Tinder Swindler victims rake in £100,000 of donations on GoFundMe

14 February 2022, 17:40

By Alice Dear

@According2Al

The three women appeared in Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler and are now trying to get their lives back on track.

Victims of Simon Leviev, also known as The Tinder Swindler, have reached £100,000 of donations on their GoFundMe page.

The three women – Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte – all took part in Netflix's hit documentary The Tinder Swindler where they revealed how they were conned out of thousands of pounds from a so-called friend and boyfriend.

Simon Leviev, whose real name is revealed in the documentary to be Shimon Hayut, made a living from seducing women and swindling them out of thousands – money which funded his extravagant and luxurious playboy life.

Now, the three women have joined forces and have set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising £600,000.

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The page has seen a lot of engagement as more and more people stream the Netflix documentary, and today the women hit the £100,000 mark.

In the description for the page, Cecilie, Pernilla and Ayleen write: "You’re probably here because you’ve heard about our story, and we appreciate you taking the time to search and find this page.

"The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone. The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much."

They continue: "After careful consideration, and many chats, we have decided to start this GoFundMe fundraiser. So many people reached out to us asking if we had one, and it hadn’t occurred to us to make one prior to this. However, we’ve spotted plenty of fakes, which makes us uneasy. We don't want more people getting defrauded.

"We realise there are a thousand other worthy causes to donate to, and remain forever grateful if you choose to donate to this one. All we want are our lives back."

'Tinder Swindler' victim promotes GoFundMe on This Morning

In an update posted over the weekend, the girls also broke down where the money raised would be going.

They wrote: "About the amount set. £600,000 is a lot of money, and we never expect to get it all in. But we wanted to be real with the target and the losses we’ve had.

They added the divisions of the £600,000 would be broken down to the amount the women have each lost.

This includes £280,000 to Cecilie, which includes the interest on her loans over the past four years as well as legal fees.

It also includes £220,000 for Ayleen – this number includes the interest on her personal loans over the past four years, the credit card bills from the fraud and the lawyer costs she had to pay due to "five different lawsuits against banks and loan companies".

Finally, £100,000 for Pernilla, who lost this amount through her personal loss, credit card bills from the fraud and lawyer costs.

People have been donating ever since the page was launched, with many leaving words of encouragement for the three women.

One person wrote alongside their donation: "Thank you for so bravely sharing your stories! I am sure that it hasn't been easy (on so many levels), but your willingness to stand up and speak out has made a difference."

Another commented: "I am so sorry that this happened to you, I wish I could do more. You ladies are so brave and kind to risk all that judgement to make sure that horrible human does not do this again. Life will get better, and this too shall pass."

The Tinder Swindler is still available to stream on Netflix.