(Credits: Netflix)

Since the dawn of the internet, there have been heard countless stories about the horrors of online dating with the rise of ghosting, situation-ships and catfishing. Now, the release of Netflix‘s new show, Sweet Bobby has shone a light on the terrifying true story of Kirat Assi, a woman who met someone on the internet only to be swept up in a romantic fraud that lasted nearly ten years.

In 2009, Assi fell victim to a catfish scheme on Facebook that involved over 60 fake profiles and different people who were all pretending to be one person. The scammer at the centre of this scheme was Simran Bhogal, a woman pretending to be her cousin Bobby, a cardiologist based in London.

Assi, aged 43, was completely unaware that she was speaking to a teenager, and is completely baffled as to why a child would go to such lengths to deceive and manipulate another person, something that has caused great suffering and distress to Assi.

Sweet Bobby was recently released by Netflix, a story that was picked up by the production company following the success of Assi’s podcast in which she shared the story and her journey towards discovering the truth. The success of the podcast took Assi by surprise, with millions tuning in to hear the disturbing tale of Bobby’s scheme.

When speaking about the success of the show, Assi said, “With this documentary, I’m hopeful that other victims will feel that they can speak out against their perpetrators and feel safe going to the police or talking to people about it without feeling stupid”.

The number of years that Bhogal’s scheme lasted has made it one of the most extreme catfishing cases of modern times, all beginning when Bhogal’s ex-boyfriend JJ messaged Assi on Facebook asking her advice on how to win back his former partner. After a couple of months, Assi was told that JJ had died and Bhogal passed on the details of JJ’s brother Bobby, in order for her to pass on her condolences. However, Bhogal was actually the person behind Bobby’s account, and thus started the beginning of her cat-fishing scheme.

The pair soon became friends, with Bobby sharing private information about his personal life and deteriorating marriage and in 2013, things took a turn for the worse when Bhogal pretended to be Bobby’s wife and shared a Facebook post that Bobby had been shot and was in a severe coma.

Assi was later informed by Bobby’s friends (also orchestrated by Bhogal), that Bobby was in a witness protection scheme in the United States. Bhogal then messaged Assi under a new fake profile, also claiming that it was Bobby but that he had needed to create a new identity as a result of the scheme. Bhogal began creating even more extreme lies, informing Assi that Bobby had suffered a stroke and brain tumor.

After years of communicating and failed in-person encounters, Assi eventually hired a private investigator and discovered the identity of Bobby in 2018. When Assi found out that Bobby was not real and that she had been emotionally tortured by a teenage girl for nearly ten years, Assi said, “She’s ruined my whole life. She’s stolen the best years of my life off me and all she could say was that I ruined my own life. No expression, nothing.”

In 2020, filed a lawsuit against Bhogal but she has yet to be met with criminal charges. Assi hopes that the documentary will re-open the case and encourage the UK legal system to consider cat-fishing as a serious crime, with the act not yet being classified as a criminal offence.  

Sweet Bobby began streaming on Netflix on October 16th.