The Tinder Swindler

[Angela Channing]

This is a fascinating documentary about a man who posed as a mega rich diamond dealing on Tinder to swindle women out of tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars. The documentary focuses on the story of 3 women he took money from and how they tried to get justice for his crimes. I didn't have 100% sympathy for the women because they seemed to be blinded by his fake rich lifestyle and part of their attraction appeared to be his supposed wealth but I don't blame the victims for what he did because none of them deserved to lose their money. Well worth watching.

 

[Biggie]

didn't have 100% sympathy for the women

I've been hearing like this since I can remember, before the lonely hearts section of the paper went online.

If he's claiming to wealthy why hand over large sums of money? What reasonable would hand a perfect stranger large sums of money. Dating for weeks or months is never really enough time to.....anything.

Anyone can become a victim of crime as in this case, but surely they must have seen red flags?

When a dear friend was planning to wed the person now his wife, he said that she'd floated the idea of a joint bank account. I warned him off the idea.

 

[9unfold]

It's like an episode of Catfish gone bad. Anyone can be a victim of crime but I don't get how this can happen to rational people.

 

[Angela Channing]

It's like an episode of Catfish gone bad. Anyone can be a victim of crime but I don't get how this can happen to rational people.

I think when you're lonely and have a strong emotional need to be in a relationship, the decisions you make are more likely to be influenced by emotions rather than what is rational. However, some of the women in the show didn't come across like that, particularly the one who was going out with many different men she found on Tinder. I think there was an element of being seduced by his jet-set millionaire lifestyle which clouded their judgment.

 

[9unfold]

I think when you're lonely and have a strong emotional need to be in a relationship, the decisions you make are more likely to be influenced by emotions rather than what is rational. However, some of the women in the show didn't come across like that, particularly the one who was going out with many different men she found on Tinder. I think there was an element of being seduced by his jet-set millionaire lifestyle which clouded their judgment.

I have not watched the program in question but I have seen similar reports surface with predicable regularly.

Being lonely and in desperate need to be in a relationship is the very reason to keep objectivity. Did any of these woman not ask themselves why a millionaire would ask for money?

Were these women somehow hoping to profit financially or socially from the guy they believed was a wealthy Jetsetter?

 

[Alexis]

I watched this, and I am sorry but I can't really sympathise with these women. The one who thought she was in a proper relationship with him after a month when she had probably seen him 5 times in that time and had never met his parents. I don't think the guy even comes off as interesting or charming. He seems like a little creep to me. It feels like these women were blinded by a display of wealth and felt they found their prince. The utter stupidity of them to take out these ridiculous payday loans and credit cards for a man they had known for a matter of months, not years. And who they had met physically a handful of times. In reading the texts and messages he would send these girls there is nothing genuine in them. It's all cliched, it's all fake and there is very little about him as a person.

A man asking a woman for huge amounts of money like that is a red flag. He did though really set up that bullshit story about the attacks on him and his family and his bodyguards and all that. It's just that these women somehow thought they had become a Disney princess and had found their prince charming and happy ever after. And why? Because he supposedly had billions.

Ain't nobody I been dating a month gonna make me take out £20000 loans and credit cards. Those people need to have a look at themselves.