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The Tinder Swindler – Is he an “Inside Threat?
In a somewhat fashionable delay I watched the Netflix documentary on Simon Levaiev and his elaborate yet very simple scam. I decided to watch it after being asked by many people about his actions and about the naivety of his victims: “how come they did not see what was happening? Giving him all the money and getting empty promises and bad checks and bank transfers? How dumb are they?”
Those women are obviously bright and intelligent and definitely not “dumb”.
They are victims.
Victims of a person with a personality structure with Psychopathic, Narcissistic and manipulative traits.
A person who will act without any concern to others’ needs and wellbeing.
All he cares about is himself and his own needs.
He acts maliciously to harm others.
But how can this happen? So many victims, is there anything wrong with them?
The answer is NO!
Human beings live, function and thrive in groups – family, social and occupational groups. From a very young age, we are taught to trust, depend and support others. We learn that others are basically good and that we should trust them, cooperate with them and help them when in need.
Obviously, there are also bad people but as we see in the movies, these people are easily identifiable.
Our deep need for trust is so powerful and many predators like Simon Levaiev make use of it. They gain our trust.
They present as if they have similar goals and needs as the victims.
And then gradually they begin harming – baby steps almost not noticeable and as their confidence grows and a pattern is established the moves, demands and harmful actions grow.
Organizations are made out of people and therefore have the same need to trust their employees and contractors.
These are the organizations in-group.
The organization trusts them and trust grows over time.
The organization believes that they have mutual goals.
This is true of most employees. But what about the organization’s Simons Levievs?
Their goals are different and they are not trustworthy.
They are out to manipulate and use the organization!
But Simon Leviev as well as many others has a specific personality structure that can easily be identified.
Everybody watching The Tinder Swindler can easily identify his personality and mode of operation. This is always easy in hindsight.
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