One of the stars of 'The Tinder Swindler' says she considered the man at the centre of the cons her friend.

The show is the most popular programme on Netflix in Ireland right now.

It tells the story of a group of women who were the victims of a dating app based swindler, named Simon Leviev.

They then join together in an attempt to bring him down.

Pernilla Sjoholm, one of the women conned by Simon, told The Hard Shoulder she's overwhelmed at the response.

"I had not expected this in a million years, that this documentary would hit as hard as it has.

"I'm a little bit, I would say, in shock... I think it's top 10 in 92 countries.

"So for me it's like looking at someone else - I'm like 'No way, is that us?'"

She says Simon had several people helping him to defraud others.

"He does this in a very particular way, where he has an entire team of people helping him to defraud us.

"So there are bodyguards, there are business partners, there are assistants, we meet old school friends.

"He makes a theatre around you".

'Lawyer bills every month'

She believes she lost around €60,000 because of his schemes.

"It has very hard to go in and calculate every plane ticket that I got for him.

"One of the flights were like 7,500, just one flight, so it's been very very difficult.

"And I'm still sitting with lawyer bills every month, handling this.

"So it's still racking up".

Pernilla says she had no romantic relationship with Simon, and considered him a friend.

"This was a genuine friendship, I honestly thought that he was my best friend in the whole wide world.

"Just like he would be the one to protect me and not to do me any harm at all.

"So that was definitely heartbreaking."

But she says when she realised the truth, she was more angry than anything - as people who could have warned her didn't.

"I found out that the police in England had had my contacts the entire time, American Express - which I've been a member for for years - they had my contact.

"And they told Cecilie not to contact me... I'm sorry I find that very bad customer service.

"So many people knew about me and could have saved me but just hadn't.

"I never want another person to have that feeling that I had, that I was worth absolutely nothing on this planet".

And she is hopeful she can get some of her money back, after filing a lawsuit in the Netherlands.

"I have my court date in March, finally, I've been waiting such a long time to have this court date.

"Of course I'm hoping to win but we're just going to see what the judge is going to say about the case.

"I think we just have to understand that there are so many ways that we could have been protected with the banks, with the creditors".