The latest Netflix buzz around The Tinder Swindler brought the conversation of scamming to light on social media. And amongst the many stories, TikTok scammers seem to be the new hot topic in South Africa.
Mzansi share their TikTok scams moments
As more and more people started to share the scammer story of The Tinder Swindler, many South Africans shared their own stories of similar scams on TikTok.
The most “popular” type of scams that seem to pop up are:
- Adult content TikTok scam
- TikTok apps scam
- Fake celebrities
- Get more likes and follwers scam
- Bot accounts
- TikTok email phishing scam
And one of the most hard-hitting stories that popped up was that of a local Twitter user who shared the story of how one of her colleagues was scammed out of R30 000 through TikTok.
This other lady at work got scammed R30k. Why would you try to buy a car on TikTok?! 😭😭😭😭😭
— 14K. (@_Sanelle) February 7, 2022
With more than 18 000 people liking @_Sanelle’s tweet and commenting, not everyone had sympathy for the victim and called her “gullible”.
@VenisonVenus said: “Fine. She got scammed. But how do you go from dancing on Tiktok to buying a car? It’s TikTok! From #UmlandoChallenge to enquiring about a car? Nah. Something is wrong with her.”
Others chose to share their own experiences:
@HLABARINTO said:
“Reminds me of my friend, last year he got scammed for over 15k. He wanted to buy an Audi A3 on Facebook. Only found about it when he wanted me to lend him 4k because the scammers wanted more. When I told him shit that he got scammed he then ghosted me. Mara, I had to laugh at him 1st.”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣I was also scammed R14 000 on Facebook buying a car 😭😭😭 this happened on the 31 January 2020 around 9
— 🇿🇦 🅱️orn-🆓 (@ZangwaElihle) February 7, 2022
What is The Tinder Swindler?
For those of you who haven’t seen the new Netflix documentary (or picked up a phone recently), the popular Tinder Swindler tells the story of how Simon Leviev scammed many women out of thousands and thousands of dollars.
Born Shimon Hiyut, the professional Israelian conman – who is shockingly still a free man – has now also vowed to tell “his side of the story”.
In the meantime, “Simon Leviev” has been banned from the dating app, Tinder.
He has seduced and swindled young women for millions and is a fugitive from justice in several countries. Three women decided it was time for payback.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) February 2, 2022
From the producers of DON’T F**K WITH CATS, THE TINDER SWINDLER is only one swipe away on Netflix ➡️ pic.twitter.com/j1nfPuNpaA