“I’m honest and I’m not looking for casual sex”: woman narrates how the Colombian Tinder scammer operates

The premiere of the documentary “The Tinder Scammer” on Netflix, where Simon Leviev’s deceptions are exposed, caused other cases to come to light. On Colombia Systems engineer Carolina Marín, 37, said that she was shortly to fall for a similar scam by a subject she met through the dating application. Her case uncovered the trickster’s way of operating and other victims were encouraged to speak out.

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Carolina, through her account Twitter @HIADAnarrated that a subject who identified himself as Juan Fernando Moreno tried to swindle her after they began a friendship through Tinder.

In the dating application, Juan Fernando presented himself as a rancher on his farm in Puerto Berrío, with photos that supported his story. Like Simon Leviev, his strategy was to demonstrate financial solvency and then suffer some adversity that forced him to borrow money immediately. That was what he tried with Carolina after the almost two weeks they were in contact.

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An honest man

Carolina tells the Semana page that when she made a match with her scammer she was about to uninstall Tinderbut who made the decision to continue the conversation for WhatsApp. “It was the first mistake,” he remembers.

The subject was described in Tinder as honest and religious, not looking for something casual. Carolina also narrates what was the second mistake she made.

“It was described like this: ‘I am honest’, something that for me was invaluable. She also said ‘I’m God fearing’ and although I’m not very religious, that was fine with me. Also, he said ‘I’m not looking for casual sex’. He was the man we all searched for on Tinder. I told him the truth, that at that very moment he was uninstalling Tinder, but I made a mistake, which was to give him my WhatsApp contact. The other mistake was not verifying his identity, something that can be done today on these social networks to make sure that the one speaking is the same as the one in the photos. He did not have his account verified.”

During the following days he began to write to her at all times, also sending audios and videos of his daily work on his farm, in this way he not only showed interest and concern for her, but also manifested economic solvency. The same operation of the scammer Tinderwho in this way installs the idea that if he asks you to borrow, he will undoubtedly pay you.

“As the days went by, I realized that with his videos he wanted to show me a very ostentatious lifestyle and for me to know that he had a lot of money. (…) Those videos in which he was in his Toyota seemed very bad taste to me because I didn’t know why he needed to show me so many things he had: an Apple Watch, an iPhone with three cameras, everything to dazzle me “remember.

Taking advantage of the trend of #TheTinderSwindler

With these photos there is a character #TheTinderScammer Colombian in #tinder #bumble #badooI already know of several women (including myself) who have tried to scam you.
He calls himself Juan Fernando, “paisa”, rancher ????????‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/Rq4Gdxp4C4

– CARO la PLUS (@HIADA) February 7, 2022

The doubts

Carolina, despite the cheesy and intense messages that she used to send from five in the morning or the unnecessary demonstrations of opulence, became interested in him and a week later they were already coordinating to meet at his house in Manizales.

However, with the imminent meeting, he had some doubts. She first asked him why he didn’t have social media, and he replied that he deleted all of them after an ex-girlfriend cheated on him. Then he asked for a video call and although he connected, he only saw a black screen with the message “reconnecting”. Juan Fernando assured him that the signal was bad on his farm.

Even when he asked her to send him a video of her face because he didn’t think she was “picking up” someone so handsome, the scammer told her that if she couldn’t believe she could be with a man like him, it’s because she has a problem with self-esteem and insecurity. Ella Carolina agreed with him and she never received the video.

the deception

The day of the meeting she asked him to send her his location to follow him on the journey, but he never sent her. During the trip -seven hours- he wrote to her telling her that he was at an Army checkpoint in Fresno because they had found a weapon that he uses to scare cattle, that he did not have the corresponding permits and that they could “Give him 9 to 12 years in prison.”

Carolina saw the deception, but did not know how to react. He went on to tell his story: “The man from the Army is asking me for three million and I bring two million 125 thousand and I am missing 875 thousand”.

In each call, a recording of military voices was heard and he had no doubt that it was a scam. She began to test him, she first told him that she was going to her to give him the cash, but he replied that he would not arrive on time. She then suggested that he give her her number and her card password, but he refused, assuring that everything was encrypted.

“I got angry and told him I wasn’t going to give him the money. He got angry and told me that he regretted taking that trip for me and he hung up on me. I thought that was the end of the story, but the last I heard from him was a message shortly after in which he wrote to me: ‘There’s what I wanted.’ It was his location. In Google, that point coincided with the Las Heliconias prison in Florence”, said.

Carolina tried to file the complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office, but gave up. Instead, she posted her experience on Twitter and a woman contacted her to tell her that she had a similar experience, but her scammer claimed to be from Rionegro, who raised ponies in Mexico and that when transporting the horses to Colombia he needed some money because he needed a spare, but she saw the scam and blocked it.

Simon Leviev became world famous when three women denounced him in the documentary “The Tinder Scammer”. (Photo: @simon_leviev_official.)

Another woman contacted her because she was dating a Juan Fernando, who was also a rancher. When comparing the audios they realized that he was the same scammer.

Veterinarian Damián Manco also wrote to tell him that the swindler of Tinder Colombian uses his photos to trick women, two of whom contacted him to tell him that in 2020 they spoke to a man who looked like him.

Posting her story on social media earned her a lot of criticism and media attention she didn’t expect, but helping other people stay out of the scam makes her happy. “With just one person not falling, this was all worth it.”

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Source: Elcomercio