As society continues to rely on technology and social media platforms as a means of forming new relationships, personal connections are being impacted. More than ever, people are being fooled by the glamorized lives portrayed on social media. The Netflix movie, Tinder Swindler, highlights the growing concern of naivety surrounding the use of online dating apps.  

Posing as the adventurous son of billionaire Lev Leviev, Simon Leviev loured women with his lavish lifestyle. The documentary focuses on a group of women who fell victim to the swindler through the Tinder dating app. Leviev begged his “girlfriends” for money, claiming that he and his team were in danger due to their high status and dangerous enemies. The promises to repay them was never realized and the women were left with unimaginable debt. The women joined together to get the justice they deserved after giving him hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

This documentary reveals some common perceptions surrounding dating apps, such as Tinder. Our world has become materialistic. When scrolling through someone’s dating profile, viewers look for what they are wearing, what they have surrounding them and what they look like. Do they have nice teeth, hair and skin? Some would say that the women in this movie could be classified as gold diggers and that they are gullible for believing Leviev. The women claim that they felt a special connection after a short period of time, but was it just the allure of the materialistic life he portrayed? This too-good-to-be-true scenario poses the scary question of knowing when love is genuine? 

Obviously, this is an over-the-top case of scamming, but this highlights the negative impacts online social media and dating apps have on our lives. We hope that this documentary allows people to think before acting and understand that not everything we see on our phones is the truth. In this specific incident, various red flags appeared that should have made the women second guess their relationship with Simon. So why did they continue to loan him thousands of dollars at a time? The women wanted to believe that Simon was telling the truth, denying the possibility that they could be lied to. They were infatuated by the potential fairy-tale love story ending that society has shoved in our faces from such a young age. A carefree, financially stable and handsome man appears unexpectedly into one’s life, wanting to fall in love, buy a house and start a family. Who can blame these women for falling for that? 

Overall, this Netflix documentary was an interesting watch and does not have the typical Hollywood ending. If you have a couple hours to kill or if you are looking for something to watch, Tinder Swindler is the movie for you.