Georgia authorities announced Monday that Israeli scammer Simon Leviev, who gained notoriety from the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, had been taken into custody.  

The 34-year-old Leviev, whose true name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, gained recognition when media coverage and investigative reports revealed a history of financial crimes and romance fraud.  

Without providing any other information, interior ministry spokesman Tato Kuchava told AFP that he had been "arrested at (the Black Sea city) Batumi's airport at Interpol's request."  

Leviev is accused of using the dating app Tinder between 2017 and 2019 to deceive women into giving him enormous sums of money that he never paid back by pretending to be a wealthy heir.

His plan turned into one of the most well-known instances of "catfishing," which is the practice of fabricating an online identity to trick victims into becoming emotionally and financially involved.  

The intricate deceit in Leviev's case apparently included private jets, bodyguards, and fictitious luxurious lifestyles, making the scheme exceptionally expensive and believable.  Several of his claimed victims' tales were told in the 2022 Netflix documentary.  

Hayut "ultimately defrauded victims in Norway, Finland, and Sweden out of an estimated $10 million," according to Netflix. 

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