Three weeks on from the premiere of The Tinder Swindler and the name Simon Leviev is one that is known around the world. 

While the notorious scam artist swindled his way across Europe, scamming millions out of women from London to Germany, the Netflix documentary has officially propelled him to new heights – and now he’s milking it for all its worth and we are just lapping it up.

I realised just how much we, as viewers of the documentary, had played a role in the rising stardom of Leviev while out for dinner and overheard a conversation where one guy said: “I actually respect him – he’s a hustler.”

The mere thought of Leviev being seen as someone people respect and even admire was shocking to me – but then I remembered the society we live in often rewards bad behaviour and makes light of serious issues – and I fear that is exactly what we have done once again.

After all, Leviev has done more in the last three weeks since the Netflix documentary premiered than ever before.

According to TMZ, sources say Leviev – whose real name is Shimon Heyada Hayut – has already signed with a talent manager, and wants to write a book and host a dating podcast. 

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports he has pitched a “controversial new TV show, which would see women competing for his love.” 

And now, the con artist has given his first post-Tinder Swindler interview alongside his girlfriend, Israeli model Kate Konlin.

“I’m not a fraud and I’m not a fake,” Leviev told Inside Edition. “People don’t know me so they cannot judge me. I’m the biggest gentleman in the world.”

He also claimed that he is a “legit businessman” and that he was “surprised how many girls wanted me”.

The amount of publicity Leviev has received, along with the possibility of seeing him across dating shows, podcasts and books, is unfortunately not surprising to many, including me.

A lot of the discourse across social media has seen people mock the victims and make light of their misfortune, often blaming them for trusting Leviev too easily.

And even if some do believe that, the lack of accountability placed on Leviev and the lack of seriousness around what took place has allowed him to flourish in the public eye like some sort of dating app folklore as opposed to an actual real person who hurt real people.

Many took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Leviev’s rising fame and echoed similar sentiments about the role we play in inadvertently celebrating Leviev and men like him.

“This isn’t surprising. His popularity as a meme/gif and the social media boost to his visibility has made him a potentially lucrative entity,” wrote one. “People seem to enjoy turning criminals into celebrities so here we are.”

“How is this okay? The talent manager who signed him, karma should be as bad as his,” another tweeted. “Shame. And if this guy gets a book deal, as an #author I’m done.”

Glorifying male criminals in TV and film isn’t something we’re unfamiliar with – no matter how big or small the crime.

Some lusted over Ted Bundy when the Netflix docu-series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes premiered in 2019 resulting in Netflix urging users not to, while many of us You fans will know someone who has romanticised serial killer protagonist Joe – leading Penn Badgley to even call out this behaviour.

And while these are extreme examples and focus on attraction being the key factor, there is something to be said about seeing criminals and choosing to isolate the crime from who they are as an individual – and this is why we end up glorifying people like Leviev who truly don’t deserve it.

It’s easy to forget the power we all collectively have on social media and how memes that go viral and the millions of tweets that we share can literally propel people into stardom – and this is a prime example of it going wrong.

Sure, the Netflix documentary was the main proponent here, but the memeification of Simon Leviev means that something which is very real is then turned into a joke – a fixture of pop culture that turns into a stream of endless tweets, trending topics and Google searches then suddenly becomes a person of focus and a new, lucrative entity.

The real crimes that were committed and the real people that were hurt fade into the background of their very own story as Leviev could make hundreds of thousands if not millions from books, shows and podcasts as a result of their very own pain – and if that’s not a wake-up call to the power of social media and also the way society glorifies and rewards bad behaviour, I don’t know what is.

Not to mention that with the perceived success of Leviev comes the concern that copycats will see how things went for him and try to emulate that.. After all, romance fraud is already a prevalent issue with Action Fraud reporting a 40% increase during the UK’s lockdowns.

Rewarding criminality in such a way is a mere reflection of society and our values; Leviev’s 15 minutes of fame may have just been extended and more like him will follow unless we begin to nip this in the bud and stop drawing attention to people who don’t deserve it.

Image: AGC