Why swindle women online when you can just issue an NFT?

Updated on: 25 February 2022

Damien Black
Senior Journalist

Mobile phone saying Tinder Swindler with the conman Simon Leviev blurred in the background.

The Tinder Swindler – an infamous conman who used fake digital identities and bogus websites to seduce women and scam them out of millions – has released his own line of NFTs in a bizarre twist on blockchain’s growing appeal to criminals.

Simon Leviev became a celebrity after being featured in a recent Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, which detailed how he conned his lovers into thinking he was a millionaire experiencing financial difficulties and persuaded them to rack up huge loans on his behalf.

Leviev has apparently decided that he no longer needs to go to such elaborate lengths to earn money – instead, cashing in on his notoriety by issuing what is expected to be the first in a collection of NFTs on the OpenSea platform.

Peter Hurt features Leviev’s fake bodyguard – alleged in the documentary to have been Leviev’s accomplice – apparently injured after ‘protecting’ his boss from imaginary enemies. Four enthusiasts clubbed together to buy the digital rights to the NFT, which sold for 0.15ETH – at the time of writing, a single ethereum was valued at $2,705.

Nor is Leviev the only divisive public figure to have gone all fungible on us. Former US president Donald Trump has graced the Solana blockchain platform with his Potus Trump NFT collection, a 10,000-strong array of tokens portraying milestones in his four-year stint as arguably America’s most controversial leader ever.

Potus Trump was designed by the former president’s wife Melania - who auctioned an NFT animated graphic of her trademark wide-brimmed hat along with the article itself and a picture of her wearing it for $170,000 in January – and will sell for $50 a token via the USA Memorabilia website.

Commenting on her husband’s NFT collection, Melania Trump said, “I am honoured to be able to recognize important moments in our nation’s history. I look forward to collaborating with others to offer exceptional, authentic parts of US history.”