The Tinder scammer tricked the women – yet they are convicted of money laundering

The Tinder scammer tricked the women – yet they are
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  • Six women were tricked by a Tinder fraudster into lending a total of two million kroner, which led to the fraudster being sentenced to two years in prison for serious fraud.
  • Two other women, who also had relationships with the scammer, were convicted of money laundering because they accepted money from the defrauded women.
  • The Court of Appeal considered that the convicted women should have questioned the origin of the money and its connection to the fraudster’s criminal activities.
  • ⓘ The summary is made with the support of AI tools from OpenAI and quality assured by Aftonbladet. Read our AI policy here.

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    full screen The 27-year-old Tinder fraudster claimed he worked as a security officer at Arlanda. Photo: The police

    The women ran into a Tinder scammer.

    Now they are being judged themselves.

    The reason: They helped the fraudster receive and pass on money.

    Six women had relationships with and were tricked into lending and giving the 27-year-old Tinder fraudster a total of two million kroner. He was recently sentenced to two years in prison for serious fraud by the Helsingborg district court.

    Convicted of money laundering

    On November 11, the Court of Appeal for Skåne and Blekinge ruled that two other women should not be acquitted. The fraudster also had relationships with them and they also lent money to the man, but they in turn received money from the six female crime victims. Both women receive suspended sentences and daily fines, one for nine counts of money laundering offences, the other for five.

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    full screen The 27-year-old got in touch with the women via the dating app Tinder. Photo: Gorm Kallestad/NTB

    The Tinder cheater was running a sort of pyramid scheme, tricking new women into taking out loans to cover his debts to other women. Then he asked them to transfer the borrowed money directly to the women he owed money to.

    The court: Should have understood

    The Court of Appeal states that the two convicted women should have understood that the money they received stemmed from crime, that is to say, that the man cheated him of the money.

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    full screen “Has the hell taken out a loan of almost 200”, writes a woman to the Tinder fraudster. Photo: The police

    Every time the 27-year-old met a new woman, he found that he had different jobs that inspired confidence – one time he worked with young people, the next he was security manager at Arlanda – but that he still needed money for foreign relatives’ surgeries and medical care. The man showed fake screenshots that he had over a million kroner in the bank and promised the women that they would get the money back as soon as he got access to his bank accounts again.

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    full screen Sometimes the Tinder cheater was loving, sometimes he talked mostly about money. He defrauded six women of over two million kroner. Photo: The police

    And the women trusted him. Despite the fact that he always started asking for money early in the relationship. One woman was his partner for six months, another perceived him “as genuine” because “he often said that he doesn’t get into a relationship with anyone and he also said that he wanted to have children with me”. But most of the women he left quickly.

    Got more than they lent

    The 27-year-old defrauded six women of a minimum of SEK 78,000 and a maximum of SEK 568,000. One of the women writes in a text message conversation with the Tinder cheater:

    – I’m having a severe panic. I won’t be able to afford the loans. Please just write that you give me the money so I don’t have to kill myself.

    The two convicted women in turn lent SEK 60,000 and SEK 300,000 respectively to the fraudster. But they got back more than they borrowed, one got SEK 210,000 into her account and the other SEK 352,000, from the six other women.

    Security-classified tax lawyer

    The Court of Appeal states that the one woman, a 40-year-old lawyer at the Swedish Tax Agency who had a security-classified position, given her background should have understood that the man cheated her of the money that entered her account.

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    full screen”I’m having a severe panic attack. I won’t be able to afford the loans. Will have to sell everything I own,” writes a woman to the Tinder cheater. Photo: The police

    The Court of Appeal writes:

    “It appears strange that XX only during the main hearing at the district court gave an account of the checks she claimed to have made of the people who transferred money to her. The fact that she did not mention anything about this during the preliminary investigation suggests that the statement is an afterthought that was added after it was clear to her how she should have acted before she received the transfers.”

    Should have asked more questions

    The other convicted woman, a 27-year-old who lived with the Tinder cheater for about six months, received SEK 352,000 in her accounts. The Court of Appeal states that “the man, when asked by her, said that the money was for loans and repayment of loans” but that the payments “came from people who were completely unknown to her”. The Court of Appeal continues:

    “It appears remarkable that for such a relatively long time she did not ask further questions or make other checks but was satisfied with this information and also let the man continue to use her account and card” even though “she reasonably knew that he did not have financial prerequisites for this.”

    Both of the convicted women deny wrongdoing.

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