Loving Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna on Netflix? You should probably watch BBC Three’s astonishing documentary JobFished

Despite the exposés both conmen are protesting their innocence (Picture: BBC / Instagram)

Viewers have spotted similarities between the Tinder Swindler, who conned women around the world to fund his billionaire lifestyle, and JobFished: a documentary exposing fake company MadBird which hired more than 50 people.

JobFished coincidentally comes hot on the heels of Netflix’s the Tinder Swindler, which follows Shimon Hayut, who managed to con women out of thousands of dollars and leaving them in crippling debt.

Airing on BBC Three, JobFished follows the story of MadBird, a fake company founded by so-called influencer Ali Ayad.

The company, which was set up during the pandemic, lied about successful imaginary clients, including Facebook and Samsung.

In reality, the agency had no clients, and Ayad tricked 52 people into working for him.

He had even photoshopped himself into an edition of GQ magazine and lied about qualifications from institutions he wasn’t listed in.

For months, the victims continued working for the fraud design agency, until an email sent by two of the employees disguised under Jane Smith exposed the truth once and for all.

The employees, some of whom share their stories in the documentary, worked for an unpaid probationary period where they were set to receive sales commissions, and after six months were due a fixed salary.

However, one former employee revealed: ‘I worked there for six months and I think I contacted over 10,000 people.

‘In my head at the time, I was thinking I’ve wasted six months where the minimum wage would have got me over £8,000 and I got nothing.’

52 employees believed they were working for a real company (Picture: BBC)

Two of the employee-victims featured in the documentary took Madbird to an employment tribunal and the company was ordered to pay them £8000 each in unpaid minimum wages.

Neither employee has received a penny yet though.

Much like Tinder Swindler conman Simon Leviev, Ayad, when confronted by investigative journalist and presenter Catrin Nye, denied any wrong doing, claiming: ‘If I hurt people, of course I’m sorry, but there’s another version of the story.’

Ayad denied wrongdoing claiming ‘there’s another version of the story’ (Picture: BBC)

With the success of Tinder Swindler, which has led to Simon Leviev’s victims raising well over £100,000 on GoFundMe, it’s no surprise viewers are intrigued by this newest true crime doc.

One called JobFished ‘another version of the tinder swindler 2.0’, while another wrote: ‘These elaborate scams first #TinderSwinder now #JobFished #MadBird what next?’

Another joked that the alleged criminals of The Tinder Swindler and another Netflix exposé Inventing Anna were behind the scam.

One Twitter user wrote: ‘This documentary was high key iconic, the presenter was out for BLOOD and I lived #Jobfished.’

As for Tinder Swindler Hayut, following the success of the Netflix special, he’s managed to land himself a Hollywood agent and is writing his tell-all book.

In a recent interview, he insisted he’s not the ‘monster’ Netflix has made him out to be.

JobFished is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.

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