The Tinder Swindler, Netflix’s upcoming crime thriller documentary, has received its first trailer – and it’ll make you think twice about using any dating app to find love.
Posted on Netflix’s YouTube and social media channels on January 11, The Tinder Swindler’s first teaser sets up the remarkable real-life story of an alleged billionaire playboy seducing and stealing millions of dollars from numerous women across the globe. Suffice to say, this one looks like it’ll be making its way onto our best Netflix documentaries list very soon.
Check out the trailer for The Tinder Swindler below:
Including interviews with the Tinder Swindler’s victims, Netflix’s next potentially big docufilm will follow the events surrounding the jaw-dropping crime, which culminated in the conviction of Simon Leviev, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen, for theft and fraud following his arrest in June 2019.
The Tinder Swindler is based on the months-long investigation by Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. The outlet’s in-depth report covers Leviev and his victims’ stories in fascinating-yet-harrowing detail, and is well worth a read if you need a crash course on The Tinder Swindler ahead of the show’s release.
Felicity Morris, who produced the acclaimed Netflix documentary Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, led production on The Tinder Swindler. Executively produced by Sam Starbuck (The Nielsen Tapes, America in Color) and Bart Layton (The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman), The Tinder Swindler launches exclusively on Netflix on Wednesday, February 2.
Analysis: The Tinder Swindler shows the perils of online dating
Given the events surrounding The Tinder Swindler, it’s unsurprising why people are often cautious about what to include in their dating profiles and messages – or even using the apps at all.
Off the back of similar stories, though, dating app companies have taken steps to improve online safety in the past couple of years. Now, the likes of Tinder and Bumble allow users to verify their profile, which allows potential matches to see that they’re really who they say they are.
Users are also given the option to only match with other profiles that have been verified, ensuring that both parties are speaking to real-life individuals and not pranksters or so-called catfishes. And, on Tinder at least, users are now warned before they send potentially offensive messages to those they match with.
The duo’s security isn’t entirely foolproof, however, with Tinder and Bumble users being targeted by cryptocurrency scams on iOS devices late last year. And dating app users still run the risk of meeting and chatting to people who aren’t who they claim to be. There are plenty of unsettling dating app stories on the internet – it just happens that the story of The Tinder Swindler is so famous that Netflix has made a documentary about it.
As much as The Tinder Swindler may shock viewers with the events and crimes that it depicts, it does serve as a reminder to all dating app users to stay safe while using them. If even one person (though we certainly hope it’s many more than that) takes heed of the cautionary tale that The Tinder Swindler presents, it’ll have done its job in educating users on the perils of online dating.