For a single mum with 2 children, now 6 and 15, dating is a tricky game. Working full time and looking after your family when you return home, food shopping, cooking meals, preparing lunches, housework, washing and ironing as well as helping with homework and making sure the school books are read does not leave a lot of time or energy for going out and meeting people in the 'normal' way.
Also, where I live there are far more women than men and being a University City the population has a huge majority of young people, the odds of finding a single man, let alone one you may have a connection with in the local supermarket is highly unlikely.
Also read: Tinder fraud: British woman catfished by Saif Ali Khan lookalike; used her as 'hotel with benefits'
So, we turn to dating websites where we hope that whilst trawling through the mountains of profiles, we might just come across someone we not only like the look of physically but some one who has the same values, morals and expectations as you.
At least we can do this from the kitchen or sofa in between ironing the school uniforms or cooking a meal. So no judging on how we try to find love.. we do what we have to and we do deserve to find love, all of us.
I came across 'Antony' in August 2015. We chatted through the app, on the phone and by text for over 2 months before connecting on Whats app where I saw for the first time (I now know) a current picture of the real man himself. His likeness to the profile picture (Saif's picture) was good, down to the dimple in his chin.
We chatted some more, until I was happy he was the kind of man I could have in mine and my son's life. He seemed genuine, kind, humble, very open with his feelings, not something many Caucasian guys are good with, and matched the personal description and qualities he portrayed of himself in his profile.
He wanted a longterm, meaningful and passionate relationship. He disliked poor communication and mind games. We met in person on the 3rd November 2015 and our 'relationship' went from strength to strength very quickly.
He was full of love and emotions, possessive of me and wanted me to be he same of him. He made me feel loved, adored and from the moment he walked through my door he knew that every dream and wish he told me he wanted for us, for the rest of our lives was a lie because he was married.
Something he did not tell me. When the time came that he told me his mum had been diagnosed with cancer, he cried and told me he couldn't get through this without me.
For 11 months we were together and towards the end of our time I had doubts about his commitment to me and I questioned this, he would say "please don't leave me" or "don't you dare give up on us".
Emotionally he had bonded me to him in such a way that I ended up in a spin. I wanted to be supportive of his troubles but confused as to his roller coaster of ups and downs so paranoia started to win. I found him out.
The rest is known. I found this man wasn't who he said he was. His profile picture was Saif's. Worse, what he was doing in our country, although immoral and disgusting was completely legal.
He has been married for 16 years to a beautiful, intelligent, entrepreneurial wife and has 3 handsome sons who he used to tell me about all the time. My story has brought light to 6 other women so far, all of whom have had connections with him, some like me, some only brief encounters because they didn't like his full on style, two of them he saw at the same time as me.
But the damage he has done to the lives of us women is wrong in every sense. He has played with emotions and hearts which is a dangerous game to play and has given no thought to his own wife, children and family.
Luckily for me I have support around me but others may not be so lucky. When I told him I knew who he was, I think his world collapsed. 10 years he has been using this picture, fake name and life. Our laws here need to change to protect women and men from people like this.
He is using women for sex, he is getting this through deception. He is not in his real life, as you may expect, a man with nothing to lose, no job or life or personality, but a handsome, intelligent adult with a very successful career as a top London lawyer, with his own family and loved ones to protect.
Why is he doing this? It's a question I can only guess at the answer because he is not courageous enough to tell me now I know the full truth.
Saif really should not be complimented by Tony Thiaray using his picture, as it was done for no other reason than to hide his true identity from his wife, family and friends on the dating websites he frequented which enabled him to use women in the UK, while he was lonely and bored.
He then returned home to Yorkshire each weekend, not to his sons, father and mother he claimed, as a divorced, devoted dad which was the arrangement he had being away all week, or his mother who he claimed had been diagnosed with cancer (she had not), but to the family home he shared with his wife, children and in-laws.
I suspect he had been told in the past that he had a likeness to Saif.
He was also very aware that the majority of English white women would never recognise Saif's picture because Bollywood actors are not well known to us. All I saw was a picture of a smartly dressed guy who looked slightly younger than the 44 year old 'Antony Ray' stated. But then he told us that is was an old picture. He and Saif are actually very close in age, Tony being 45 now.
Tony Thiaray is also a lawyer who is a regular prominent speaker on IP law at the Global IP confex. Intellectual Property (IP) concerns in part, the law around trademarks, patents and copyright.
Of course, using this promotional picture from the film Kal Ho Naa Ho without permission is an infringement of those copyright laws. He knew this but chose to disrespect Saif and the producers further by 'stealing' this image for his own needs.
A compliment? No. Disrespectful and dishonest? Very much so.
Anna Rowe is a single mum of two, and a primary school teacher based in Canterbury. She loves animals, cooking, and has a "newfound passion for all things Bollywood!"
