Pernilla Sjöholm, one of the victims of fraud by Israeli Simon Leviev nicknamed “the Tinder scammer”, told AFP on Tuesday that she celebrated his arrest.
“Yesterday I celebrated a little. I have the right to be happy, because this man destroyed my life. This is clearly a victory. So thank you to the country that issued the international arrest warrant. Thank you,” she said during an interview with AFP in Stockholm. “These fraudsters must be held responsible”.
Simon Leviev, 34, was arrested at the airport of Batumi, a Georgian seaside town on the shores of the Black Sea, “at the request of Interpol,” Georgia officials announced Monday.
In March 2018, the Swede, who is now 38 years old, made contact with Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, on the dating application Tinder.
Their relationship quickly took a friendly turn and after a few months, in November and December, he began to defraud her, she claims.
In total, the woman who testified in the Netflix documentary dedicated to this affair was taken from more than 600,000 Swedish crowns (more than 50,000 € according to current prices).
A happy family life
Between 2017 and 2019, the Israeli allegedly posed as a rich heir on the famous dating application. Simon Leviev allegedly convinced women with whom he interacted to lend him large sums of money, which he did not repay.
Despite the trauma, Pernilla Sjöholm has since bounced back greatly.
“I have a partner, I have two and a half year old twins. I lead a very happy family life,” she smiles. “When I think about the state I was in in 2018, 2019, so devastated… and today, in 2025, I can be here, so happy… It’s incredible. I really love my job and everything I do.”
This dark episode in her life has turned into a personal commitment: she is increasing the number of conferences on fraud and campaigning, among other things, for better supervision of the use of AI in deepfakes (content faked using AI).
“We need to look at fraud differently and do more. We must see it as more than just a waste of money, recognize the emotional abuse these victims experience, and examine the statistics on the suicide rate linked to these crimes. These scams literally destroy lives, and we need a different safety net,” she argues, deploring that shame still remains very present on the victims’ side.
She has filed a complaint against Simon Leviev in Sweden and the Netherlands and says she is ready to testify in a possible trial.
