I dated the ‘Tinder Swindler’ of Hinge — I can’t believe I did something so dangerous

Move over, ‘Tinder Swindler‘ — there’s a new scam artist in town.

A single woman was hoaxed by a Hinge match into paying for a vacation in Spain for a first date, but she claimed he ghosted her and left her to pick up the hefty tab.

“It’s the real-life ‘Tinder Swindler’ but make it Hinge,” UK resident Claudia Harris, 29, told Kennedy News and media. “I am a Netflix documentary in the making.”

She matched with James, whose name has been changed for anonymity, on Hinge one year ago after a friend talked her into downloading the dating app.

“He matched with me almost instantly. We were talking and it was going really well,” said the Harpenden, Hertfordshire, resident, describing how sparks flew instantly.

“For 12 hours we were texting each other and we didn’t get off the phone until 3 a.m. At the end of the conversation, he said he really needed to meet me and I said likewise.”

Despite being the “first person she came across” when swiping through potential matches, the singleton agreed to impulsively splurge on a three-day vacation in Malaga, Spain, for the pair’s first date, racking up a bill of more than $1,000 for hotel costs.

“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,” she recalled.

“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.”

But the tides changed when Harris met James, who said he was in the military, in person.

“When I got to the hotel, I paid on arrival. The agreement always was that we would split it when we were out there,” she explained, adding that an issue with his bank, so he claimed, barred him from sending her his half of the cost.

“He arrived the following morning, and it was just not the same. He was the same person but the vibe was not there. It was a struggle. Conversation was very minimal.”

But Harris was determined to not let the bachelor ruin her vacation, saying they “made the most out of it” by enjoying cocktails, getting tattoos and adventuring around the Spanish city.

While he paid for his portions of meals and activities while on holiday, it wasn’t until they were headed back to the airport that she began to notice “the red flags.”

“We barely spoke that entire day. It was very bizarre,” she recalled.

According to Harris, James told her he didn’t think the couple could “make it work” long-term, but promised to pay her back his part of the hotel cost “first thing in the morning.”

Harris sent message after message, only getting one response two days later — in which he claimed he “had been back to back with training” — then radio silence.

“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,” she said.

“That’s when I got really, really upset.”

Harris had been in a car accident and left her job, which resulted in a lack of income. The high cost of the hotel, she said, “was money I could not afford to lose.”

“It was such a low moment,” she admitted. “I’m never going to see that money again.”

Harris said she reported James’ dating profile on Hinge to hopefully save other women from the same financial peril — and has sworn off dating apps.

“My friend told me to go back on Hinge. I re-downloaded the app and his profile was the first person I came across [again]. I reported it to Hinge and they literally did nothing,” she claimed.

“That really concerned me from a safeguarding perspective. I thought, ‘This could be happening to anyone.’ You actually don’t know who you’re talking to.”

Hinge told Kennedy News that the user in question has since been banned from the app.

“Now looking back, I think ‘how dangerous’ of me. It could’ve been a lot worse,” Harris said, adding that it takes months to get to know a person, not minutes or days. “I’m quite impulsive by nature. Now if that opportunity presented itself again I would take a few steps back.”

She added: “I am done with the dating app culture. You have to be lucky to find a genuine connection. I don’t think it’s going to happen for me on a dating app. Absolutely not.”