tinder

Dating apps are the new reality, but do they really make dating easier? My study suggests they complicate it further. Questions about trust and online dating regularly crop up along with headlines about unpleasant online approaches, scams and even physical assaults when dates move offline. Still, dating apps like Tinder remain hugely popular, downloaded and used mostly on cellphones to meet new people. In fact, they have received increasing traffic globally in recent years despite these bleak stories and spurred by COVID-induced lockdowns. My ethnographic research in Cape Town, South Africa, shows that Tinder dating is riddled with contradictory feelings. As an anthropology scholar who is curious about intimacy and apps, I followed the dating journeys of 25 Tinder users for two years. I so...

In the chart-topping Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, three women describe how they were defrauded by convicted conman Simon Leviev (who was born Shimon Hayut) after meeting him on the dating app. The film gives a detailed and deeply personal account of how Leviev used Tinder to connect with his victims and ultimately swindle them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have been researching romance fraud for more than a decade. I have heard the painful and traumatic stories of hundreds of victims. While each story is unique, there are common factors, and some wider lessons to learn. The Tinder Swindler is a powerful example of what can go wrong, but what does it teach us about romance fraud, and how can you avoid becoming the next victim? What is romance fraud? Romance fraud...

Tag: tinder

In Cape Town Tinder Use Reveals The Paradox Of Modern Dating

Tactics Of Tinder Swindlers: First The ‘Love-Bomb’, Then The ‘Financial Emergency’