Where Is The Tinder Swindler Victim Cecilie Fjellhøy Today?
February 2022 seems like a long time ago. If you were one of the 52 million Netflix subscribers at the time, chances are you watched "The Tinder Swindler" documentary, which according to Deadline was the most watched Netflix documentary at the time it aired. Directed by Felicity Morris and nominated for five Emmys, the film chronicled the ways in which Simon Leviev of Israel scammed women out of money who he met via the Tinder dating app. Audiences were introduced to Cecilie Fjellhøy, a Norwegian woman looking for love. The Scandinavian blonde immediately fell head over heels for Leviev's tactics and he conned her out of a cool $200,000.
Since February, Fjellhøy seems to be doing quite alright. According to her Instagram and Twitter, she graduated from Teesside University in England with a Masters in Digital Experience Design in 2018 which lead to her current job as Lead UX Designer for Hyper Island, a digital industry training firm based in London. She has transformed her tragedy via Tinder into a number of speaking engagements and a nonprofit organization.
She shines bright like a diamond
Fjellhøy, whose motto is "Be kind, be brave," has spent most of this year with her co-stars and fellow fraud victims, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlott doing interviews about the documentary and speaking on the stigma associated with being swindled. The women have become friends and have even collaborated on a diamond bracelet design together. Called the "Stronger Together" bracelet, it includes two gold vermeil rings and two diamonds interlocking together which symbolize "positive closure" and how things "come full circle" (via LEVIEV).
Ironically Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, pretended to be the son of the bracelet manufacturer's owner, Lev Leviev, the renowned diamantaire and business mogul. Known also as a philanthropist who has connections to Vladimir Putin that aided him in getting ahead in the diamond industry, Leviev is, according to Forbes, currently suing Hayut for falsely using and slandering his family's name.
It is unclear exactly how the LEVIEV diamond bracelet collaboration with Fjellhøy and her friends came about, but the jewelry piece retails for $169 and proceeds go "directly to the women to help them recoup their financial losses" and 10% of the profits will be donated to charity on their behalf.
Cecilie Fjellhøy is moving on
Although Cecilie Fjellhøy was scammed out of $200,000, she still hopes to help other victims of fraud and to help draft legislation against similar scams in her native Norway and other countries. With this goal in mind, she started the nonprofit, The Action Reaction Foundation. Although it is mentioned in her Instagram bio, the nonprofit seems to be in its early stages as there are no posts from the organization to date.
No doubt, Fjellhøy has been keeping busy. Her Instagram shows her traveling internationally speaking on female empowerment, with glam pics of her living her best life in locales such as Barcelona, Cannes, and Dubai. She was nominated for a World Influencer and Blogger Award at Cannes Film Festival 2022 which she attended with her co-stars.
She's making money moves
Cecilie Fjellhøy is not letting debt get her down. With 293k Instagram followers, she is enjoying paid partnerships with brands such as Scandinavian skincare line Olehenriksen and has been invited to participate in events with Meta Entertainment (via Instagram).
She remains positive and is looking forward to participating in the Norwegian reality show, "Luksusfellen," ("The Luxury Trap" in English) on which she will appear this Fall. On the series, economists and lawyers help people who are living beyond their means and facing bankruptcy (via IMDb).
Fjellhøy believes the show will help her with her credit troubles. On her Instagram she posted, "[M]y creditors refuse to let me move on from [this and it] is unbearable. My abuser is still out there living his life, and the creditors are really showing to the world the perfect crime he's committing. They go after his victims, and totally forget the utterly traumatized people he's left behind. We're just a number. So I'm getting help to negotiate a deal from professionals, because I am so destroyed by their behavior in court, and how they treated my family." She swears it must stop now and that she will never stop speaking against these issues (via Instagram).
However, despite her financial troubles and her bad dating experience, Cecilie Fjellhøy appears to be a hopeless romantic still and, as the Netflix documentary concludes, still looking for love.