Tinder turns ten this year. The star spoke to people about their experiences with online dating. This is the story of Hannah, 29. After the first date, she immediately blocked the rich show-off – and was later very happy about it:
There's one Tinder date I'll never forget. In 2017 a man caught my eye. Simon. His pictures were different, somehow unusual. In a limousine, on a private jet. That made me curious and I asked myself: Can it even be real? I swiped right - and had a match. We chatted, exchanged numbers, even called once. He was on the road a lot, but a few weeks later we met in Berlin: at the Ritz Carlton on Potsdamer Platz. A dinner.
I got there a little early so I saw him come down the stairs. He had a bodyguard with him and wore extravagant clothes that didn't really go together. Dark red pants and a blue and white striped shirt, I mean. Plus tinted glasses and a big watch. But it looked almost exactly like the pictures. That's not the rule on Tinder. I was still surprised that he really stood in front of me like that. I was afraid to the last that someone completely different would come along. Or even nobody.
It was only afterwards that I noticed that he almost only talked about himself. His work for a large diamond dealer, for example. On the other hand, he hardly wanted to know anything about me. He also showed me an app he uses to book his flights on private jets. And the security camera in his apartment. There he switched the light on and off again. He was pretty bragging and flamboyant when I come to think of it.
Later that evening he put his hand on my thigh and wanted to get closer to me, paid me a lot of compliments. His confessions also suddenly became more intimate. He told me that he was already in prison and lived in constant fear of being kidnapped because he was said to come from a rich family. The whole situation felt wrong to me, so I blocked. There was no second date. In retrospect, I still found it strange that he kept changing his phone numbers on WhatsApp and his Instagram account often fluctuated between online and deactivated.
I then heard nothing more from him until I visited my grandmother in the hospice in 2019. There was a report on television about a scammer who had defrauded numerous women of sometimes six-figure sums of money and who had taken out large loans for him. I recognized him immediately: it was Simon. Simon Leviev, as he had introduced himself to me at the time. In reality, however, his name is Shimon Jehuda Hayut. I sat in front of the TV with my mouth open and was shocked.
He had shown me the same shots from his apartment as all the other women, the same selfies from his private jet. I've always been careful about dating. But after this experience, I pay even more attention to what people tell me. I only meet in public places. Before we meet someone privately, I ask them to show me their ID, take a picture of it and send it to my best friend. That's how I make sure nothing happens to me. If I had done that to Simon, I would probably have noticed the other name on his passport anyway. But it didn't get that far.
Recorded by: Gerrit-Freya Kleber
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