In this conversational YouTube episode, Sam Parr and his guest dissect Netflix’s documentary about Shimon Hayut, the "Tinder Swindler". They first outline the swindler’s modus operandi: a curated Tinder profile portraying a billionaire‑son lifestyle, lavish dates, and fabricated emergencies that coax women into handing over credit‑card limits and taking high‑interest loans. The victims, often models, end up with debts ranging from $80,000 to over $200,000, while the con artist funds private‑jet trips and clubbing by recycling money from one victim to the next, creating a Ponzi‑like cycle. The discussion then moves to the legal ambiguity—victims voluntarily gave the money, so prosecutors framed it as fraud‑by‑association rather than outright theft, resulting in a 15‑month sentence for unrelated crimes and a brief five‑month stint for the swindler. The hosts critique the swindler’s inefficiency, suggesting he could have married a wealthy woman, pursued corporate invoice scams, or launched a diamond business instead of expending resources on partying. They also comment on the documentary’s narrative structure (love‑story first half, con reveal second half), its cultural ripple (memes, comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio’s role in Catch Me If You Can, speculation about the swindler’s prison popularity), and Netflix’s ethical responsibility. They note a GoFundMe for victims and argue Netflix should use documentary profits to repay the debts, highlighting a broader conversation about media accountability. Overall, the episode blends factual recap, legal analysis, strategic critique, and cultural commentary, ending with a call for restitution and a humorous yet critical take on the swindler’s persona.
Chapters
Did you watch The Tinder Swindler?
No, but I saw your picture with it. So what's the, what's the, like, the, the—
okay, so you guys don't— okay, so here's, here's what happened. It's kind of an amazing thing. Um, there's a guy, so the document— it's a documentary about this guy who goes on Tinder, and his Tinder profile looks like, uh, you know, he's kind of like a normal-ish looking guy, but he's like clearly living a cool lifestyle, like lots of travel in different climates, kind of wearing very nice clothes. That's his profile. All right, so girls swipe right on him and they start chatting with him. And he, he basically what he ended up doing was he ended up conning women out of money, and it was like a Ponzi scheme. So what he would do is he would meet a woman on Tinder, take her out on a date, kind of wine and dine her, make it look like he's this baller of a guy And he, you know, it was just like, like a prince out of a fairy tale. He just loves her, the average looking girl who has average job just from an average city. And then all of a sudden he's like, come on my private jet and come do this with me. And they go together and she's like, oh my God, it's all happening. I am that princess that he picked and he cares for. And so he starts talking to him and his backstory is that he, his dad owns a diamond company and he's the son of a billionaire. And if you Google You see that this guy is the son of a billionaire, so he kind of like had created this profile around that. And, and then, you know, sure enough, a month in, he's like, hey, you know, like he's like, oh, you know, he sends a picture of his bodyguard. He's always with a bodyguard. He's like, my bodyguard got attacked. Oh my God. And she's like, oh my God, is he okay? He's like, yeah, but, you know, they're telling me I can't use my credit cards anymore because they're tracking my location. You know, like, these are enemies for our company. The diamond business is a ruthless business. And he's like, uh, can I borrow your credit card for the time being while I, uh, you know, because I can't use mine yet. And she's like, uh, okay. And he's like, cool, just make sure you get your limits raised because like I have business meetings and all this stuff. So these women end up going like $150,000, $200,000 in debt as he racks up credit card debt. Then he's like, hey, go get a quick loan and send me the money. I need it because, you know, my enemies are after me. And he's like, my enemies are after me. And so the documentary is— the first half of the documentary is these women talking about how they fell in love, and the second half is like how they got conned, basically. And he's like a Ponzi scheme. So he's— well, he'd fall in love with one woman, or he'd get them to fall in love with him, get them to start giving him money and credit cards. He'd be using that to wine and dine the next woman, and then he would be doing this with multiple women at once, telling them all the same things. And then he was living this like extravagant lifestyle on all these women's dime. And, and then, you know, so that's that way. That's the score of the movie. Quick reaction to that. And I'm gonna tell you some other stuff.
Well, what happened to him? So how does this end?
It ends with he gets exposed. So the women are like, oh my God, you know, they go to the credit card company. They're like, look, I have to be honest, like my kind of boyfriend, you know, or I don't know what's going on. This is the guy. He's tricking me. And like, they should— he's there. Can we see a picture of the guy? And he shows a picture on her phone and the two like agents from like Amex or whatever just look at each other like, it's him. And then she's like, what? It's like, we've been after this guy for years. Uh, he does this with tons of women. They're like, there's other women he's doing this to. And so it's like they feel cheated on plus conned. And, um, and so he— but technically what happens is, is he breaking the law? He's not breaking the law. They are giving him money. They're sending him money willingly, and they are, um, you know, they're giving him their credit card, and they're calling the credit card company and saying, no, no, it's me. Can you please raise my limits? Yes, I'm traveling. I'm in, I'm in the— I'm in Ibiza right now. And so they're like, you know, you're in a kind of a sticky spot. You can't really say he stole it. You clearly gave it to him. In fact, you kind of committed fraud. But like, well, whatever, we'll leave that aside. But like, yeah, you do owe this money. Like, this is not— this is not, you know, a stolen credit card. And so anyways, how much did he get? He ends up getting a 15-month sentence for not even for this. It's for like something else that he did, like associated with this. Um, he serves 5 months, he gets off free, he's out there living, he's got a new model girlfriend, he lives somewhere else. Um, the girls kind of like exposed him in the press because they were like, okay, look, law enforcement is not doing anything or it's going to take too long, he's going to keep doing this. In the meantime, they go to the Norwegian press where they're from and they, they, they kind of like expose it. Then Netflix turns it into a documentary. And, uh, and so the guy's still out there. And one of the things in the movie is he goes to a plastic surgeon and he's like, I I want my eyes, cheekbones, chin, mouth all restructured. And this guy's like, I'm not going to do this. Only a criminal would want this surgery. And so he's like trying to change his face so he could keep it going, but he can't change his face. And now he's like, you know, kind of like public enemy number one. But a lot of people who watch this are like, dude, these girls are stupid. Yeah, you were just with him for the money and then he conned you for the money. You got what you deserve. So the girls are getting a ton of flak for it, which is really crazy. That's, that's That's dumb, but I was thinking, what a waste of talent by this guy.
Yeah, like, that's pretty amazing. It's like energy. Like, it's like a— you know what's funny is like Leonardo DiCaprio played the same character in Catch Me If You Can, and it was awesome.
Yeah, he's became like a hero.
When I see this guy, I want to punch him in the face.
Yeah, exactly.
He—
that was the problem. It was a documentary instead of a movie about the con man itself, where you sort of fall in love with this smooth guy.
Yeah, if a different— if like a lovable— if like If like Matt Damon played him, I would be all about it.
Yeah, you gotta watch the thing.
It's super punchable face, this guy.
Yeah, and the memes are just amazing around.
Well, I saw the meme with you with your face on it.
Yeah. Yes, I had somebody— I was like, hey, Photoshop my head onto, onto this photo where it looks like I'm with the guy, and I just tweeted out like, I'm with my sister's new boyfriend. Like, is he American? No, this guy's Israeli.
Dude, screw this guy, man. I, I'm happy they made a documentary about him. How did he get all the— so he's in a private jet and a bunch of these pictures. How did he get that?
Because he's using the previous woman's money to fund his, his lifestyle, so he would fly private. Yeah. Yes, he was actually flying private. I don't know if all the time, but at least some of the time. And it was just really wild. In fact, a lot of the numbers don't make sense. Like, he must have been running this on like tons of women at once to fund this lifestyle, because these, like, the jets and the stuff that he's doing, like, okay, he would con this woman out of $80 grand, but $80 grand funds like one month of this lifestyle, you know, like, that's not very long. So he must have had a lot of people at the same time, or the documentary is a little inaccurate. I don't know.
But how much money did he get?
They said that he had conned women out of millions of dollars, uh, over, over time. Um, they didn't say exactly how much. They don't know, you know, how much of it was there, but But I just feel like he did this all wrong. Like, if you're gonna do all this effort, you got to be more intelligent, right? Like, okay, what could he have done? Could have just married rich. Could have just seemed rich, married rich, divorced, took half, right? Like, that would have worked way, way— you know, put more wood behind fewer arrows here, and he could have just gone one very wealthy person if he really wanted to do this. That's my first critique of him. My second critique of him is Bro, all this money to just party? Partying is exhausting. Like, why? He just wanted to fly private and go to these clubs and do table service. Like, you know, you couldn't pay me to do that.
I don't want to travel. You gotta diversify your assets, dog.
Yeah, you should own some crypto. Like, buy something. Buy a home. Do something with this money. You just blew all the money on overpriced, you know, like, bottle service at the club. Like, wow. All right, that's critique number 2. Um, number 3, go B2B, bro. Corporate swindling would have worked way better. So, you know, he could have been like, you heard about the guy who just started sending invoices to Microsoft and Apple and stuff and just got paid like millions of dollars. Just sending bogus— he was just sending an invoice to accounts payable or whatever. And, uh, and then they would just pay some of the invoices. Yeah.
Would he just do it like, like ap@microsoft.com? Yeah.
He was like, he's like, hey, you know, this is for the, uh, blah, blah, blah. And like And then they went back and they're like, what the hell is this? Who is this vendor that we paid $1.1 million to this year? Like, nobody knows who this is.
I don't think that's illegal either.
I think it is because he was like, you know, well, whatever. They were going back after him. You know, these companies have a lot of money. So that's the downside of going B2B. I feel like there could have been a B2B way of doing this. Should have actually just started a diamond company. Could have made a lot more money if you're this good at getting women's emotions tied up in your, your lifestyle. Just actually sell the diamonds. It would have worked. Use their money to fund a diamond company. That actually could have worked. This guy needs to be on— needs to be on the Facebook ad manager instead of Tinder.
That's my critique of this guy. I'm looking at him now. All those— these women who he scammed, they like— a lot of them look like models. Like, he was killing it. Also, like, you forgot the other option, which is like, just marry one of these ladies if they're rich enough to— like, if they're these beautiful women who could wire him $200K, like, I don't know, man. Bro, maybe gotta keep her.
Well, in this case, he's like— he was telling him like, go take like a kind of like a collateralized loan or a payday loan and like super high interest. Don't worry, he's like, I'm gonna wire your money back in 4 days. And then he would like not wire them back. And then they'd be like, hey, did you wire the money? He's like, oh, sorry, they're like, the bank was closed. Okay. And then he would like show them a statement. He'd be like, I sent it, should arrive in a couple days. So he's like, hey, it hasn't arrived yet, what's going on? Like, the interest is building up on this like flash loan you had me take. He's like, oh my God, let me call the bank. Another 2 days go by. He's like, called the bank. They said this thing got frozen. I got to— I got to deal with this. I'm so sorry. Here, you know, I'm going to send you one of my watches. In the meantime, you can just sell it. This watch is worth $100,000. Sends them a fake watch. And you just buy time doing that. It's like these women didn't have the money, but like, I think he could— he could have totally gone for a richer woman and then been like, you know what, baby? Like, I love you. I'm not going to make you sign a prenup. You know me, I'm a billionaire. I come from this lineage, but I'm not— my dad says sign a prenup. I'm not going to do it. And then she would feel a little bit of pressure, be like, okay, I guess I can't really ask him for a prenup anyways. This guy's richer than me. All right, I guess I also won't. That would have been a more effective con.
If this guy were in jail, do you think he'd be popular or hated?
I think popular, sadly.
You think popular?
I think, I think popular.
I could see this going either way, man.
I could see this, I could see this going either way.
I think like, dude, the swindler in prison, would he like— all right, so Bernie Madoff, I heard in prison was like a god. Which I get, I get that, you know, like he could teach people how to like corner like the chocolate chip or the chocolate, uh, hot chocolate market, like in prison, like he could like, you know, or he could like, you know, dominate the commissary and he could like teach you about markets. I get that. And also there was, it wasn't a violent crime, so no children or women would hurt. But this guy, is he, I would see this guy being unpopular. Uh, I don't know.
That's a good question. He's got kind of like a douchebag aura to him. So that's the problem. That's, that's where he's going to get in trouble. But, uh, Bro, The Swindler. The Swindler would do well in prison.
I guess I'll watch it. How many episodes?
He's not in prison. He's out and about. He's living a nice life right now.
Screw this guy, man. And he stole a couple million dollars. Yeah, I think, I think about— I think this documentary is good punishment though. That's fair. I'm okay. You not serving time and you have this documentary about you.
Our buddy Jack Butcher pointed something out that I was like, oh wait a minute, that's true. He's like, yo, Netflix is gonna make a lot of money off this documentary. Pay off these women's debts. They have like a GoFundMe going. It's like, yo, Netflix, you need to pay off this woman's $200,000 debt.
That's true.
You did well on this documentary. So that's the, that's the real call out here. Netflix, cancel Netflix if they don't pay off these women's debts.
That's a no-brainer. You don't think they're going to?
Well, nobody said anything. These women are doing interviews everywhere. There's a GoFundMe out there.
I feel like, I feel like they could have said, or they're just, you know, swindling people.
One good thing that, you know, we didn't make a lot of money off this, but Netflix actually generously did agree to pay off the debt. You know, uh, blah blah blah. That— I feel like that story should have come out if they did it. If they didn't, then fire your— either fire your PR person, Netflix, or pay off this— pay these debts.
