A dating app that aims to stop romance fraudsters is the latest project from Shimon Hayut, who goes by the name the “Tinder Swindler,”. He says the app is so secure that romance fraudsters will finally be stopped. The catch is that he built it based on his own experience as one of them.
Hayut gained fame for his romance fraud schemes, making a lavish income extorting money from women he met online. In 2015 and 2019, he was convicted of fraud, theft and forgery charges in Israel and Finland. He served time in Finland from September 2015 until March 2017. He was arrested in Israel in 2011 and 2017 for the same case, and in June 2019 was extradited from Greece to Israel, where he was jailed until May 2020.
Now he wants to fix the problem he created.
A Fraudster’s New Calling
Hayut compares himself to Frank Abagnale Jr., the convicted con man immortalized in the 2002 Steven Spielberg film “Catch Me If You Can.” Abagnale committed check fraud, theft, and forgery, then became a fraud-prevention specialist.
Hayut says his idea came from his own nickname. “They say I made the dating environment unsafe,” he told Fox News Digital in a videoconference interview. “So I thought, ‘All right. Let’s make it safe.'”
The man divides his residence between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. He claims his specialized knowledge of fraud qualifies him to assist other people in staying clear of becoming victims.
“I did use false passports. I did use false identity,” he said. “I’ve been convicted for that. I’ve paid my debts to society. Obviously, things which I’m not proud of.”
What the App Demands
More proof is required for Safe Love than what existing dating apps ask for. A government identification card upload and a matching selfie are both demanded of users before they can proceed. Profile pictures that differ from that selfie by more than 15% will not be permitted.
The notion came to Hayut through a personal misstep. He recounted a match that did not go well, one that involved a person who is transgender.
Users can press an SOS button within the app, which then records both audio and video while sharing the user’s location, sending all of that data to law enforcement.
The Pushback From ODDA
The ODDA, which pushes for safe online dating, has spoken out against Hayut’s plan. Not everyone agrees.
The letter, addressed to both Google and Apple, asked the two companies to remove the platform from their app stores.
“We do not believe either app store wishes to be the platform that hosted a fraudster’s return to the very environment in which his crimes were committed,” ODDA wrote.
“Allowing a convicted romance fraud offender to operate a dating platform, an environment built entirely on trust and on the very emotional and financial vulnerabilities he has already been proven to exploit, completely undermines the efforts our sector has made and represents a very real risk to users.”
Why He Says They Won’t Succeed
Hayut dismissed the pushback. “They won’t be able to do that, and they won’t succeed,” he said. He framed the criticism as jealousy.
The fear he spoke of stems from the quality of his product, and he did not frame it within quotation marks. Yet the feeling was plain: they fear the excellence of what he offers.
Fox News Digital reached out to Apple and Google for comment.
The Perfection Standard
The background Hayut comes from pushes him to ensure the app is “working perfectly” before it goes live, and he says he can’t risk making any errors.
“If something will go wrong, I cannot be saying, ‘Ah, we have a fault in our system.’ Automatically, I will be [considered] guilty as charged.”
“I have notoriety. It means that I cannot do mistakes.”
Some view his old offenses as a danger, and he admits it. His reply is plain: he has become a different person.
He spoke those words, “Yes, on paper I’m a convicted criminal,” and then went on to say “But I’m not the same kid that I was [at] 19 years old.”.
He has never tied the knot, yet he is now the father of two children from two separate women: an 11-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son.
“And we do change. People do change.”
What Comes Next
Regulation of the app is nearing completion, and according to Hayut, it could go live within days or weeks.
“It could be a few days, could be a few weeks, but hopefully as soon as possible,” he said.
ODDA’s argument rests on a few key points:
- The app would host a convicted fraudster in an environment built on trust
- That environment relies on emotional and financial vulnerabilities
- Those vulnerabilities are precisely what Hayut has already exploited
- Allowing the platform would undermine industry efforts to keep users safe
Hayut has a history of being arrested and found guilty in two separate countries. He did time in Finland, got caught in Israel on two occasions, and was sent back from Greece. The conviction in Finland came in 2015, when he was handed two years after cheating three women, according to the Times of Israel. In 2019, he was found guilty in Finland on four counts of fraud and given 15 months, even though he walked free after five months, per BBC.
He has not faced further charges since his release.
The core of Hayut’s pitch rests on his assertions about his own ability to pass fake documents. He claimed that no one ever questioned him once, and that he passed hundreds or thousands of fake passports.
Exactly what he has done gives his promise to make dating safe real weight — even though the man who made dating unsafe now makes that very claim.
A person who once defrauded others now claims to have learned from his mistakes. It is unknown whether his words will be accepted.
Source material: “‘Tinder Swindler’ romance fraudster promises ‘safe’ dating app – using intel from con man playbook,” Fox News.
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