Hinge's version of the Tinder Swindler
A single Brit says she was 'ghosted' badly by Hinge's equivalent of the Tinder swindler who convinced her to pay for their first date, which was an £800 trip to Spain.
Although Claudia Harris often stays away from dating apps, she regretfully considered trying one out last year.
The 29-year-old made a match with a military man who will go by "James" for the purposes of this article.
After they clicked on the site, James promised to reimburse Claudia for covering £800 in hotel expenses and for coming the night before he took off. Claudia consented to go on their first date, which would take place in Malaga.
Once they were together, they appeared to be enjoying themselves. They went on dinner dates, beach outings, and even got matching tattoos.
But the fashion PR soon realized that James was a con artist, as he 'ghosted' her when she tried to collect his £400.
Claudia, from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, said: "It's the real life Tinder swindler but make it Hinge. I am a Netflix documentary in the making."
The Tinder Swindler, a documentary on Netflix, followed Israeli scammer Simon Leviev as he used Tinder to match with women he would emotionally blackmail into paying for his opulent lifestyle.
"My friend urged me to download Hinge and I was so against it. She told me it would be fun and a good distraction," she continued.
"He was the first person I came across. He matched with me almost instantly. We were talking and it was going really well.
We didn't hang up the phone until three in the morning after texting one another for twelve hours. He mentioned at the end of the talk that he really needed to meet me, and I agreed.
"He had some time off at the end of the month for the bank holiday. He was thinking of going to Spain. He asked if I wanted to come.
"This was the sign I had been wanting from the universe to do something different, out of my comfort zone and put myself out there. I didn't even second guess it.
"We both agreed on Malaga. We wanted somewhere by the sea. In the build up we were FaceTiming every day."
Claudia claimed that the two had an "agreement" to split the hotel expenses, but this was obviously not the case.
She said: "That night I messaged him about the money. Two days later he replied and said he was so sorry but he had been back to back with training.
"I sent him my details. Ghosted. I thought he must be busy so I tried again two days later. Ghosted. I thought this was really weird and tried one final time. Nothing.
"That's when I got really, really upset. I got into a car accident which led me to the decision to leave my job.
"I had no income for a long time so that was money I could not afford to lose. My brother had to give me a bit of money. It was such a low moment. I'm never going to see that money again."
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