagney & Lacey-style, to uncover cons that have left victims not only broke but traumatised.