The Hinge Heist: Real estate gets its own tinder-swindler

If you ever yelled at your TV watching The Tinder Swindler documentary on Netflix, you weren’t alone — Christie’s International Real Estate agent Christina LaBarbiera was right there with you. 

And then, she says, it happened to her.

“I was watching The Tinder Swindler and being like, these girls are so stupid,” she told The Real Deal. “Now I get it.” 

The true-crime film chronicles how an Israeli man named Shimon Hayut used Tinder to sweep women off their feet, convincing them he was the son of diamond mogul Lev Leviev, before eventually asking them for money and disappearing. LaBarbiera says she had a similar experience for much of 2023. 

“When I tell people the story on paper, they don’t understand the emotion behind it,” she said. “From day one I was primed. He created the emotional level there.”

The New Jersey-based real estate agent last April started a whirlwind relationship with Rob Harris, an agent with Real Brokerage, whom she met on Hinge (not to be confused with a Christie’s agent by the same name, who has nothing to do with this story). By late summer, the pair had plans to move to Miami together, and discussed putting an offer on a $1.5 million condo. 

The honeymoon phase wouldn’t last. In November, LaBarbiera had enough of what she says was all smoke and mirrors: Her supposedly high-flying boyfriend had absconded with more than $70,000 of her money, according to a complaint she filed that month in civil court. 

LaBarbiera plans to provide the court with dozens of screenshots of messages and bank transactions that she says corroborate her allegations. 

Harris, who has changed his phone number, did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment, and has not acknowledged the lawsuit in court. His brokerage, Real Brokerage, declined to comment. Harris’ page remains active on its website. A New Jersey police detective investigating potential criminal charges against Harris did not respond to a request for comment.

Hinge, on the other hand, deleted Harris’ account after LaBarbiera approached them.

“We want to be sure that we’re doing everything we can to stop this person from scamming anyone else,” said the company in a statement emailed to her.

Problems began in August, according to LaBarbiera, who says Harris was acting strange when she went to visit him in Florida to tour homes. He told her he was putting in an offer on their behalf at a condo complex they toured in Aventura, Florida. He had stayed behind after an initial trip down together earlier that year under the auspices of finding a steadier job, according to LaBarbiera.  

But the offer appears to have been a lie: Listing agent Kid Leitao said nobody by Harris’ name had made a bid on the unit in question.

“I don’t know who that is,” he said. 

LaBarbiera sent Harris $5,000 for an Airbnb and $1,300 to entertain his friends. He said his mom would pay her back soon both times. He sent her a photo of a bank statement he claimed was his showing a balance over $720,000 to reassure her.

Around the start of September, LaBarbiera sent Harris another $7,500 to extend his Airbnb reservation. 

 “I’ll have 10k cash for you when you get here,” Harris texted her, in texts reviewed by The Real Deal.

At other times, Harris promised to pay her back with funds from his gambling winnings and a condo sale he claimed to have participated in, despite not having a real estate license in the state. He also said several times that his mother would be sending LaBarbiera money.

LaBarbiera would send him more than $50,000 that month, according to screenshots of bank and Venmo transactions. Some of that was to be spent on an event Harris was throwing for his friends, an event that would involve catering and a yacht rental. She also sent him $6,400 for Drake tickets. 

Then, the day before LaBarbiera was set to return to Florida, things escalated: Harris sent a series of frantic text messages informing her he’d been pulled over and then arrested for a previous offense in Colts Neck, New Jersey, when the officer looked up his information.

“Do you or anyone you know have $12,106 in cash that can be deposited into an account I give you,” he texted. “I’ll call you the second I can but I got pulled over and they ran my stuff and apparently my restitution from the DV incident that charges were dropped, I don’t have the answer right this second but someone didn’t do their job and I’ve had an outstanding warrant for months now and had no idea I haven’t been pulled over and when I have nobody ran my stuff.” 

LaBarbiera canceled her trip and sent him the money on October 2nd. Two weeks later, Harris paid exactly the same sum to Airbnb, according to a screenshot of a group text he sent to friends obtained by LaBarbiera. It’s accompanied by a text saying he rented the unit for his friend Matt.

Harris promised he would pay her back for everything on October 4th, when he was supposed to return to New Jersey. But first he asked her for another loan.

“They’re hitting me up about the yacht, can you Zelle or wire that same account 4000 babe, when you pick me up Wednesday we can go to my place and give you cash from the safe,” he texted. “Omg you’re gonna see my place finally. Holy shit.”

But it never happened, according to LaBarbiera, who drove to the airport with a pack of his favorite cupcakes, only to wait for someone who would never arrive. 

That’s when she says the spell was broken. 

“I was done,” she said in an interview with TRD.

Harris explained his absence by claiming to have been robbed at gunpoint and to have lost his wallet and ID. He also said he took the fall for an unregistered gun police found in the car he was in, but that charges would be dropped.

When LaBarbiera flew to Miami later that month for work, he refused to meet with her.

She confronted him over text several times and warned him she was pursuing criminal charges. Harris appeared unfazed in their text message exchanges, promising in November to pay her back by the end of the week.

“I’m sorry for all of this,” Harris texted her. “For whatever it’s worth. But everyone deserves peace.”

Though LaBarbiera compared her experience to those of the women swindled by Shimon Hayut in The Tinder Swindler, she points out one crucial difference. 

“I didn’t go out with him thinking he was Daddy Warbucks,” she said. “I  just thought he was a nice [person] like me, trying to make money in real estate… He wanted to make something of himself.” 

But now, she sees his true side.

“My hope is that … at some point, justice has to happen,” she said.