42-year-old Kirat Assi believes that catfishing should be a criminal offense after she was duped for a decade by her female cousin named Simran Bhogal, who posed as a man. Kirat believed she was communicating with a doctor named Bobby but little did she know she was being catfished. Now, she wants catfishing to be criminalized.
Kirat Assi, 42, of west London, spent 10 years believing she was communicating online with a doctor named Bobby, when in reality the profile – and those of some 50 others in the fake doctor’s network – was being managed by her female cousin, Simran Bhogal.
Kirat spent some of those years in a romantic relationship with the fake Bobby – who she believed was living in Australia and whose identity was based on the profile and photographs of a real man – that eventually led her to be signed off sick from work.
The deception was only uncovered when Kirat hired a private detective who uncovered the bizarre and chilling truth. Kirat, who featured in the hugely popular six-part Sweet Bobby podcast hosted by Alexi Mostrous, told the Sunday Times that she wants catfishing to be taken more seriously as a deterrent to online fraudsters.
‘I think it might serve as a deterrent for a lot of people to know that if you’re caught then immediately it’s a crime, just like driving with a mobile in your hand’, she said. ‘I call it online entrapment. I wasn’t on a dating site, I’m private online. The connotations associated with the term catfishing are that it’s fun.
‘This impacted my health, my family, friends, social life, my radio work, my career, absolutely everything.’
As much as I disagree with Kirat Assi on the criminalization of catfishing, I believe her female cousin should be taken on to face the law since she used a fake identity to dupe her for a decade.
So, you might wonder how in the blue hell can you have a relationship with someone for 10 YEARS and never meet them?
Well, this is when the story gets even crazier.
In November 2013, she was at work when she received a Facebook message saying Bobby had been shot and was in a coma, suffering memory loss. And then in January 2014, she learned that he had died.
However soon after, Kirat received an email out of the blue informing her that Bobby was actually alive but faked his own death and was hiding in a witness protection programme.
She was told ‘Bobby’ was drinking heavily and was suicidal. In 2015, she was informed he had suffer a brain tumour, followed by a stroke.
Over the coming years the pair formed a relationship, exchanging several messages daily and their relationship even turned sexual – though Kirat never sent nude images of herself.
Kirat was desperate to meet Bobby in person, but every time an arrangement was made, something would happen – including once when he supposedly had a heart attack.
When Kirat pressed him too hard on details of his claims, or meeting up in person, he would threaten to commit suicide.
Come on now Kirat, you have to be smarter than this.
Flip to the next page to see photos of Kirat Assi and Simran Bhogal. Along with video about how the catfish all went down.